I have learned a lot about myself these past few months as an educator. Doing research and finding strategies that are backed up by research is so important in education. My students are now more confident about their math fact skills and I am a lot more

confident in teaching these skills. I also

learned that keeping track of data and

mapping student growth is not only

rewarding for myself but for my students

as well. My students were so excited to

compare their pre-test and post-test scores

in order to see their growth. It was really

rewarding to see their perceptions of

themselves as mathematicians change over

the weeks. Just looking at the attitude survey

from before and after the intervention really showed how much it changed their outlook on math. The games and activities helped my students to achieve fact fluency because they were practicing the facts every single day in a way that was consistent.

 

Research and best teaching practices focus on getting students involved in their learning and making them feel responsible. This fact fluency intervention did just that for my students. They were involved, engaged, and knew what was expected of them. They knew which set of facts they were working on and focused on this personal goal. Fact fluency within 10 is a huge skill that has to be mastered in first grade. It is my job as their educator to teach them using the best practices and using strategies that meet the needs of all learners in my classroom. I learned how important research-based strategies are because I saw how well it worked with my own students. From now on, I will constantly be looking for research-based strategies and keeping track of data to ensure student growth and success.

 

I am so proud of my students.

Now that they have shown

growth in their fact fluency, this

means that math will be just a

little easier for them down the

road. They will be able to

dedicate their time to more

complex math concepts and

enjoy math more because they

now have a more solid

foundation in the basic facts. I think this also showed my students what it really means to have a growth mindset. Before, my students generally did not enjoy math and they were not confident in themselves. However, my students are so much more confident in themselves now. They now know that it is not only possible to improve their skills in math, but they also have a better understanding of how to do so. As for me, I now feel more prepared as an educator to teach these skills next year using all I have learned from this experience.

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I feel so much more confident now as an educator and truly feel like I can make a difference and teach my students skills that they will use every single day. I know that with this new knowledge, I will be in an even better position to teach these skills to my future students because I will be able to apply it from the beginning of the year. My action plan could be improved by being implemented earlier in the year.  

 

If I could go back and do this all over again I would find more variation in math games and really find games that are unique and different to increase engagement even more. All my students enjoyed the games but it would have been nice to have more of a variety in order to not lose their interest over several weeks. This whole experience has impacted my teaching greatly.

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I was fortunate enough to work on this

action research with my grade level

team as well as with our building math

coach. My team members helped me 

by providing insight from their years of

experience teaching these skills as

well as helping me find more activities

and games to practice fact fluency

skills. Our building math coach was

helpful in pointing me in the right direction for my initial research on fact fluency. Collaborating with these professionals had a great impact on the study because I felt supported in this process. Finally, I could not have done this without CADRE and the the collaboration I had with other CADRE teachers in order to bounce ideas and questions off of them.

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This whole Capstone process has really pushed me as an educator and has given me invaluable experience in action research. I now have experience in noticing and identifying a need in my classroom, researching that need, and then making a plan and actually doing something about it. I learned the importance of action research in education. This is something that I will continue to do in order to best meet the needs of my students year after year.