Embedded Files
Ian Onizuka, Professor of Mathematics, Porterville College
This site provides examples of instructional resources created in the Humanizing Online STEM Academy, a professional development program funded by the California Education Learning Lab and administered by the Foothill DeAnza Community College District.
Reflections
Reflections
Where I was.
Where I was.
Prior to COVID, I refused to teach any courses online because it eliminated the interactions with students that was my main reason for becoming an educator in the first place. I loved seeing their faces and reactions when they understood a concept after putting in the work.
Where I am.
Where I am.
I now do all of my classes as a synchronous online class over zoom. I believe this format allows for more interaction between students and more interaction with me. Students that would not ask a question in front of the entire class can now ask those questions privately and not have to worry about being embarrassed.
Where I am going
Where I am going
There are so many things that I learned about in this class than I will be implementing in my future classes. I will be creating bumper videos for those concepts that students should already know. I will start doing a wisdom wall for my current students to provide insight to my future students.
Liquid Syllabus
Liquid Syllabus
The first introduction to "Ian Onizuka" will be through my liquid syllabus, a friendly overview of the course. There are several elements including a list of expectations for both the student and myself, my teaching philosophy, a week #1 to do list, and several resources where to get help. This should help the student orient themselves even before the course begins.
Course Card
Course Card
Once a student logs on to Canvas, the first thing they see is the Course Card. I am born and raised on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Hawaii is abbreviated HI so I used a picture of a sticker and used the Porterville College logo as the dot of the "i."
Homepage
Homepage
Once the student clicks on the course card, they come across my Humanized Homepage. This page is meant to be inviting, but not overly informative. I want the students to know that I'm happy to have them in my course and hopefully excite them about the course.
Getting to Know You Survey
Getting to Know You Survey
The "Getting to Know You" survey is assigned in the first week of the course. There are several questions that will help me to better know who each student is, along with a variety of preferences. Along with their name and preferred form of communications, I ask:
Briefly describe an obstacle you have faced in life and how you overcame it.
What can I do to ensure your success?
Wisdom Wall
Wisdom Wall
A Wisdom Wall is a collection of "learning stories" recorded by students in prior classes of mine and listened to by students in my current class. At the beginning of the course, the students listen to past students advice, and at the end of the semester they post their own advice. Every semester, I invite students to contribute to the Wisdom Wall by asking them to share their advice for success with future students. By recording one's advice (which we like to call "golden nuggets of wisdom"), a student reflects on their growth over time and recognizes what they did to navigate through the challenges of the semester. Then by listening to other students' advice, students see that other students have similar struggles and identify new strategies for overcoming them.
Bumper Video
Bumper Video
I have noticed many students come into Precalculus without knowledge of interval notation and it is a concept they should have learned in Algebra. I created a Bumper video to discuss interval notation. This video will save a good deal of class time.
Microlecture
Microlecture
A microlecture, according the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, is "a short recorded audio or video presentation on a single, tightly defined topic." I chose Descartes' Rule of Signs which is a technique that is used to determine the number of real zeros of a polynomial function. My video is just under 13 minutes and can act as a brief introduction to the topic or as a refresher any student can watch as many times as they like. I plan to use this video for my precalculus course. The objective it fits into is: Apply techniques for finding zeros of polynomials and roots of equations.
This site is by Ian Onizuka and is shared with a Creative Commons-Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 license. Creation of this content was made possible with funding from the California Education Learning Lab.
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