Advising Notes for Math Ed Students

Degree Planning Notes

Stick closely with your degree plan! Straying too much can lead to complications which can lead to graduating later than you expected...

EDCI 42500 is offered in the spring semester only. You should plan to take this in the spring of your third year.

• You must have earned a C- or better in ALL of: EDCI 20500,  28550/28500 ; EDPS 23500, 26501

EDCI 42600 is offered in the fall semester only. You should plan to take this in the fall of your fourth year.

• You must have earned a C- or better in ALL of: EDCI 20500, 28550/28500, 42500 ; EDPS 23500, 26501

MA 46000 is offered in the fall semester only. You should plan to take this in the fall of your second year (or the first fall semester following a CODO).

MA 48400 is offered in the fall semester only. You should plan to take this in the fall of your fourth year.

Testing and Certification Notes

You must attempt the math content PRAXIS BEFORE June 15th for Fall student teaching and BEFORE November 15th for Spring student teaching. 

(You must PASS the content test to get your initial license. You should try to pass the test on your first attempt to avoid having to pay for another testing fee...)

You must PASS the secondary pedagogy PRAXIS before applying for your initial license.

You must have CPR certification complete when you apply for your initial license.

You must have suicide prevention training complete when you apply for your initial license. Purdue offers a program for this, however, make sure you SAVE the certificate as it can only be issued once.

See below for a Google sheet of the education sequence/requirements. If it does not display in your browser correctly, the direct link is here.

Classroom Management

The absolute best book to read about classroom management is The First Days of School by Harry Wong. If you haven't read it, grab a copy and digest it thoroughly. It will save you countless hours.

Math/Stat Reference Texts

It is a good idea to get some older reference texts to use for your personal knowledge and for a source of good practice for your students. I have found each of the reference texts below most helpful in preparing content (use Amazon for best results when shopping). Most of these are traditional texts, however, the problems can be good starting points for student-centered lessons as well. Some of these texts are available at the Purdue libraries and I am willing to (temporarily) loan you any that aren't if you want to look at them.

• 6th Grade:

  • Mathematics: Structure and Method Course 1 by Dolciani, Graham, Sorgenfrey

• 7th Grade:

  • Mathematics: Structure and Method Course 2 by Dolciani, Graham, Sorgenfrey 

• Pre-Algebra:

  • Pre-Algebra: An Accelerated Course by Dolciani 

• Algebra 1:

  • Algebra 1: Expressions, Equations, and Applications by Paul A. Forester

  • Algebra: Structure and Method Book 1 by Dolciani, Brown, and Graham

• Geometry:

  • Geometry by Jurgensen, Brown, and Jurgensen

• Algebra 2/Trigonometry:

  • Algebra and Trigonometry: Concepts and Applications by Paul A. Forester

  • Algebra: Structure and Method Book 2 by Dolciani, Brown, and Graham

• Calculus:

  • Calculus by Michael Spivak. (This is far beyond high-school level calculus but is the best source for answers to "why" questions that I know of.)

• Statistics:

  • The Statistical Sleuth by Ramsay and Scheffer

  • Applied Linear Statistical Models by Kutner, Natchsheim, Neter, and Li (You will probably use this if you take STAT 51200.)

  • Activity-Based Statistics by Scheaffer et al

Technological Resources for Teaching and Learning

All of the technological resource  I recommend are cross-platform (they will run on any operating system), free (or at worst extremely low-cost), and open source (their source code can be viewed and modified according to user needs).  I do not claim to be an expert in all of these areas and I am sure many of you will find helpful things to add to this list depending upon your particular situation.

The school district(s) in which you student teach/work and the textbook(s) you use in may encourage you to use closed-source proprietary software (Geometer's Sketchpad, Fathom, Kuta, etc.). While none of those programs are inherently bad, proprietary software is less than ideal for several reasons:

1. Proprietary software usually costs money which you and/or the school district where you work may not have or be willing to spend.

2. The technological resources available at your current school may not be the same as other schools where you may work in the future.

3. If your school uses Windows and your home machine is a Mac (or Linux), you may not be able to edit or even access files from home.

Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that you will even have access to something as basic as Microsoft Office. You should learn about the technologies available to you at your school well before your first day of student teaching!

(NOTE: The apps below may or may not play nicely with Chromebooks. GeoGebra can be installed, but the other apps may require some workarounds. I have linked those I could find, but you will need to check the accuracy of the information yourself as I do not own a Chromebook.)

