My name is Emily Bertagnolli and I am from Eastlake, Ohio. The best e-mail to reach me at is ebertagnolli15@jcu.edu. I am currently enrolled in the School Based M.Ed. program for AYA Mathematics. The license I will receive will be for 7-12 mathematics. I am interning at St. Ignatius starting in the fall. I have two mentor teachers so I will get to see aspects of two different classrooms which I am excited about. I think the classes I will be teaching at Ignatius will most likely be an algebra class of some sort and a more calculus based class like Algebra II/ Trig with limits. If I could teach any mathematical subject it would definitely be calculus. My undergraduate degree is a BS in Mathematics from The Ohio State University and I also have a Human Development Family Sciences minor. One of the things I look forward to while teaching is to be involved in the extra-curricular activities. I love volleyball and I played in high school. I also coached some summer leagues which was always so much fun! I hope to be able to help with that at St. Ignatius! Some other things about me are that I have a sister who goes to Arizona State and a brother who is a senior in high school. Like most people I enjoy spending time with my family and friends whether it be by the pool, out to dinner or just hanging out. I have worked at a restaurant called Trader Jack's Riverside Grille since I was 16. I started out at a hostess and now waitress on occasion if someone needs me to work for them. Hope that helps you guys to get to know me a little better!
If I am interested in topic and have an opinion about it I have no problem taking intellectual and creative risks in a classroom. I will usually say what I think is appropriate, state my opinion, or comment on something I can relate to. However if I have to present on something I am not certain of that makes me a little nervous. As a student I am normally pretty active when it comes to oral class participation. I think the more one engages in the conversation the more they will take out of the discussion. Adding my opinions and ideas helps me to understand the material better. If I am not orally active in class it is usually because I have no experience with the topic or don't understand it. I will never pretend to know about something I don't just to dispute or agree with someone else. I like to form my own opinions based on the things I learn. When it comes to assignments I am always prepared and do my readings and homework on time. But I must confess that being a math major I did not have to do a lot of writing or reading. So all of my courses this year will definitely put those skills to the test. The best way for me to learn anything is to write it down and then keep going over it. I usually will make note cards with the most important information so I am able to repetitively go through them and weed out what I already know. I could not have survived my undergrad without excessive amounts of note cards. Another thing that helps me to learn is class discussions. If the professor engages the students it helps me to understand the material better than if they just lecture. The first thing I do when I don't understand something is ask questions. I have never been afraid to get help when I needed it and I think that is one thing that has made me successful so far. Like I said before I am still unsure and slightly paranoid of my writing ability since I haven't written many papers in the past three years at Ohio State. I am open to any constructive criticism to improve my writing for this course and others.
One of the most formative memories that has helped me to where I am today is of my AP Calculus teacher. Out of any teacher that has ever taught me in my life the material he taught I retained the best. Granted he was a very smart man but he had a way of simplifying mathematics so everyone could understand. Another formative memory I have is being in a gifted or "zenith" program in elementary school. These programs in some districts are either loved or viewed as pointless. But I firmly believe that if anyone who thought they were pointless truly knew how they impacted children they wouldn't think that. In this program I was giving presentations in the 2nd grade and by the 6th grade I was giving 20 minute talks. It really helped to build my confidence, foster my creativity, and demonstrated proper study techniques that I still use today. One significant concern that I feel is facing the field of education today is when teachers teach just what is on standardized tests. I agree that there are specific things people need to learn but teaching for tests does not introduce the students to anything that may intrigue them. As a future math teacher I think that students need to see the purpose in mathematics to become interested and not just learn straight forward problems that will appear on the OGT. That leads me into another concern that faces specifically teachers teaching math and science. Any math teacher hates to hear the dreaded question "why will I ever need this?" If a student does not understand or is bored by the subject they will have no desire to learn. As a teacher I want to be able to interest my students and help them to see how math is important in so many ways. To take away from this class I think it is important to engage in discussion. I think that since this class is discussion based it will help us all to be more broad minded and learn things from each other. It is important to discuss concepts like why we teach the things we do so we can have better understand our roles as educators. In our discussions I hope everyone avoids having a closed mind. I hope to learn from everyone's experiences, and opinions to make my thoughts more well rounded.
We all know the educational system is not perfect. It never was and never will be. But my question for Dr. Shutkin and the class is kind of broad and open ended. If you could change one thing about education what would it be?
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