This week felt like it breezed by. With the regular math classes I was busy teaching 10.1-10.5, which is a review for the students. It's a chapter all on solving equations and inequalities. My cooperating teacher took back over teaching her honor's classes this week, which gave me time to catch up on some grading that needed to be done. The majority of the student's seemed to pick up rather quickly on the review of solving equations. I feel like some of them didn't get it completely the first time and now are again struggling this time around. I don't understand what the difficulty is, but I'm trying to move slowly to get through all the topics and trying to do as many examples as possible.
Last week I set a goal to try to smoothly giving control back to my cooperating teacher. Thus far, it has worked out nicely for both of us and for the students. Last week she took control of the honor's class back. I still worked with the regular classes. I will still be working with only the regular classes this week. I will end Friday with a quiz on chapter 10, where my cooperating teacher will be able to move on effectively and efficiently.
I would love to set a goal for this last week in my placement. I would like to come up with a way to give my student's a gift goodbye from myself that will encourage them to continue trying hard in math.
Looking at my final week in my placement there has been so much that I learned and grew from. I've learned so much more than I could have imagined learning with working with paraprofessionals. They are such a huge assett to teachers in the classroom with LD or BD students in them. Their input and help keeps the classroom running smoothly. I was able to work with a paraprofessional and adapt tests and daily assignments and be able to look at my teaching in a way I never did previously, to see how I can explain things more simplistically so that all my student's could understand.
I have also learned a lot about the school rules for this school alone. I have learned about this school's STEP system as their way of disciplining the student's. I have learned how to use that system within the classroom and have been able to apply it with the students. The STEP program is a program, where student's are given a warning first for minor incidents and if it continues they are stepped. The first step is supposed to be the step where the students are warned and realize that they have gone too far. STEP 2 is where the student has to fill out a written consequence sheet, explaining what happened and how they can prevent it from happening again. They need to bring it home to be signed by a parent, the student needs to sign it, and then the teacher needs to sign it. STEP 3 is where the teacher calls home to a parent. Finally, STEP 4 is a detention and a referral to the office. Once STEP 4 occurs, every incident after it is another STEP 4. There steps are restarted per semester.
This semester I have been able to contribute knowledge about teaching and learning through various methods. I am an active voice in team meetings. I make my opinions known and try to incorporate as much education purpose behind each thing I say. I have also been able to impact my cooperating teacher to get after the district and school to start using the new Common Core Standards. They have not updated yet and looks as if they don't plan on updating soon.
This semester I have also been able to be around and voice my opinion on team meetings with the school's social worker. I have encouraged them to take a deeper look into one of their problem students as being a student with a behavioral disorder. I think that they have decided not to test him at this point, because it's too close to the end of the year, but at least all my team agrees and thinks that the social worker missed testing him a long time ago. I was also able to be at a meeting with a parent and my team where they did begin to test a student for being LD. The testing is still taking place, but it was interesting to learn and grow from being involved in the situation.
This placement has only confirmed more for me that I indeed want to be a teacher and that this is what the Lord is calling me to do. I will be the first to admit that I am not perfect, but I have a passion for teaching, and hopefully that is evident. Because of my passion, I am willing to work at being the best teacher that I can possibly be. Being a teacher can be a job that is often misinterperated, but even so I still find it so very rewarding.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Weekly thoughts for 4/18-4/21...
The students were anxious for a long weekend this entire week. I used this week as a week of review. With the regular math class the students took a few days to review their geometric formulas, like: area, perimeter, and angle measure. They created a geometric flower with a guided sheet. They spent the last day doing some fun easter math worksheets reinforcing mathematical thinking. With honors they spent the week on a factoring packet. Factoring seems to be a difficult topic with many of the students. They did a whole chapter on factoring earlier in the year, but many of the skills they forgot or needed to be refreshed. They took a "factoring again" quiz on Thursday, which most of the students did really well on.
Last week I set two goals. The first was to go visit some other math classrooms. Due to the project I had my students doing, I did not get that chance. But I did set up a time to go visit another math classroom at a different school after my graduation. One of my childhood friends is a teacher in Crest Hill and I will be going to visit her on Tuesday, May 17th to watch how she runs her math and science classrooms at the 5th grade level. My second goal was to work on my action research. I did make some good headway this week on my action research project. I finished putting together my data and started writing my paper. I will continue to work on it this week.
