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About Mr. Mac
About Mr. Mac
Hello. My name is Michael Colantino, but I go by Mac because it's my initials. I am in the 5-year secondary education program for special education at TCNJ. I enjoy Calculus and Algebra. On top of being a high school math teacher, I hope to coach varsity basketball. I want to take what I have learned in EFN299 into my future classrooms in order to positively impact the lives of my students.
Pythagorean Theorem.pdfPythagorean Theorem and Inclusion
Pythagorean Theorem and Inclusion
This lesson plan is about how the Pythagorean Theorem can be taught along with introducing students to the importance of places of interests being inclusive. If you haven't figured it out already, the Pythagorean Theorem has a direct relationship with ramps. Specifically, the students are asked to find places within their school, where a ramp might benefit the student body. This lesson brings about real world requirements for ramps and challenges students to meet this requirement by understanding the Pythagorean Theorem. Not only is this lesson plan good for teaching the Pythagorean Theorem but it introduces students to how math can solve social justice issues and can create a more inclusive place.
Understanding and Measuring Data.pdfStatistics and Social Justice
Statistics and Social Justice
Another way social justice can be brought into the classroom is through statistics. There are many different ways that measuring and understanding data can bring light to social issues in a math classroom. In this lesson plan, the teacher begins questioning the students about screen time and less intensive data. Once the students get a grasp of means, medians, and modes, the students are then broken off into groups in order to explore wages amongst different ethnic groups. This assignment will simultaneously help students learn the material and make students think about how a wage gap exists. Furthermore, the students are then asks to compare the wage data amongst male and female workers. This will ultimately reveal how there is a wage gap between men and women as well.
Math History Project
Math History Project
This lesson plan is about exploring famous, and credited mathematicians throughout the world in an integrated math classroom. This lesson will help open students' eyes to who they think of when they think about mathematicians. Each class the teacher should mention a mathematician that is of Hispanic, Native American, or Arabic background to show diversity. On top of introducing students to new math concepts, students are able to see themselves as mathematicians. Another part of the lesson is to ask students to write down observations they notice about data on juvenile incarceration rates based on race. This will cause students to think critically about why the rates seemed so skewed for one race. Also, this activity will create critical conversations amongst students about the topic, which will potentially create future solutions to these social issues.
Slopes, Poverty, and Acheivement
Slopes, Poverty, and Acheivement
This lesson plan is for an Algebra I course for either high school or middle school students. This lesson plan teaches students the basic idea about how slope is rise over run. Also, in the math world, slopes are used to find lines of best fit in order to show correlation between data points. So, after the lesson about slopes and what they are, students are asked to explore data about wealth and school achievement. After looking at the data, the students are asked to create a line of best fit to represent the data. This hands-on activity will really benefit students on how they can use slopes to find correlation between data and ultimately draw conclusions about data. At the same time, students will learn about how wealth inequality creates education achievement gaps, and it isn't a matter of culture.
Water Pump Problem
Water Pump Problem
This lesson plan that I came across was really awesome and fun for teaching trigonometry, and problem-solving skills. This lesson is a project that asks students to figure out where to put a pump so that villages can receive water efficiently. Specifically, students need to figure out where to build the pump that requires the minimum number of pipes. The synopsis of the project talks about how there are places in the world that don't have easy access to drinking water. This project will reveal the privileges that some students have and cause them to think about helping others. This project is great for higher level math classes, and since the project is very engaging it will grasp the students' attention. As a result, the students not only think about the project as it relates to math, but also in terms of social justice. Once, again this shows students how math can solve social issues throughout the world, and how math can make the world a better place.
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