Running

Head: TELLING MY STORY

Telling My Story

Melissa Robinson-Agles

9 September 2017

MAT 690 National University

TELLING MY STORY

Abstract

This paper reviews how I am progressing according to the first section of California Teaching

Performance Expectations (TPEs), labeled Domain A. Domain A centers on Making Subject

Matter Comprehensible to Students, specifically secondary math for me. At the beginning of

my fourth year of teaching 7th grade math, there are some aspects of Domain A that I feel that

Im doing well. What I do need to work on is including authentic real-world applications of our

math skills/concepts and more tangible progress-monitoring methods. Overall, this process has

helped me feel better about how Ive progressed these last three years and has helped me

focus on what areas I need to prioritize this and next year.

TELLING MY STORY

Telling My Story

Reviewing the first section of California Teaching Performance Expectations (TPEs),

labeled Domain A, I feel like Im progressing nicely so far. At the beginning of my fourth year

of teaching 7th grade math, its often too easy to focus on areas of improvement and not

successes. Creating a portfolio will hopefully help me balance my focus.

Domain A centers on Making Subject Matter Comprehensible to Students, specifically

secondary math for me. In addition to teaching to the current content standards, teachers are

expected to instill various habits and approaches to being a successful math thinker. In this way,

the TPEs are in line with the Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs), advocated by the

California State Board of Education, along with the Common Core State Standards (2013, p. 6).

One of the first things that Domain A lists is teaching to the content standards. Although

Im familiar with the 7th grade math standards, and am working more this year on vertical

alignment with 6th and 8th, I still struggle to teach all of them. Every year, I prioritize the

standards, and a handful always get left out. To some extent, I feel that this is necessary and will

not change. However, I strive to make it a conscious choice to leave some unmastered, not

pushed by time alone.

There are some aspects, though, of Domain A that I feel that Im doing well. Because of

my English background (which was my BA major and the focus of my first career), I sometimes

approach math understanding in a more holistic way. I look for multiple ways to understand a

skill/concept and try to find the connections between ideas. This is something I share with my

students. They are encouraged to find and share alternate strategies for solving problems. We

practice drawing pictures and asking questions when looking at new problems. The first couple

weeks of school are spent reviewing growth mindset, especially toward math, via Jo Boalers
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YouCubed videos and Week of Inspirational Math. In these lessons, we discuss that there is no

such thing as a math person, and all of us can do math, especially if we have faith in ourselves

and a positive attitude. Honestly, I love that Domain A includes that teachers should

provide a secure environment for taking intellectual risks, model and encourage students

to use multiple ways of approaching mathematical problems, and encourage discussion of

different solution strategies. They demonstrate positive attitudes toward mathematics, and

encourage student curiosity, flexibility, and persistence in solving mathematical problems

(Commission on Teaching Credentialing, 2013, p. 4-5).

This summarizes my goals for each 7th grade year.

What I do need to work on is including authentic real-world applications of our math

skills/concepts and more tangible progress-monitoring methods. Due to time constraints, I do not

have the students complete more than one major project a year. Ideally, they would do at least

one big project per quarter or a couple of smaller tasks per unit that have them use our

skills/concepts in a real-life scenario. We end up doing primarily work from our textbook, which

spirals and is very cumbersome (so leaves little time for supplementary activities). I hope have

more of a balance next year, once Im more familiar with the textbook.

To help highlight these focuses, strengths, and areas of improvement in Domain A, Ive

started to add artifacts to my portfolio. I linked to Californias CCSS (including the SMPs)

because they are the focus of my year. The current syllabus illustrates my teaching philosophy

and class priorities rather well. And because portfolios are meant to show growth and foster

reflection (Costantino & De Lorenzo, 2009, p. 1), I included a draft syllabus from my credential

days. I found it very interesting that after three years of teaching, the two versions were

consistent in tone and philosophy. Next, I uploaded a lesson plan that I created in a credential
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class. Again, I liked many aspects of it (especially the real-world connection and the student-

choice options). But Ive learned more about structuring group collaboration and would now

change how the whole-class and group discussions would run. Finally, I reviewed an article

about real-world connections in math class. It was an older article, which was unfortunate, but it

still reminded me of why applying skills is important and what features make an activity

authentic and worthwhile.

Overall, this process has helped me feel better about how Ive progressed these last three

years and has helped me focus on what areas I need to prioritize this and next year.
TELLING MY STORY

References

California State Board of Education. (2013). California common core state standards for

mathematics. Retrieved from

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/ccssmathstandardaug2013.pdf

California State Board of Education. (2013). The mathematics framework. Appendix D:

Mathematical modeling. Retrieved from

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ma/cf/documents/mathfwoverview.pdf

Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CTC). (2013). California teaching performance

expectations. Retrieved from https://www.ctc.ca.gov/docs/default-source/educator-

prep/tpa-files/tpes-full-version.pdf

Costantino, P. M., & De Lorenzo, M. N. (2009). Developing a professional teaching portfolio: A

guide for educators (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.