This week I would like to set another goal for myself regarding the rest of my student teaching placement. I would like to be able to transition smoothly back to my cooperating teacher regaining full control of the classroom again. This week she will be taking the honor's class back while I work just with the regular class.
A great teacher is a reflective teacher. I've noticed how important it is during this placement for teachers to be reflective on each lesson they present to each class. During this placement I teach three of one class and two of another. It was nice to be able to tweak my lesson plans and reflect on how they went to improve them or change activities that would better fit with different classroom make-ups. Some days do not go as planned and it integral to be able to reflect and figure out why they didn't go as planned and if it was okay that they didn't go as planned. A teacher that is reflective shows and proves that they are a good teacher and able to fix lessons so that they are as most effective as possible. Sometimes after doing activity and can mentally note that it was excellent or that it was not effective.
As an example of a reflective moment in my placement, I think back to my lesson on surface area with the regular math students. I taught the lesson just as I had planned it and thought it would work well and that the students would have no problem. After the first class period I knew I was having troubles, when I had the students start working on some problems on their own. No one seemed to understand how surface area changed with each shape and were very confused when there were multiple steps, especially using the Pythagorean Theorem as one of those steps. I immediately knew the lesson had to go out the window and that something else had to be done. So I found as many visual aides as I possibly could around the classroom and decided to ask the paraprofessional and my cooperating teacher for help. This way we could split up the students into small groups and work with a ten or so students at a time and really try to work one-on-one with them in a small group setting. This was much more effective and the students were able to grasp the concept and learn more from that experience.
I must admit working with students with severe special needs is not a strong point for me. I have never been in a classroom yet with full inclusion. I have always been at schools where the severe students with special needs are in their own classrooms. I have been able to work with students with minor LD and BD issues and have no problems finding ways to let them move, or work with partners, or make sure they are included in class participation. I have been able to work closely with the paraprofessional on my team and she has been wonderful in showing/telling/explaining to me the special things that I can do to make learning most effective for these students. I also have the luxury of her having them one period of the day to reinforce the mathematical topics they need extra help with. I have helped create adapted tests for some LD students and understand the basics behind teaching students with minor LD and BD issues.
I have been able to share some fun new classroom group activities to check for understanding in my student teaching placement. Things like inside/outside circle, rally coach, and 4 Down. All activities that student work is small groups or with partners to practice the skills taught to them. It is also a good way for the teacher to be able to move around and see first hand the understanding the students have of the topic. I also have been able to share my knowledge with the new common core standards. The school still used the old standards and have not switched yet. I have been able to show how to use the standards and where to gain all its information.
Last week I set two goals. The first was to go visit some other math classrooms. Due to the project I had my students doing, I did not get that chance. But I did set up a time to go visit another math classroom at a different school after my graduation. One of my childhood friends is a teacher in Crest Hill and I will be going to visit her on Tuesday, May 17th to watch how she runs her math and science classrooms at the 5th grade level. My second goal was to work on my action research. I did make some good headway this week on my action research project. I finished putting together my data and started writing my paper. I will continue to work on it this week.
This week I would like to set another goal for myself regarding the rest of my student teaching placement. I would like to be able to transition smoothly back to my cooperating teacher regaining full control of the classroom again. This week she will be taking the honor's class back while I work just with the regular class.
A great teacher is a reflective teacher. I've noticed how important it is during this placement for teachers to be reflective on each lesson they present to each class. During this placement I teach three of one class and two of another. It was nice to be able to tweak my lesson plans and reflect on how they went to improve them or change activities that would better fit with different classroom make-ups. Some days do not go as planned and it integral to be able to reflect and figure out why they didn't go as planned and if it was okay that they didn't go as planned. A teacher that is reflective shows and proves that they are a good teacher and able to fix lessons so that they are as most effective as possible. Sometimes after doing activity and can mentally note that it was excellent or that it was not effective.
As an example of a reflective moment in my placement, I think back to my lesson on surface area with the regular math students. I taught the lesson just as I had planned it and thought it would work well and that the students would have no problem. After the first class period I knew I was having troubles, when I had the students start working on some problems on their own. No one seemed to understand how surface area changed with each shape and were very confused when there were multiple steps, especially using the Pythagorean Theorem as one of those steps. I immediately knew the lesson had to go out the window and that something else had to be done. So I found as many visual aides as I possibly could around the classroom and decided to ask the paraprofessional and my cooperating teacher for help. This way we could split up the students into small groups and work with a ten or so students at a time and really try to work one-on-one with them in a small group setting. This was much more effective and the students were able to grasp the concept and learn more from that experience.
