1998 Prof Eval Memo
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Mr. Garcia evaluated his performance teaching Calculus and Computer Science. He believes he achieved his primary goal of helping students communicate mathematical reasoning effectively. Through cooperative activities like group review sessions and take-home exams, his Calculus BC class learned to communicate fluently in mathematics. However, limitations on lab time prevented the class from fully utilizing Mathematica software and self-paced notebooks to further explore applications of Calculus concepts.
1998 Prof Eval Memo
- 1. To: Jeffrey L. Hollman, Principal Baldwin SHS From: A. Jorge Garca, Teacher of Calculus and Comp Sci Date: 2/08/99 Re: SelfEvaluation My Primary goal was to help students effectively and fluently communicate mathematical reasoning. I believe that I have attained this goal as shown below. A student learns a topic best when required to teach it to another person. We incorporated several cooperative activities (group review sessions, team tests, study buddies) and extended tasks (take home exams, board work) in order to reinforce this experience. As a result, my Calculus BC class learned to communicate fluently in mathematics as a language. They instructed each other in the cooperative activities and explained their results to me via extended tasks. We emphasized the importance of making mathematical arguments graphically, numerically, analytically and verbally. We also tried to learn to use a Computer Algebra System (CAS) to write mathematical reports. It was very difficult to include lab time, however. With the demands of the AP Calculus BC curriculum, we were only able to do lab work one or two periods a month. What little we did was very beneficial. If we could have had an additional lab period every other day as in science classes, we would have been able to exploit the full potential of Mathematica, our CAS, as an educational tool to explore many more applications of The Calculus. In addition, we were unable to start the selfpaced notebooks downloaded from the University of Chicago. Professional SelfEvaluation