3rd Partial

Correct Use of Mathematical Language

Last partial I had problems with equations, this partial I have problems with word definitions. The mathematical concepts are easier to recognize in a practical way, but when I try to explain them in words I don't do a very good job. That is something I must study a lot, because some definitions are quite easy to understand but there are others that reacquire  a certain level of complexity to use the right words. I think its easier to define a circle than to define a Hyperbola in which you even have to imagine some elements in order to draw it.  

Here are my evidences and corrections:

3rd Partial

Collaborative Activity

During this partial we only had one collaborative activity in which we used the concepts of the two modules that we saw. 
In this collaborative activity we had to apply our knowledge in constructions of real life. We could choose from several ideas, (like to do a conic chair, a solar cooker, or a lamp) we chose to do the lamp. In the beginning we had a very crazy idea, and really cool, however as the due date came closer and all projects started to hit us (besides of the fact that I had a concert and a play) we had to adapt our idea to something much smaller. 
We did gave in the activity at the due time, but some elements were missing, although we had the idea our concept wasn't well applied.
Even though I did my share of the team, I feel I didn't involve enough in this activity. It could've been better if me and the other co-workers helped more Ana Isa at the time of building the lamp. 
At the moment of dividing the work we had some roles very clear, but Adrian wasn't involving enough and he never asked what would he do or in what he should help or which was his role. I was quite mad and had to do something extra work to organize him with the team. To be honest we somehow changed a bit the roles. Because the engineer (Me) made the design as well as the calculations. The designer (Ana Isa) chose the materials and did the circuits and connections for the lamp. The secretary (Samara and Adrian) both helped with the content as well as joining the parts. In fact the role of the leader was not very present and Isa, Samara and I were all collaborating and helping each other to organize and make the directions. I would believe that the only teammate I had a complaint was Adrian because he didn't involve enough. 
At the moment of defining the objectives Isa, Samara and I decided to stick to the ones in the rubric. Still some problems surged and also Adrian wasn't very clear with the objectives, I had to explain several times and make sure he was including everything. 
Because I failed to involve constructively Adrian to our team, I can't say I managed to create a collaborative dialogue. However I was very pleased to hear the ideas that Samara and Isa brought to the team. Specially Isa who was very enthusiastic about the lamp work, and she kindly offered to do it herself. 

3rd Partial

Critical Thinking

We have to be evaluated in critical thinking by our teacher, here is the rubric:

I noticed that this partial my critical thinking wasn't as good as the others, next semester it is a thing I must improve. However I would have loved to have some observations to know how I could do better next semester. 

2nd Partial

Correct Use of Mathematical Language

Next semester I definitely must improve my use of mathematical language. Especially now because I have been giving math advice to a lot of students. I find it very funny how I even manage to explain everything and yet I'm not being able to explain it in the exam. 

However, it's not like I'm really bad at this. I believe that more than anything I find that there are a lot of ways to solve things and I often think way too much about what they ask me for, and I get confused. As well I sometimes forget particular and important things, like sometimes I can't exactly tell the difference of when to use ln or log (although I know it is mainly their bases which tell the difference). 

Still, mistakes help us get better. So here are my evidences and corrections:

2nd Partial

Collaborative Activity

In this collaborative activity we created a document with all the right answers and procedures for all the problems covered in Module 5. 
We did gave in the activity at the due time, we only had a minor mistake because at the end we confused about who would have to print it but in the end we printed it and gave it on time.
I did participated and did my share of the team, I was assigned certain problems from the module to solve and I was in charge of organizing their process and answer, and putting their graphs.
The way we divided the work was by assigning problems. We took in count the abilities and availability of each member, because some times we couldn't do certain problems because that day we would have some personal thing that wouldn't let us work, but next time we divided the work different. In order to also give rests to the other team members and so that we worked somehow fairly and not overwork while some others would do nothing.
We defined our objectives by looking at the rubric and coped with what we were assigned to do. We shared a digital document so that it would be easier to help others and manipulate our data. 
I accepted several opinions, as well as I gave some. This in order to organize better and make sure that we would have everything complete. 

