Scale drawings!

Today was the day where it all came together! Me and Denise got together with the UltraSound and Mammography Techs and went through floor plans with them. (We do have plans that architects did but unfortunately there are things the techs would like to have such as dressing rooms in the mammography room)

Going through all of what is needed involves a lot more than one would think! We went over what they all need in their exam room, how many they need, bathrooms, changing rooms, tech rooms, waiting rooms, etc.

 To start we had made some cardboard cut-outs of their equipment and had them lay it out on the floor.

After doing this they got a pretty good idea of different ways they could lay out their furniture (and that it would unfortunately be pretty hard with the design the architects came up with)




















After that we took them down to a meeting room where we had the area of the whole department on a paper and little pieces of equipment, furniture, and walls all cut out to 1/4" = 1'.
 They did a really good job and really got into it and came up with a lot of good drawings! When they saw the space that they were allowed it really made them decide between what was most important to them.

It was difficult for them to get everything in the area they had originally designated for ultrasound and mammography. We had the head of the radiology department with us also, so she gave the techs a little more room to play around with then to see what they would come up with. Even then it was a little difficult for them to find exactly where they would like everything to be.

Then eventually it got to be late (they're usually done with work at 4:30 and we planned on working until 6:30 and they stayed until 7:00! Long day!!) So we will pick it up another time.

It was great to see how good they all were with converting (1/4 inch to a foot). We had architecture rulers and also grid paper for them to use depending on what they like, just like students not all adults complete tasks the same way!

While they were doing this I thought "definitely a good reason for my students to know how to use scales!" Even if they aren't going into engineering or architecture or something where it's used everyday I bet these techs didn't think they would ever use ratios that much at their job!

Week 5 Question

Week 5: How can your business (or others) be more involved in your classroom?  What can you or your school do to engage students with the real world?  What can the real world (our externship hosts) do to engage students in their world?


There are many more ways Allen and other businesses can be involved in my classroom than I ever expected! It just involves a little extra time and making connections.

Jeff Weld invited me to a workforce meeting about a month ago which was very interesting and informative for me since I did not know that Cedar Falls has a program where they place students in the work world. While at this meeting I also met Kristin Wentworth, which it turns out she is the Executive Director of the Area Health Education Center at Allen! We were both surprised to find that there was someone in the same building with the same goals and didn't even know it! I met with Kristin and turns out she has been to my school twice already in the past. I think I may call Kristin to come in sometime this next year since until this externship I had no idea that there were so many people involved in the hospital. Just like most people I thought that a hospital basically just had doctors, nurses, and receptionists. Turns out they are only a fraction of how many people are actually employed by the hospital. I think it would be good to have Kristin come in and show the students all the different jobs there are in a hospital.

I can involve business hosts in my classroom more by connecting with people like Kristin and having them come into my classroom. Or I can take my students to visit them at the worksite, this past year a few of my pre-calc students were invited through me by an email invite from Rockwell Collins. I thought it was great that they emailed me, I hope other businesses start to do this also.

Microsoft Word and technology

Today Denise showed me how you can make headings in a Microsoft document and that will allow you to skip to the part you want from the table of contents. I have never seen this before (even though Denise has know about this for about 15 years!) I am very surprised that I have never been showed how to use this, but in high school and in college we typically turn in a hard copy of papers.

But even though it isn't exactly something we NEED to know how to do I still think it would be good for students to know how to do this. This made me think a lot about the 21st century skills and how valuable being able to do these things I have learned in Excel and Word are.

When I took a Microsoft Word class in high school (freshman  year, just 9 years ago) we practiced typing, learned a few shortcuts (such as ctrl + c for copy), how to format a business letter, and how to make labels. I remember this class being super easy for me and being very bored during it. Reflecting upon this it helps me realize that I really do need to give "quick learners" in my classroom more difficult tasks. Just like my keyboarding teacher didn't teach me everything about word I am not teaching my students everything they could ever possibly know about geometry, or calculus. Most of the class is not ready for more, but some are ready for more.

I think it's great that Iowa is getting teachers involved in work places because if I hadn't had this externship I wouldn't have learned about these things with excel and word. Also, I think it's good that I now know that word, excel, and powerpoint are used a LOT in the work world.

