Random facts about yourself? Last year I joined Team Beard USA (a national organization for people who appreciate beards.) At home I work as a server at a nice Chinese restaurant.  And, I love flannel in addition to plaid and argyle - this is the main pattern to go to as a teacher!

What brought you to BGSU? The ACTION Program! I had considered playing football for another university but decided not to pursue it. The day after I made this decision, I got a call about ACTION and knew this was where I wanted to be. 

What has been your overall favorite thing about being an ACTION scholar? ACTION has provided some great friendships as well as connections with others across campus. Since I will be graduating in 3 years, I haven't had much time to build a lot of friends outside of this program. I love hanging out with ACTION people!

When did you decide you wanted to be a math teacher? My eighth grade math teacher was fresh out of college. His philosophy was to have students teach students. So, as someone who had always loved math, I taught more than 10 kids every day.  Unfortunately, he abused this system to have us do the work for him. However, the positive result was that I realized I was good at teaching and liked it; and it convinced me that we need better math teachers in our schools. Later, seeing other math teachers perform well confirmed my desire.

You are currently in Methods. Tell us about that. It has been really, really hard! The toughest thing for me is having the extra MATH 4170 class on top of being in the school all day. I want to be able to focus on teaching, but need to balance other projects for my BGSU classes. I did enjoy the course taught by Dr. Brahier at the beginning of the semester, as well as the assessment course that provided insight into quizzes and homework and covered topics not talked about in my other classes. For my placement, I lucked out with my Cooperating Mentor Teacher (CMT) at Findlay High School. She is very laidback, allowing me to do what I want. She has also offered some ways for me to improve, which I appreciate.

How do you feel about Student Teaching next semester?  I am very excited and look forward to not having to do the additional projects in order to focus on teaching. I can't wait for more freedom and the ability to get more into being an actual teacher. I want to try different assessments and techniques to see what works the best. For my ACTION Capstone Research, I am looking at how video games can help engage students in the mathematics classroom. Since there isn't much information about this at the high school level, I'll have to see how it goes. I am a bit worried about how best to implement the research and still need to figure out which period will be the best to gather the data I need.

Future plans? With graduation coming in May, I will begin thinking more about the future in January. I want to expand my horizons and would be willing to try different environments to gain a variety of experiences. My main goal as a teacher wherever I end up is to help kids to succeed in math.

What was high school like for you? Delphos is a really small town with only 72 in my graduating class. I got very involved in high school, too involved in fact, with leadership roles in multiple organizations as well as working a part-time job at an A&W Restaurant. 4-H was a big part of my life and I played volleyball starting in 4th grade. It was very stressful and hard to balance everything, but I enjoyed every minute of it. When I came to college though, I decided to do something different.

What have you done differently at college? Instead of jumping right into things, as I was accustomed to doing, I decided this first year at BGSU to not join more than one or two things. My goal has been to relax and take time for me. Currently ACTION is the main organization I am involved with and this has been good for me.

Tell us about your freshman research project for ACTION.  Working with Dr. Haney on the GLOBE project has been a lot of fun. We even have a name for our research group and are making t-shirts! With our research data, I am starting to see the importance made by variation in land cover. Coming from a farming community, it has been interesting to consider the impact of beans vs. the corn covering the land near my house. When we go out to different sites near BGSU, we compare what we see at our GPS coordinates in different locations to those shown on Landsat Satellite Images. Through the GLOBE website we are able to see that we are doing the same things as people in Africa. It's great to be involved in this worldwide project.

What were some of your favorite parts of the Summer Bridge?  I loved meeting 24 new people this summer, making the adjustment to college this fall so much easier. The sessions contained useful information and activities we can use in our future classrooms. I have already begun to gather ideas. The team-building course at Camp Miakonda was a definite highlight, as was setting bubbles on fire! The summer experience also prepared me to get back into school.  I had senioritis my last year of high school, so the Bridge got me ready to work hard this fall.

How did you hear about ACTION? We came to Preview Day when the weather was really bad. I happened to meet someone on an elevator who told us about ACTION. Initially I wasn't excited; I really didn't want to give up a month of my summer. Plus, I had planned to concentrate on math and social studies because I love history. After more consideration (and a strong nudge from my mom), I applied.  Of course, I don't regret it and it's been much better than I imagined.

Interesting facts about you? Washington, DC is one of my favorite places; my dad's love for history rubbed off on me. I've already been there three times and look forward to going again in January for the March for Life. I also have a pencil collection I started around age 10. With over 300 pencils, I get a new one from wherever I travel.