I must admit working with students with severe special needs is not a strong point for me. I have never been in a classroom yet with full inclusion. I have always been at schools where the severe students with special needs are in their own classrooms. I have been able to work with students with minor LD and BD issues and have no problems finding ways to let them move, or work with partners, or make sure they are included in class participation. I have been able to work closely with the paraprofessional on my team and she has been wonderful in showing/telling/explaining to me the special things that I can do to make learning most effective for these students. I also have the luxury of her having them one period of the day to reinforce the mathematical topics they need extra help with. I have helped create adapted tests for some LD students and understand the basics behind teaching students with minor LD and BD issues.
I have been able to share some fun new classroom group activities to check for understanding in my student teaching placement. Things like inside/outside circle, rally coach, and 4 Down. All activities that student work is small groups or with partners to practice the skills taught to them. It is also a good way for the teacher to be able to move around and see first hand the understanding the students have of the topic. I also have been able to share my knowledge with the new common core standards. The school still used the old standards and have not switched yet. I have been able to show how to use the standards and where to gain all its information.
Monday, April 18, 2011
My thoughts for the week of 4/11-4/15...
A week of review is how I felt about this past week. On Monday and Tuesday both the honors and the regular classes took their MAP tests on the computers down in the computer lab in the library. It was interesting to see how a majority of the students went up in their score. In fact, many went up by 7-16 points in their score, which is amazing! On Wednesday in both the Honors and the regular the students did a review, the Honor's in 10.5-10.8 and the regular in chapter 8. On Thursday, the Honors took their 10.5-10.8 Quiz. While with the regulars, I went over their chapter 8 study guide. On Friday, Honors charted and went over their quiz as the regular classes took their chapter 8 test. I didn't get to teach anything new this week, but it was a week of finishing up both of their chapters and testing.
Last week I set two goals. One goal was to vary my lessons with different technology. I didn't have much chance to teach anything new this week, but I felt as if the kids got a chance to use multiple facets of technology. The students used computers on their own to take the MAP test. On Wednesday with Honors we simply went over the study guide, cut-and-dry on the white board. On Friday, I used the ELMO. With the regulars on Wednesday we played a review activity. I created an activity via the Smart Board, where the students threw a Koosh ball at the Smart Board to try to open up a review question. Once the question was opened the class worked individually to solve the problem. I would randomly draw a numbered stick to see which student would give their answer and description of how they solved the problem. On Thursday we went over the study guide by simply answering each question on the white board. Hopefully, I will continue to use different types of technology as my placement continues. My second goal was to start on my electronic portfolio. Due to problems with my video, I never got a chance to start on my portfolio, but I plan to start this week.
My first goal for this week is to be able to set up some times to be able to go visit some of the other math teachers at my school and watch how they run their classrooms. I hopefully will be able to set up some times to go observe a couple other teachers during the last week or two of my placement. I am interesting how some of them run their classrooms and how they integrate technology in their classrooms. My second goal is to finish up by action research project this week/weekend.
Teachers understand the role of the community in education. Teachers should develop and maintain collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support student learning and well-being. Just this week I got to talk on the phone with one of my student's mother. It was interesting to get her take on some of the assignment and what we've been doing in class. I also have been in contact with some parents on and off throughout my placement via e-mail. I have remained in contact with the teachers on the team I am working on. Everyday the team meets and collaborates on what we are doing in the classroom, students that are struggling, school/community news, etc. The school makes it a point to keep the community involved and to reach out to them for help. In fact, currently they are busy setting up people in the community to come in and talk about their careers. I've learned the importance of staying involved with as many resources and people as possible throughout this placement. It is necessary to share ideas and thoughts. It will make the classroom more interesting and the learning increase.
Just a couple of weeks ago we had a team meeting with one of my students parents to try to get their student to be tested for disabilities. We met for nearly an hour and each teacher got to talk about how this student acted in general in their classroom. It just showed how important it is for the teachers to communicate and be aware of how certain students need help. I've been lucky to have a paraprofessional in my classroom when their are students with disabilities. She is in contact with their parents weekly and so what she and I observes gets noted and she relays onto them.