2nd Partial

Collaborative Activity

In this collaborative activity we made a video explaining the Euler number. 
We did gave in the activity at the due time, it was uploaded and deliver as the instructions asked.
I did participated and did my share of the team, I was the one to record the presentation and give the explanation. I was checking on my team members so that they would give me the information and the presentation on time in order to practice and record it nicely.
The way we divided the work was by assigning roles. Ana Isa was the researcher (the one to look for the information), Samara the engineer (the one assigned to make a presentation from the information), and I was the anchor (the one to communicate everything though a video).
We all chose and accepted their own roles, and by basing in the rubric we all agreed about our job. It is seen in the final job that we all compromised to it because we all did it in time and shared our part in order to give in a final job well done.
I accepted several opinions, because I had to cope with the products I received to work with. I was open  minded and worked with whatever they gave to me and if I had any questions I would tell them. 

2nd Partial

Collaborative Activity

In this collaborative activity we played a game in which we had to solve a problem about the module and then if we got it right we could go to the next question, and like that until the end, if we got it wrong we had to choose another one and do it until it was right. 
We did gave in the activity at the due time, even we had a bit of extra time because we worked very good together, we all knew the topics and also if we had any doubts we solved them between each other.
I did participated and did my share of the team, since we solved the questions by turn, it was just about doing the one I was supposed to do, and help my team members if it was necessary. 
The way we divided the work was by a common agreement, we all just tried to get together and choose what we liked the most. My team members were also my friends so it was really easy to work with them, besides we are all good at math so we did it very good.
As I mentioned before, because of our friendship and thanks that the activity was very clear  it was really easy to define objectives and to work together.
I accepted several opinions, since we were trying to make common agreements sometimes I had to accept what my other team members wanted and them as well.

2nd Partial

Critical Thinking

As an evidence of critical thinking you can see the evaluation of my teacher. It is based on classroom observations and questions indicated as critical thinking activities. Here is my rubric:

1st Partial

Correct Use of Mathematical Language

Something I am very proud of this semester is that I haven't had trouble with the correct use of mathematical language. From calling a composite function a composite function to recognizing certain figures, like D: , to know it means the domain and I must put it every single time I am writing the domain and that the domain comprehends x such that x, as well as other things. 

In this activity you can appreciate the correct use of mathematical language in the inverse function, that you know you must write f^-1(x) and to indicate that it is an inverse. Also that you can replace f(x) for y when you are in the process of making it inverse. 

Now at the composite function to indicate that f of g in an equation you must write f composed of g such that x and that you write it as f(g(x)). And vice versa if you must write g composed of f such that x and that you write it as g(f(x)). 

1st Partial

Collaborative Activity

In this collaborative activity we used composite functions in order to answer an exercise sheet. I really liked this collaborative activity, my team was really nice and cooperative. Although we worked in pairs instead of trios because our composite function did not had an assigned person. I was f(x) and she was g(x).
We did gave in the activity at the due time and even had extra time in the end. Everything was very fluent. Although I had some problems in the instructions at the beginning I quickly found my teammate. 
I actively participated since the beginning of the activity, asking questions and looking for my partner. I knew that since all the composite functions given were  f(g(x)) I was looking first for my composite function that had a something were I had an x. Then when I found it, I started looking for what replaced x (that would be g(x)) and I found my teammate.
Together we analyzed the exercises and questioned the processes we made. Was it possible to have a square root inside a square root? Why some square roots did not covered the whole equation? I was constantly asking my teammate if she understood all the processes and we wrote them together so we could analyze them. The activity was collaborative so we divided the work just a little, I wrote the process in a separate page and she would write the correct answer in the clean activity. However we did the exercises together.
I insisted on writing the process so we both would be completely sure of what we had made, and we mutually ask questions to be sure we understood and were applying our knowledge right. I was the first to find the composite function and was eager to find my teammate as quick as I could, she was looking too, so it was easy to find each other.
We had similar opinions which made it easy to work together and as I mentioned, questions helped us accelerate the learning process for each of us.