Cohort 1 is currently completing their "methods block" experience.  During this semester, they have taken a 15-hour set of courses examining everything from "how to teach" the content to the use of assessment, technology, and reading strategies in the classroom.  After 10 weeks of on-campus classes, they are completing several weeks of field experience in classrooms, writing, teaching, and reflecting on their own lesson plans.  By January, they will transition into becoming full-time student teachers.  Our first graduate, Sarah Keane, is completing student teaching this semester and has already conducted her capstone research project. She examined various cooperative learning strategies in her classroom to maximize the benefits of learning. After submitting her final paper, the next step will be graduation.

Dana Wilson discusses her research with her advisor, Sheryl Krotzer

The final two research sessions for Cohort 2 were hosted in November. Dr. Julie Matuga shared her expertise about research methodology. Her discussion focused on different methods of gathering data and the importance of triangulation. Dr. Hillary Harms from the Office of Compliance shared an overview of the HSRB process with students and faculty at the final session. Students are now ready to take their selected topic and begin researching to discover what information is already available about the area they are interested in. This may help them broaden or adjust their specific topic. 

Cohort 3 students participating in a fall practicum are finishing those up by submitting a paper to their supervisor explaining the results of their project. Supervisors provide grades and comments for this paper as well as student performance. Feedback from past supervisors has been very positive with comments such as: "The ACTION student exceeded our expectations in all parts of the project. . . . Her suggestions have enabled us to make some changes to a component of our company." Another remarked, "The project report was very helpful. It will be used to make recommendations to City Council." These comments reflect our goal to have the practicum projects provide significant impact to companies and organizations.

Five Cohort 4 students are working on a research problem with Dr. Craig Zirbel that one of his PhD students started but was not able to solve. T

Dr. Z's research group meeting at 8:00AM on Mondays

hey explain the problem: Starting at the rightmost point on a circle of circumference 1, go distance "t" around the circle, where "t" is a number between 0 and 1. If you are in the top half of the circle, you score 1; if in the bottom half, you score -1. Go distance "t" again, and again, and keep track of your total score. The total score goes up and down. When "t" is rational, we showed that eventually you will return to the rightmost point, the total score will be 0, and the pattern will repeat again. For irrational values of "t," they don't know much yet. Some questions they are asking include: In the long run, how far does the total score wander away from 0? Does it ever get above 1,000? 1 million? Does the total score wander away from 0 more quickly or more slowly than a random walk does? Does the total score keep returning to 0? They wrote a javascript program that makes a graph of the total score for the first 100,000 steps and that can find the maximum and minimum over the first 1 billion steps. This has provided some understanding as they continue researching. 

Favorite Holiday Traditions

We asked Cohort 2 to tell us their favorite holiday tradition...

Emily Schroeder: One of my favorite holiday traditions is decorating the tree and my parents' house and also having a big breakfast and opening presents on Christmas morning with my family.

Lauren Barr:  Going to Starbucks then driving around as a family for a few hours looking at Christmas lights all around town. Afterward, we all come home and put luminaries all up and down our street on Christmas Eve!!

Jennie Jester:  Having my family (brother's family) come over for dinner and then playing with my nephews and niece after dinner. At Christmas time, my brother, nephews and I have a wrapping paper war. After opening presents, we ball up the wrapping paper and throw it at each other. It's really fun.

Keith McBride:  Arm wrestling with family members after midnight Mass!

Brittany Taylor:  One of my favorite holiday traditions is going to the tree farm as a family and cutting down our own tree.

Leslie Russell: One of my favorite holiday traditions is baking and decorating cookies.

Kayla Miller:  My family has the "12 Days before Christmas."  We open one present every day before Christmas.  It's like a Christmas-Hanukkah mash up!

Georgia Ike:  Going to church on Christmas Eve and then eating subs, snacks and desserts before opening presents with my family. We do this every year and Christmas just wouldn't be the same without it!

Megan Chapman: Getting a tray of cookies that my great grandma cooks for everyone!

Matt Lefevre: After dinner with my family, all the guys go out back on my uncle's property to target shoot. It's a lot of fun and all of us guys get to hang out and solve life's greatest problems while shooting stuff.

Kim Allaire: My sister, best friend and I always watch Elf and make Christmas cookies. This is one of my favorite holiday traditions because now that we live in different cities throughout most of the year, it gives us a chance to catch up and spend time together like we used to.

Kayla Fackler:  Every year we make sugar cookies and then decorate them. Of all the cookies, one of them is the green Santa. The green Santa is my favorite because it holds memories of decorating cookies every year.

Megan Kemerley:  Every holiday season we get together with my dad's side of the family and make candy from scratch. Its called Kemerley Candy and we always make a lot of different kinds and flavors.

Melissa Matthews:  We always make a gingerbread house!

Allie Mazza:  My favorite tradition is leaving out cookies and milk for Santa. Of course, I always leave carrots for his reindeer. 

ACTION Student Holiday Party:  Friday, December 7 

December Graduation:  Saturday, December 15

BGSU Winter Break:  December 17 - January 4