When I have my own classroom I will need to communicate with parents on my own. I know first of all, I would like to have a webpage open for parents and students to read classroom updates and homework assignments. E-mail and phone calls seem to be the majority of contact with the occasional parent-teacher conferences or meetings. I hope to be able to keep a good relationship with all my student's parents and keep them updated with what is happening in our classroom, both good and bad.
As far as Schmidt chapter 7, I loved "great teachers like the ones at the heart of the Ochoa project recognize the unlimited potential of their communities as textbook and laboratory. Uptown, downtown, huddled with the city officials, or distributing food at a local shelter, students have the opportunity to confront complex issues int he flesh. Even the simplest community outing can provide a treasure-trove of shared experiences to dissect and discuss back in the classroom." Looking back at my high school biology class. Days we spent planting in our community or days we went out and cleaned up our community are days that I remember vividly and are a lasting memory. I don't remember what chapter 8 in my biology book was about, but I remember learning about how a flower grows and then putting it into action! Hopefully, I can create some community projects to leave lasting memories in my student's minds.
Last week I set two goals. One goal was to vary my lessons with different technology. I didn't have much chance to teach anything new this week, but I felt as if the kids got a chance to use multiple facets of technology. The students used computers on their own to take the MAP test. On Wednesday with Honors we simply went over the study guide, cut-and-dry on the white board. On Friday, I used the ELMO. With the regulars on Wednesday we played a review activity. I created an activity via the Smart Board, where the students threw a Koosh ball at the Smart Board to try to open up a review question. Once the question was opened the class worked individually to solve the problem. I would randomly draw a numbered stick to see which student would give their answer and description of how they solved the problem. On Thursday we went over the study guide by simply answering each question on the white board. Hopefully, I will continue to use different types of technology as my placement continues. My second goal was to start on my electronic portfolio. Due to problems with my video, I never got a chance to start on my portfolio, but I plan to start this week.
My first goal for this week is to be able to set up some times to be able to go visit some of the other math teachers at my school and watch how they run their classrooms. I hopefully will be able to set up some times to go observe a couple other teachers during the last week or two of my placement. I am interesting how some of them run their classrooms and how they integrate technology in their classrooms. My second goal is to finish up by action research project this week/weekend.
Teachers understand the role of the community in education. Teachers should develop and maintain collaborative relationships with colleagues, parents/guardians, and the community to support student learning and well-being. Just this week I got to talk on the phone with one of my student's mother. It was interesting to get her take on some of the assignment and what we've been doing in class. I also have been in contact with some parents on and off throughout my placement via e-mail. I have remained in contact with the teachers on the team I am working on. Everyday the team meets and collaborates on what we are doing in the classroom, students that are struggling, school/community news, etc. The school makes it a point to keep the community involved and to reach out to them for help. In fact, currently they are busy setting up people in the community to come in and talk about their careers. I've learned the importance of staying involved with as many resources and people as possible throughout this placement. It is necessary to share ideas and thoughts. It will make the classroom more interesting and the learning increase.
Just a couple of weeks ago we had a team meeting with one of my students parents to try to get their student to be tested for disabilities. We met for nearly an hour and each teacher got to talk about how this student acted in general in their classroom. It just showed how important it is for the teachers to communicate and be aware of how certain students need help. I've been lucky to have a paraprofessional in my classroom when their are students with disabilities. She is in contact with their parents weekly and so what she and I observes gets noted and she relays onto them.
When I have my own classroom I will need to communicate with parents on my own. I know first of all, I would like to have a webpage open for parents and students to read classroom updates and homework assignments. E-mail and phone calls seem to be the majority of contact with the occasional parent-teacher conferences or meetings. I hope to be able to keep a good relationship with all my student's parents and keep them updated with what is happening in our classroom, both good and bad.
As far as Schmidt chapter 7, I loved "great teachers like the ones at the heart of the Ochoa project recognize the unlimited potential of their communities as textbook and laboratory. Uptown, downtown, huddled with the city officials, or distributing food at a local shelter, students have the opportunity to confront complex issues int he flesh. Even the simplest community outing can provide a treasure-trove of shared experiences to dissect and discuss back in the classroom." Looking back at my high school biology class. Days we spent planting in our community or days we went out and cleaned up our community are days that I remember vividly and are a lasting memory. I don't remember what chapter 8 in my biology book was about, but I remember learning about how a flower grows and then putting it into action! Hopefully, I can create some community projects to leave lasting memories in my student's minds.
