At the Dayton Regional STEM School we do math in a way that can be very different from other schools. We need to ask questions and advocate so we can understand the math content it can help us learn so much in math. This year I have learned to advocate for myself but I advocated the most in my math class at STEM and that lead to me understanding the work we were doing.  I used to think that you can just understand things without advocating but I was wrong, if you don’t understand the content you are learning you have to advocate and that is what I learned this year in math.

 I learned this skill during an investigation that we did in math called moving straight ahead. When I did not understand the things we were learning in investigation I decided after a while of struggling I would finally ask the teacher something and it lead to something good for me. Later on I thought I understood the work lots more but still I talk to the math teacher when I have the time to do so. One artifact that shows my understanding after advocating is an E mail that I sent the teacher to help me, she replied telling me helpful information that helped me learn to advocate.

 Another thing that shows my growth in advocacy is a hall pass; it is not a real hall pass but an example one that I made. At STEM hall passes let you go see a teacher that can help you with something. The teacher that helped me was Miss Shores, the 6th grade math teacher. She helped me understand the math content better. That shows my understanding because after I advocated I started to understand the problems we were doing in class and I got better at math.

Some terms that I have learned during my learning experience at STEM are, equations, which are a type of math problem. Another word that I learned was variable, which is something that is used in a math equations and normally is the thing that you have to find the value of. I know I grew in advocacy because during my advisory I went to practice equations with my teacher.

This year I have learned that advocating for yourself when you know you need I can help you understand the content that you are learning, it also shows your teachers that you are responsible and care about your grades and the content you are learning in that class. I know that I grew in this because I can see myself starting to understand the content better now because of advocating.