1st Partial

Collaborative Activity

In this collaborative activity we used piecewise functions in order to create a functional 3D object. To be honest, this wasn't a nice collaborative activity, actually I believe it is the worst one I've had, but we learn from our mistakes. 
We did gave in the activity at the due time but it was chaotic, we had a lot of difficulties to make the final product and join everything, specially because a certain member of the team was eager to change everything because he wasn't satisfied with what we had made and do it all in its own way. 
I did participated and did my share of the team, I proposed several ideas of functional objects and graphed them so we could make up a function based on that, however I wasn't able to make the team work together with a cooperative sense and the process slowed since we weren't able to intervene in a constructive way. 
I tried to work as the leader and divide the work according to the different abilities on the team (one very good with letters, one very good at drawing, other at expressing mathematical thought) however, the distribution didn't worked because a member of the team was uncomfortable with its place, therefore he tried to "fix" everything we made because in his opinion we weren't doing anything right. Although his intentions were to help us, he stressed and confused us.
Because of this particular member, I assumed the objectives as mine, trying to make our activity work, instead of solving the problem and trying to ask for cooperation.
I accepted several opinions, but I did not include all, I tried my best to give a constructive point of view but it wasn't helpful because not all of the team was listening.  Dialogue was not working.

1st Partial

Critical Thinking

As an evidence of critical thinking you can see the evaluation of my teacher. She used a rubric to evaluate us, here is mine:

NEW SEMESTER

From this point on, you can see the evidences from 3rd Semester

Final Reflection

During this course I learned a lot of things, some went very fast but I caught the trick of them really fast. Somethings like polynomials and algebra were familiar to me, but the behavior of parabolas and how to graph functions/polynomials were things that I liked to learn more about. While I was learning new things, I started to discover shortcuts or things that tended to repeat so it was way easier for me to solve the problems and be quicker to solve certain exercises. Somehow, I could say I learned to identify patterns, in order to solve or simplify problems, even to expand them. It fills me with curiosity to learn more in next semester.

I could say that my strengths were individual work, and problems of factoring and multiplying. Since there were a lot of things that we saw last semester it was easy to make a link to them. However there were some new topics with which I struggled a lot to understand how to solve them, specially module 7 was the hardest to understand. I need to say, sometimes I overestimate my knowledge and don't pay that much of attention and I need to fix that, because somethings that I might believe I already know sometimes end up making me having wrongs. I need to ask more questions when I have doubts. 

One thing I remember a lot was the day we had a kind of jeopardy and gathered in teams to win points. I liked it a lot because it was a very fun way to make a review of the things we saw in the course and it was highly amusing to work in teams to try to win points. 

I would say I still have the same recommendations of last semester: to be organized, listen to the explanations (specially formulas), take notes and to not forget to print the modules, as well as trying to have the works and HW complete to avoid problems when trying to repeat a module. But I would add: to ask a lot of questions, DO NOT overestimate your knowledge, and be productive in classes unless you want to accumulate everything because YOU WILL HAVE TO DO THOSE EXERCISES, I can tell you for my experience that even though you may say "Oh, it is just a couple of exercises. I can do them at home" I am pretty sure you will forget about them and remember it when you have to deliver the manual, and you will regret not doing those exercises. 
Notes if you take the course with my teacher: The teacher is really cool, specially for the fact that she believes that it is ok to be wrong. So don't worry if you make any mistake, she'll help you. Also listen to her, she is usually right when she points out to be careful on common mistakes. 

Module 9

Critical and Reflexive Thought

This is an evidence of use of critical and reflexive thought because I applied the mathematics in a proper way in order to solve the exercises in the quiz. I believe for this to be a good evidence to show that through the module I have learned and obtained the proper tools to solve a single polynomial whose leading term has an exponent greater than two. In order to learn this process, we had to have several exercises to just see the first steps of this process. I am pleased to present and find that I can answer this problems properly by the process we were taught. 