Monday, April 11, 2011
My thoughts for the week of 4/4 - 4/8...
This week was exciting for me. I really got to see growth in the students of both the regular and honor's math classes. The student's here at my placement surprise me every day with their knowledge and spontaneity. This week in the regular math classes we got to do some fun interactive activities to apply what we've been doing with percents. On Monday, the students enjoyed playing a "sink the sub" Smart Board game where they applied what they learned with percents in 8.1-8.3. They seemed to enjoy the game and they proved to me that they were really grasping the content. On Tuesday they took notes as we went over 8.4 (Percent Increase/Decrease). They worked well with the examples and seemed to understand increase/decrease with no difficulties. On Wednesday they did an activity with 8.2-8.4 where they applied what they knew with percents to find percent increases/decreases, sale prices, and original prices of items from sales flyer's that were posted around the room. At first, they seemed confused, but guiding them one-by-one through the stations triggered their knowledge and most seemed to pick it up rather quickly. It was a matter of making them think, "does my answer make sense"? On Thursday, we did a lesson on 8.6, which was about applying discounts, commissions, tips, etc. with percents to everyday life. The students seemed to get this with ease. On Friday, they continued applying by doing partner activities where they ordered off menus from Famous Dave's, Chilli's, and Buffalo Wild Wings. Then had to add sales tax and tip. It was nice to see that most of the students got the concept fairly quickly. With Honor's we started off the week on Monday, by continuing to work with Completing the Square. Tuesday we went over loose ends with completing the square as well. Wednesday we moved onto the Quadratic Formula, we used a song from YouTube and the students had the formula memorized by the end of class and they did an excellent job applying it. On Thursday they played math baseball using quadratic formula questions, which they proved to me they understood well. Any errors they made were minor mathematical errors not formula errors. On Friday, we talked about discriminants and how b (squared) - 4ac would tell them how many solutions each equation would have! They got this with ease and many finished their homework right in class with the time given at the end of class.
Last week I made two goals. One was to come up with ways of using multiple assessment. In my regular class the students got formal grades on a concept poster (graphic organizer), daily problems, workbook and worksheet pages, and two different activities we did in class. Informally, I was able to assess them by looking at how well they grasped the concept in class discussion and a class game. These multiple assessment were able to reach learners of all types and hopefully let the students grasp and grow from what we learned. The second goal I made was to research and plan some fun ways to teach Honor's the quadratic formula. I think they enjoyed it and understood the concept well. I used a song to teach them the actual formula and multiple examples on day 1. On day 2 we reinforced the topic by playing math baseball, which most of the students seemed to enjoy and stay involved with. They got to through a soft ball at the Smart Board while they were up at bat. Then as a group solved math problems and I drew sticks to see who would answer the questions. If a team got it wrong the opposing team got a chance to answer for a point.
This week my goal is to try to make sure I am varying my lessons enough with technology. Using the Smart Board for interactive lessons everyday will get old to the students. That's why it's important to change up what goes on in the everyday classroom. My second goal is to start finishing up my online portfolio. I feel like I'm behind on what needs to be done by the end of the semester.
The competent teacher will have, and continually develop, the knowledge and skills in learning technologies to be able to appropriately and responsibly use tools, resources, processes, and systems to retrieve, assess and evaluate information from various media. Coming into this placement I was familiar with some exposure to Smart Boards and I was very versed in using the computer and it's programs, specifically PowerPoint. While at my placement I have applied my knowledge with PowerPoint often for the students. I have also become a lot more comfortable with the Smart Board and what it offers. I would love to take a class on it at some point and become even more well versed with this incredible technology. I was also able to use and become comfortable with the ELMO. This technology allowed me to teach facing the students writing down on a piece of paper that is displayed on the whiteboard. Students really enjoy technology and really relate to it well. They are always interested when technology is used. I can see how important it is to switch up the technology use often. If a PowerPoint is used everyday it is boring, but once a week is fun and new for the students.
