Engagement.

I lack the creativity and time to develop well designed classroom activities that are both fun and pertain to the content we are covering. Therefor, I take a little different approach. Most all of my lessons consist of lecture and then class work that we work on together. However, I try to present the lecture part with the same consistency of a comedy skit. I'm able to use my personality and wit to capture attention and keep it directed on what I am doing. I do a lot of "picking" on kids, which sounds terrible but is done with carefulness and avoids students of which it may emotionally harm. It also makes behavior management pretty easy. This in return helps me build relationships and mutual respect. And above all else it takes the monotony out of teaching class after class, as the content changes each class because there are different kids with different personalities.

Classroom Management

For the most part I will not make any changes to my classroom management plan. I really don't run into behavioral issues in my classes. As far as incentives, I have implemented a plan that allows them to play trashket ball and watch Last Week Tonight next week after finals if they take care of business this week. I conveyed this to the students by showing them a small clip and letting them throw paper balls, and then shutting it down and saying we can continue next week if we take care of business.

Design Process

I have used many of the design process concepts in my AP Calculus class. They are extremely beneficial when we are given application problems. I will be giving a class project over spring break that will require students to produce a physical deliverable that must fall within specified parameters. I will have the students emplement the design process throughout the development process of their prject.

Counselors

I have worked with counselors to get my calculus class rolling. Our school does not place much value on our top 10 percent. They had my class scheduled over another AP Class that most students need for college. I was able to work with counselors to move my class to another period, and then adjust the schedule of many students individually so that they could take AP Calculus without missing other important courses. They have also assisted me with ensuring the AP Exam is financed for our students.

CCS

I was completely unaware of what common core even was prior to joining TFA. Over the last year I have developed a much better understanding of what it is, and what the desired outcomes are. I whole heatedly believe that the goal and reasoning are right for the youth of America. However, I think that there are two major issues with how it is being implemented. I think a large part of America honestly does not understand how these concepts are ridiculously beneficial. This is especially true in mathematics where most people honestly have no clue how powerful, useful, and entirely required math is in most industries today. Then you have people designing roll-out content, who have deep understanding of the critical thinking methodology, which appears completely foreign and kind of ridiculous to many that don't understand the goal of the problem. You mix this lack of understanding with attempting to all of a sudden teach an entirely different methodology of thinking to student who have learned the algorithmic approach since they were toddlers. I will continue to foster an environment for this type of mindset to develop. However, common core should start in the elementary schools and slowly make its way to high school. Especially when you have grad requirements that change even though they have been learning a different way for years. Also, until our public has a better understanding of the desired outcome, which in some areas I believe is not plausible, common core material should  not take such a drastic leap.