Module 8

Self Learning and Use of Technological Resources 

This is an evidence of self learning and use of technological resources because we are using flipped classroom, a method in which in your home and individually you take notes of a video on the topic and answer the activities. It indicates self learning because of how we take notes individually and answer activities with our own knowledge and explanations in the video. Self, because with this method you, yourself, you control the explanations to say if either it is just enough or you need to watch the video twice. I like a lot this method because usually (USUALLY, not always) I get the point really quick and don't need to watch the whole thing and work straight in my activities. 

Module 7

Capacity of Working With Others 

This is an evidence of capacity of working with others, even thought it only looks like my work but this was part of a bigger project and collaborative activity. Our mini-project consisted in work during the module with a certain team, the teacher would explain to us but we would need to solve our doubts between ourselves. So basically, my team and I finished this activity and many others by helping each other. I think this was good because in some way it brought us together and it also we learned how to be patient and share our knowledge by explaining. 

Module 6

Use of Technological Resources

This is an evidence of use of technological resources because during this module we used programs like GeoGebra to understand in a better way the behavior of functions. This specific screen-shot is from the introduction of the module, but after this function we saw how functions were not only linear like this one but also they formed shapes like parabolas. This parabolas according to certain properties they had (just like the sign of the leading term, the constant and others) they moved and shaped different. We documented those observations in our modules, from what we saw in GeoGebra, that was projected in the classroom. 

Module 5

Critical and Reflexive Thought

This is an evidence of use of critical and reflexive thought because you can see that we were learning how to solve an equation by a certain method. It is necessary for us to see the steps and be able to complete them with the examples, by analyzing the steps and then applying them to the example is making us have a critical and reflexive thought to process information and then apply it. Even after understanding this process, you may have the ability to synthesize it to solve the practice exercises in a faster way. I think I have applied this competence in the introduction of this topic and the practices we've made.

Module 4

Use of Mathematical Language 

This is an evidence of use of mathematical language because it is an exercise that consists in learning to classify by types a system of equations. Without knowing the concepts and proper names of each type of system of equations it would be both difficult and confusing to try to classify. In the activity we had to include the type of system in which the equations belonged, thanks to the knowledge of the proper concepts and the use of mathematical language, that activity could be made correctly. 

Module 3

Use of Mathematical Language and Critical and Reflexive Thought

This is an evidence of use of mathematical language  and critical and reflexive thought because I first defined and understood the concepts to be studied and then applied the correct procedures and operations to solve the exercises. Then after I had the answer I had to identify them (using critical and reflection skills in order to identify their relation with the concept properly) and them name them according to their solution, in which case I had to apply the right mathematical concept (which was also part of the evaluation). 

Module 2

Critical and Reflexive Thought

I find this to be an evidence of critical and reflexive thought because of two things:
1. I had to use previous knowledge and the information given in order to perform and answer the exercises given. I also had to be critical in order to find relations between the exercises and what I was asked. 
2. Also, because I had to make observations and relations in order to answer the reflexive questions at the end of the activity and get to the conclusions expected. 

Module 1

Use of Technological Resources 

I think this is an evidence of the use of technological resources since it was a flipped class module and we had this theme explained via internet. When home, I used my computer, entered to Blackboard and then went to educreations (platform in which the teacher usually records the videos for us to watch it) I took the necessary notes and afterwards I answered the exercise based on the explanation of the video.

Initial Reflection

I hope for this electronic portafolio to be a place where I can show good evidences of my work in clase and the practice I do at home. I think it will be a good place to display my knowledge in an accesible and easy way. I also hope for this to be a place where I can track my advances, so I can see how I have slowly learned and progressed to know what I know now and to be conscious of the processes that have taken me there.

Another reason why I think this is a good idea, is so that I can evaluate the stages of my learning processes and it will help me to understand my strong points and areas of opportunity. Therefore, I compromise to evaluate my works and find the proper evidence to display. In this way I will be making a reflection for myself and my learning. That way, I will be able to determine strategies to become better student everyday. For example, I can see in which modules aI have worked, and how has that been for me. That way I can start seeing with what kind of methods do I learn better (paying attention in class, by independent learning, or collaborating in activities with my classmates) and looking for some ways to do more exercises of that kind in the topics I don't perform as well as others.

NEW SEMESTER

From this point on, you can see the evidences from Semester 2