PowerPoint, the ELMO, the Smart Board both for notes and games, math stations, geometric solids, menus, sales adds, literature, etc. these are all things I have used to hopefully teach and keep the attention of the students at my placement. I hope that by me using these tools they have learned from these experiences as much, if not more, than I have.
I hope to continually use technology and grow with my capabilities as the years go on. Everyday technology gets better and better and to be effective, I believe I need to continue to learn more and more about what is capable with technology to be able to be used in my classroom.
Last week I made two goals. One was to come up with ways of using multiple assessment. In my regular class the students got formal grades on a concept poster (graphic organizer), daily problems, workbook and worksheet pages, and two different activities we did in class. Informally, I was able to assess them by looking at how well they grasped the concept in class discussion and a class game. These multiple assessment were able to reach learners of all types and hopefully let the students grasp and grow from what we learned. The second goal I made was to research and plan some fun ways to teach Honor's the quadratic formula. I think they enjoyed it and understood the concept well. I used a song to teach them the actual formula and multiple examples on day 1. On day 2 we reinforced the topic by playing math baseball, which most of the students seemed to enjoy and stay involved with. They got to through a soft ball at the Smart Board while they were up at bat. Then as a group solved math problems and I drew sticks to see who would answer the questions. If a team got it wrong the opposing team got a chance to answer for a point.
This week my goal is to try to make sure I am varying my lessons enough with technology. Using the Smart Board for interactive lessons everyday will get old to the students. That's why it's important to change up what goes on in the everyday classroom. My second goal is to start finishing up my online portfolio. I feel like I'm behind on what needs to be done by the end of the semester.
The competent teacher will have, and continually develop, the knowledge and skills in learning technologies to be able to appropriately and responsibly use tools, resources, processes, and systems to retrieve, assess and evaluate information from various media. Coming into this placement I was familiar with some exposure to Smart Boards and I was very versed in using the computer and it's programs, specifically PowerPoint. While at my placement I have applied my knowledge with PowerPoint often for the students. I have also become a lot more comfortable with the Smart Board and what it offers. I would love to take a class on it at some point and become even more well versed with this incredible technology. I was also able to use and become comfortable with the ELMO. This technology allowed me to teach facing the students writing down on a piece of paper that is displayed on the whiteboard. Students really enjoy technology and really relate to it well. They are always interested when technology is used. I can see how important it is to switch up the technology use often. If a PowerPoint is used everyday it is boring, but once a week is fun and new for the students.
PowerPoint, the ELMO, the Smart Board both for notes and games, math stations, geometric solids, menus, sales adds, literature, etc. these are all things I have used to hopefully teach and keep the attention of the students at my placement. I hope that by me using these tools they have learned from these experiences as much, if not more, than I have.
I hope to continually use technology and grow with my capabilities as the years go on. Everyday technology gets better and better and to be effective, I believe I need to continue to learn more and more about what is capable with technology to be able to be used in my classroom.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
My thoughts for the week of 3/28 - 4/1...
This week was very challenging for many of the students, specifically the Honor's students. They already spent a chapter learning factoring, but their factoring skills are rather week. This week we learned how to solve quadratics by factoring. We also began learning how to solve quadratics by completing the square. the first day we looked at this the students walked out of class confused and stressed. Although they only had four problems assigned just figuring out how to solve c. I am so glad that for my action research I have the online homework blog set-up. This allowed me to post our class' SmartBoard notes and encourage them through this difficult topic for them. One of the classes got through multiple example the second day and they they seemed much more comfortable with solving by completing the square. As for the regular classes, they were working on percents. The topic isn't to difficult for them, because they have spent time in both sixth and seventh grade with percents. It's just a matter of figuring out their equation to use for solving. They use a method I never used, but I found intriguing and they seem to understand it well, is over of equals percent over 100.
Last week I set two goals for myself. One, was to try to put an emphasis on the students being well-rounded. I believe I accomplished this by including lots of real life situations into my lessons. Not only were the examples relatable to the student's present lives, but more importantly their future. I also made sure I included a couple days of partner and group work to reinforce what they have been learning in class, regarding percents. People were put in partners/groups of people they wouldn't typically hand-pick. I made it clear that sometimes in life we will have to work with people we don't necessarily agree with, but we need to make sure we can work appropriately together. The students did a very nice job with this. The second goal I made was to plan plenty of activities for chapter 8. First of all, I am ahead of schedule. But more importantly, the students need to have a firm grasp on the concept of percents. I planned two days last week where the students worked in partners and groups on worksheets. Once they simply did the all the worksheet assigned. Another time, partners solved one problem then wrote their solution and how they got it on mini white boards and explained them to the class. Another time, they had a competition of who could solve a group of problems in a group the fastest while being correct. If even one was wrong they had to go back and figure which one(s) were wrong as a group and fix it.
