I have been exposed to so many new ideas throughout this summer that I almost feel overwhelmed by the wealth of knowledge that I have gained. I am going to try to start out by have my students to do more writing in math, this is an area that I have most definitely lacked in. I have already started my students math journals and they have completed their first writing prompt this week. I hope that I can evolve from journalling within their notebooks to actually setting up a blog as the year progresses.
Additionally, I have almost completed my first ever grant proposal. I have always wanted to do one but was not confident enough to put it together. As of Monday afternoon, I hope that I will have my first Bright Ideas grant submitted! I am really excited about the grant opportunities and the impact that it will have not only within my math classroom, but my teammates science class as well. This grant will enable me to add to my Kenan Fellows project by enabling my students to actually experience the science behind the fermentation process in order to populate their own experimental data to be analyzed with math class, so I really hope that it is accepted.
I know that later on within the school year my students will be immersed into the world of pickles. I hope that my project will allow my students to gain real-world application of mathematics. I also look forward to my mentor visiting my classroom and hopefully I will be able to talk one of the food quality and assurance lab managers to come speech with my students concerning food science as well. Hopefully I will be able to invite several parents into my class to share about their careers in order to increase community involvement as well as allow students to see what options there are beyond 8th grade. I think this is going to be an awesome year!!!