Jonathan Mauger JONATHAN MAUGER

•   Short Bio

•   Ancestors

•   Teaching Experience

•   Philosophy of Teaching Statement

•   Teaching Startegies

•   Motivational Techniques

•   Evaluation

•   Methods of Evaluation:

•   Tips For Success

Hi, I was born May 3rd, 1975 in Channel Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. I grew up in the town of Isle Aux Morts, located 16 km south of Port Aux Basques. I attended LeGallais Memorial All Grade School, from which I graduated in June of 1993. I also attended Memorial University of Newfoundland, and obtained a Bachelor of Science Degree in Pure Mathematics which was awarded to me May 27th, 1998. I have a Bachelor of Education Degree, which was awarded to me October 22nd, 1999. I presently teach Mathematics and Physics at the high school level and I teach foundation mathematics at the Mathematics Learning Centre at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

I have four brothers Ricky James Mauger, Anthony Craig Mauger, Garfield Ross Mauger and Luke Thomas Ross Lushman. My parents are Freeman James Mauger (deceased) and Marina Beatrice Hurley (Walters). My mom recently remarried Alonzo William Hurley, from the town of Jackson's Arm, located on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland. They presently reside in the town of Isle Aux Morts. My brother Ricky married Annabelle Emma Linda Walters in August 12th of 1995. They have a little girl, Julianne Emma Mauger, born March 11, 1998.

On a personal note, my favorite musical artists include Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Hip, U2, Rolling Stones, Kiss, Muddy Walters. My favorite movies include all five Star Wars, Shawshank Redemption, One Who Flew Over The Coo-Coo's Nest, all the James Bond movies, Pulp Fiction, Seven, Big Fish, KIll Bill Vol 1 & 2 and many more. My all time favorite song is"I Still Haven't Found What I am looking For" by U2. In the world of sports I love the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Blue Jays, LA Lakers, Chicago Bears. My hobbies consist of playing softball, snowshoeing, jogging, biking, drawing, listening to music, building models, solving mathematics problems, socializing at the local establishments

• Replacement position at Holy Heart High school, St. John's. Duties included teaching IB Math 4283, Math 1204, Math 2204, Math 3103, Physics 2204.

• Replacement position at Holy Heart High school, St. John's. Duties included teaching Math 1204, Math 1206, Math 2204.

• In charge of a slot of Math 10XF. As an instructor I am responsible for managing the learning of his/her students, giving detailed feedback on tests, ensuring that accurate records of the student's performance/participation are kept, and providing help to his/her students in compulsory tutorial sessions.

• Replacement position at Holy Heart High school, St. John’s. Duties included teaching Math 1204, Math 2204, Math 3204, Com Tech 2104 and Com Tech 3104.

• Replacement position at Holy Heart High school, St. John's. Duties included teaching Math 1204, Math 2204, Math 1206, Math 3103, Design Technology 1109 and Computers Technology 1200.

• Replacement position at Holy Heart High school, St. John's. Duties included teaching Math1204, Math 2205, Math 2206 and Science 1206.

• Replacement contract at Baltimore School, Ferryland. Duties included teaching Math 2214 pilot course and Physics 2204 and 3204.

• Duties included teaching high school mathematics and physics in such schools as Holy Heart High school, O'Donel High School, Gonzaga High school, etc.

• Internship at Eugene Vators Junior High. Duties included teaching grade eight and grade nine mathematics, supervising hallways and the gymnasium, oral testing, supervising field trips and the science fair.

• Duties consisted of writing text and designing pictures using Fortran and Latex.

The task of every teacher is to increase the knowledge and understanding of every student in the classroom. As a teacher, I need to encourage independent thought and provide group interactions as an outlet for my students' ideas. Being able to form unique, independent ideas to solve problems will serve them both in and out of the classroom. Providing an environment to share ideas, and to work as a team member, is an important process in social and mental development.

The teacher must have a clear set of objectives, with specific goals for students. Learning through active participation of the learner is an important element in the learning process. The student will learn more if they are an important and active part of the process. Students need to feel comfortable approaching their teacher for discussion in and out of the classroom. Students react positively when they are treated with respect, as mature, capable individuals. I must appear to be knowledgeable, but also approachable. The most successful classes are those where the students bond as a group and become very active players in the learning process. Students will develop an interest in the subject area or, at the very least, develop an appreciation for the subject and the material being taught.

My main goal as a teacher is to foster automaticity. Automaticity is the ability to effortlessly complete tasks with low interference of other simultaneous activities and without conscious thought throughout the step-by-step process. Mastery of the material reduces the demand on the working memory and allows for higher order thinking. Repetition of math skills leads to the development of automaticity of the particular skills. Automaticity is achieved when a mathematics task can be completed almost effortlessly. The student does not have to think about individual steps and can carry out the task of solving the problem rather then focussing on the details of the basic skills required.

In order to be a successful teacher I must be consistently learning new things and strive to further myself. It is important to receive regular input from my students and colleagues; consistently attempting to improve my teaching style.

Teaching strategies and/or instructional methods is an effective process of teaching designed to achieve the content outcomes for the student learning process. The teacher can use various methods such as lecture, co-operative learning, and manipulatives to achieve these goals.