Here is my list grouped by category:

Annotation

• Xournal++: Includes pen, highlighter, shape recognizer, etc. and a variety of backgrounds (plain, ruled, grid, music staves, etc.). Almost all of the features of a document camera with none of the associated cost! All you need is the file you want to annotate saved as a PDF and a way to project the image onto a whiteboard.
  Found at: https://xournalpp.github.io
  (Chromebook work-around: See here.)

Typesetting/Document Formatting

• LaTeX: Typesetting language for documents with lots of mathematical notation. Far more stable than Microsoft Word's equation editor. The learning curve is steep: it took me 3 years to master, however the quality of the documents you can produce is second-to-none (if you type fast then in the long run LaTeX is actually faster and easier than using point-and-click in Word). This can also be used in conjunction with R. If you care to use this for school, I have templates that I am willing to share.
  Find LaTeX here: https://tug.org/texlive/
  You can find a simple online editor here: https://latex.codecogs.com/eqneditor/editor.php and a more feature-rich one at: https://www.overleaf.com 

• Texmaker: IDE for LaTeX. Michelle Krummel has a great YouTube course for learning as a beginner.
  Find Texmaker here: https://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
  Find Michelle Krummel's video course here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ivLZh9xK1Q&list=PL1D4EAB31D3EBC449 

(Chromebook users see this video.)

Dynamic Geometry Software

• GeoGebra: For creating graphs and dynamic geometry. Figures can be exported as graphics or as code. The classic 5th edition is best for personal use. There is an online version, too, but I haven't used it as much.
  Found at: https://geogebra.github.io/docs/reference/en/GeoGebra_Installation/#_geogebra_classic_5_for_desktop 

Graphing Calculator Emulation

• TilEm: Used to emulate TI-84 graphing calculators. This is an item where you will need to make a purchase (of a TI-84 calculator to dump the ROM onto your computer). If you already own a TI-84, there is no cost.
  Found at: http://lpg.ticalc.org/prj_tilem/ 

• CEmu: Used to emulate the more powerful TI-84 CEs. Again, you will need to own a TI-84 CE to get access to a ROM image.
  Found at: https://ce-programming.github.io/CEmu/ 

Statistical Packages

• RStudio: IDE for statistical analyses and graphs. Hopefully you used this in STAT 35000 (or whichever statistical methods course you took). You need base R to be installed first.
  Find base R here: https://cran.r-project.org
  Find RStudio here: https://posit.co/downloads/ 

(Chromebook users see this video.)

• CODAP: Common online data analysis program. I have not used this, but it has been recommended to me.

Find CODAP here: https://codap.concord.org 

The only way to become proficient with these resources is to practice and play around with them!

Backing Up Files

At some point, you will lose files. Trusting your school district to have adequate backups is not enough of a fail-safe. I recommend you do the following:

• Bring files to/from work on a USB flash drive. Don't save things directly to your work computer (unless your district requires it).

• Keep backup copies of everything you create in Google Drive or Box. Make sure the backups match the original files! If you change the original files, don't forget to change the backups.

  • It is probably better to use a personal email Drive/Box account here. If you change jobs or your district's server goes down, you're in trouble!

MATH/MAED Dual Major

It is possible to complete a core mathematics degree (MATH) in addition to math education (MAED), however, there is a high probability that this will lengthen your degree plan if your begin without advanced credit for calculus 1 and are not planning to take any MA/EDCI/EDPS classes in summer. Do note this is not recommended unless you have really enjoyed and performed well (B+ or higher) in your calculus 1 through 3 sequence as well as linear algebra, geometry, and discrete math. 

You will need to take the following significantly more difficult versions of two MAED requirements:

• MA 34100: Foundations of Analysis (replaces MA 30100: Intro to Proof Through Real Analysis)

  • • If you've never done formal proof writing, it may be wise to take MA 30100 as a free elective earlier in your degree plan.

• MA/STAT 41600: Probability (replaces STAT 31100: Introduction to Probability)

Both of these are usually offered during summer, although you can take them as soon as you meet pre-reqs. See the official Purdue schedule to confirm.

You will also need two additional math courses:

• MA 35301: Linear Algebra II (requires C- or better in MA 35100)

• MA 42500: Elements of Complex Analysis (requires C- or better in MA 35100)

Neither course is typically offered in summer. Also, I would probably wait and take these after MA 34100.

Your three MATH selectives will come from other classes that are already requirements for MAED:

• MA 37500 (required for MAED already)

• MA/STAT 41600 (replaces STAT 311)

• MA 48400 (required for MAED already) 

  • • This counts for as a MATH selective for MATH/MAED duals only. If you drop MAED, you'll need to find a third math selective.