When most people think of math they just think of solving a problem. Through my Externship, I have learned that you need to be able to display your work to other people which is where knowing your way around microsoft word is very helpful.

New Findings With Excel

Today while I was working on some data using Excel I found a way to accomplish what I wanted probably 3 times faster! I can't believe all of the things Excel can do. I've always thought I was pretty good at Excel but after learning all these things at Allen I've realized I hardly knew anything!

These new findings today made me think of teaching. In the classroom students are shown how to do something to complete the task. Denise just gave me a project and I was expected to explore with Excel and "figure out" how to do it on my own. I then thought about how much more I learned since I had to look around in Excel to figure out what it could all do. I even figured out something Denise didn't even know Excel could do! :)

I think to an extent I could do something similar to this in the classroom. Since I like math exploring Excel is fun for me, but not as much for my students. Also, it took me a lot longer to figure out what to do and in the classroom I only have 42 minute classes. I think with a little more guidance (and maybe group work) I could do more discovery lessons in my classroom.

Week 4 Question

Week 4: Now that you are one month in, how do you see this experience changing your classroom?  Think in terms of what you teach and how you teach.  How will your students know something has changed? 

I hope to do more hands-on projects with my students. This past year I tried to do projects with my students but sometimes it was difficult to figure out how it could be applied to the "real-world".

I believe my students will know something has changed because I will have more projects to go along with what they're learning.

Working with data and question 3

I've made quite a few observations now and I feel that I understand the process of what needs to be done to complete many of the procedures on different modalities. I've learned a lot more about Radiology than I would!

Yesterday I used a Continuous Flow Model. I looked at all the data from January to May, how many days and how long the Radiology Department is open to decide what the tact time for departments were. It was a lot more difficult than I thought to get "accurate data". They always have someone scheduled to do CT and MRI Scans anytime throughout the day (although there aren't many past 5p.m. or before 7 a.m. or on the weekends). Other departments in Radiology have the techs on call too. So I decided to throw the weekends (+ a few holidays) out of the equation. For the most part the time that the equation calculated for how long it would take for how long the procedure would take matched up with what I observed.

I knew that it couldn't match up to be exactly accurate since Allen has a lot of out patients, so Allen's Radiologists don't always have someone waiting for a scan or x-ray immediately after they are finished. There are also a lot of times that there are 2 or more radiologists at one machine. It takes a long time to go through the scans sometimes and so one of the radiologists' is able to move onto the next patient before the first radiologist is fully completed with their patient. That is something I would not have known about had I not gone through observations, which was a good reason for actually going out and doing that.

Week 3: What are some of the connections you see between your externship and math or science essential concepts and skills?  21^st Century Skills?  Five Characteristics of Effective Instruction?  Eight Standards for Mathematical Practice? 

I have learned a lot more about Excel while at Allen. I've always been okay at Excel, still not great, but I am getting better. Denise uses Excel a lot at her job, which makes me realize that I should probably use Excel in my classroom more than I currently do. It is important for them to be able to have the basic Excel skills mastered by the time they graduate from high school.

I do have my students actually find their own data when they are working on a project. Which I think ties into what I am doing a lot at Allen. Last year I had my students fly paper airplanes and then decide which one was the best. Since all the students were there they knew which data should be taken out. Similar to how I took out weekends when I looked at the Allen data they needed to take out anything that wasn't paper (the Gatorade bottle went a lot further!) It took us a lot longer to get our data since we actually found it on our own. I was debating whether I was going to change the project to something where we aren't doing observations for so long, but now I think it is a good experience for them. There was no right or wrong answer, so the students really had to think to back up their choice in their paper. I had them fly their plane inside, outside up-hill, outside down-hill and had them look at distance traveled, speed, and time in the air. So they had to decide which information they thought was useful and then back up their answer.

Everyday I notice that almost everyone at Allen is always very friendly. People I don't know will make small talk in the elevator, say good morning in the hall. I do try to do this when I am at school also, but now I am more aware of how happy it makes me feel when someone says hello to me that I am going to try even harder next year to make sure to great the students so that they will do the same which will hopefully help them become more employable since they are friendly and companies want to have a good environment.

I sat in on a meeting with Denise today. She was explaining some data she had been working with. I noticed that the people there asked a lot of questions.