1. LECTURE METHOD

The lecture method is the most widely used teaching strategy. It involves a teacher-centered formal presentation of the content, and demonstrations of new materials and information. This procedure involves a mixture of examples and questions where the teacher presents the material in a well-structured manner. In this teaching strategy, the majority of the class is spent on lecture time and the remainder is spent on seatwork. This method usually ends with a recap of the learned material to ensure the students have met the desired outcomes of the lesson. During seatwork students may work together to share solutions and help each other.

2. CO-OPERATIVE LEARNING

Co-operative learning involves a student-centered approach. The students are assigned groups where members will work together to discover relationships. The teacher usually only teaches basic skills and concepts involved with the topic. He or she will monitor the groups to ensure that members remain on task and to provide assistance whenever it is needed. The students work together and share responsibility for the learning process through common goals, resources, and rewards. The teacher must be well organized, establish group directions carefully, monitor student success with regards to behavior and remaining on task, and intervene when a situation calls for such an action.

3. MANIPULATIVES AND TECHNOLOGY

The integration of manipulatives and technology into the teaching process is an effective method to aid in student understanding of abstract content. The overhead projector is used for demonstrations. The use of concrete materials helps lead students from the concrete to the abstract, hence helping the students make connections clearer. Hands-on activities help students to grasp mathematical concepts and ideas.

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MOTIVATIONAL TECHNIQUES

• The teacher should show enthusiasm. He or she must show interest in the subject matter and be well organized and well planned when presenting the material.

• In order for learning to occur the students must be motivated with regards to academic and emotional needs, interest and abilities. One must encourage and stimulate the students to attain lesson outcomes.

• In order to convey enthusiasm for the subject matter being taught one must focus on verbal and non-verbal behaviors employed in the classroom environment. This will maintain student interest and attentiveness throughout the lesson.

Throughout the course of the school year the teacher should evaluate the students both formally and informally. The students should be evaluated at the beginning of each unit to determine the starting point of instruction (pre-instructional evaluation). Formative evaluation is used to modify or improve instruction and summative evaluation is used to determine the extent to which the students met the unit outcomes.

Throughout the school year, students should be evaluated constantly with the following methods. The assignments and tests will help to determine their final grade at the end of the year.

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METHODS OF EVALUATION

1. OBSERVATION:

To learn how the students are progressing, we will use both incidental and planned observation episodes. These include seatwork (worksheets and text problems) and informal presentation observation (question responses).

A teacher must be aware of observation bias as it prevents him/her from making an objective assessment of the pupil. If observation includes a checklist, one must ensure that items reflect the instructional objectives for the unit of work. Anecdotal records should be recorded as quickly and promptly as possible, note the names and dates for later reference, and consider objectivity while being analyzed to avoid inaccurate student representation. Logical errors are another threat to validity. Teachers should not base judgements on characteristics such as student dress, socio-economic background and past student records.

Reliability is threatened by inadequate behavior sampling. To avoid this, the teacher should base decisions on more than one observation and observe the student in more than one setting. This ensures that a typical child behavior does not form a teacher's opinion on a particular student.

2. HOMEWORK:

Homework assignments may include completion homework (unfinished seatwork), practice homework (assignments), journal writing, portfoilos, or extension projects such as webpage development. Completion homework will encompass the entire course; that is, students are required to complete any unfinished seatwork at home. Practice homework will consist of assignments and follow up worksheets.

For higher order projects it is a good idea to work in conjunction with other departments such as the technology department. Along with student initiative, inter-curricular projects can be constructed by members of the student body. The ideology of such projects is to guide students to develop a better understanding of various topics covered in their mathematics courses, with the incorporation of the ideas and objectives of other discplines, such as technology. As a teacher, it is important to encourage cooperative student development within the diverse disciplines facilitated at the school.

To keep homework valid we must ensure that it questions knowledge pertaining to the objectives. If the questions do not parallel the objectives, they serve no purpose. Another validity concern is the wording of questions. These must be clear and precise to eliminate testing student's interpretation ability (construct irrelevant variance). Another threat to validity concerns who actually does the homework. Teachers must be aware that varying degrees of parental contribution play a role in homework completion.

To ensure that students understand their homework, frequent questions are necessary. As well, reliability is threatened by an inconsistent homework schedule. This threat is avoided by the development of a systematic, unvarying assignment schedule. Schedules guide consistent time allocation to each assignment making them more useful in the evaluation process.

3. TESTING:

In any given unit, testing will comprise at least one unit test to be administered after all objectives have been covered. Test items will contain constructed responses, particularly restricted responses.

When constructing tests we must ensure that each test item matches an objective from the unit of interest. This can be accomplished by examining each item and comparing it to the objective it is meant to measure. Items must be clearly stated so they test a student's understanding of the objectives and not their ability to comprehend the question. This avoids constructing irrelevant variance.

Reliability in testing relates to whether a given test, taken a number of times, will produce the same result. To ensure that a test is reliable, we must use a number of items. This implies that there must be several items testing each objective of the unit. Also, we must have clear guidelines for marking answers (i.e., mark question by question, not test by test).

1.   Attend all class sessions on time.

2.   Read your text and review your notes.

3.   Do all assigned work and check your answers.

4.   Do your work on your own.

5.   Review every day.

6.   Don't expect to understand every new topic the first time you see it.

7.   Spend as much time as it takes to master the material in order to achieve automaticity.