Having to set a couple goals for this coming week I choose to make a goal of using multiple types of assessment for the students. I am going to look at my regular math classes and hope to do several forms of assessment with them. They will still have their daily problems, which will be scored for the week, they have a couple nights of regular worksheet homework. I also plan to have them make a concept poster as an assignment. Finally, they will have an assignment of using percents by ordering off menus then figuring out coupons, tax, and tip. This is something people use everyday, which hopefully they will enjoy. A second goal for myself this week is to get through the Honor's class with finishing up learning about solving by completing the square and then learning how to solve by the quadratic formula. I am researching some techniques to teaching this currently so I want to make sure I come up with some fun things that will let them remember how to do solve with these two methods.
Competent teachers should understand various formal and informal assessment strategies and be able to use them to support the continuous development of their students. I personally hate the stigmatism that some people believe that "they are just not good at math". I believe that all students can do math. One reason I think many students check out of math after elementary school is because they get bored with how math is taught. No one wants to sit in class all day take notes then go home and do math homework for an hour or so. By using different methods of assessment and coming up with fun and exciting ways to use math is a critical part, for me, of becoming a math teacher. Hopefully, I can break some students of this stigmatism and let them really enjoy math. Activities and projects are just some of the fun informal and formal ways of making math fun. If teachers would let students use their creative talents more, I think math would be more fun for many students. That's where the idea of the concept poster came for this coming week. Last week the honors worked in groups with "math eggs". I simply had an easter basket full of easter eggs with math problems in them. They seemed to enjoy this review activity. With the SmartBoard I was able to include a simple memory game at the end to check for understanding informally with the regular math classes. These are just a few of my recent ideas.
My cooperating teacher has been more than willing to let me try any activities that I want with the students, plus she has been a plethora of information and activities to me. The menu activity for this coming week is from another of her past student teachers, it just has been updated now recently. My placement has been a great way to show me the opportunities I have now and in the future to work with the kids in all sorts of different ways. In my placement, I have been lucky to have a paraprofessional in the room with me when I have students that are on IEP's. She has been wonderful. I have not been lenient on them in any way. I call on them all the time to help me solve in class problems and examples. I can pick-up easily on how well they are understanding things and I am blessed to have a paraprofessional who is competent and goes back the next morning and confirms and reemphasizes what we did in class with the students.
Some times time affects student learning. For instance, this week with completing the square. In my honor's classes the first day of this topic I couldn't even get through one full example because of all the questions. Then we ended up running out of time and I felt bad that the students had to leave class confused. The next day we worked more and it ended up being successful, but it was frustrating to me that the students were frustrated because of lack of time to finish what we started. I was at a loss, I didn't not want to answer questions, but at the same time needed to get through examples. It was a hard call on my part, but it ended up working out!
Monday, March 21, 2011
My weekly thoughs for 3/14-3/18
This week was interesting and full of grading. The kids were so excited about spring break and many were leaving early for family vacations. It took a lot of work on my part to prepare for the week. On Monday I gave every one of my students a spring break survey, asking if they planned on being at school the entire week. If they did not, they had to write what days they would not be at school. Both the regular and honors finished the last section of their chapters on Monday. Tuesday was spent on review for both classes. Wednesday was a field trip. As a team we went to Governer's State University to see the Chicago Shakespearian actors perform Macbeth. Although many of the kids seemed to use it as a nap period, I thought the play was excellent! The actors used tons of expression so it was easy to understand what was going on. More importantly, going to a Shakesperian play isn't a common thing for these 8th graders. This was a unique experience for them and hopefully at least some of them enjoyed it and understood Macbeth better. They didn't read it in language arts, but they supposedly read it their freshman year for the majority that plan to go on to the local public high school. This exposure hopefully with help them. Thursday and Friday for the regular students were days of the chapter 4 assessment. They were working in groups of two or three and creating several of the graphs we learned in the chapter. For those students who couldn't be there both days, they took a written test for chapter 4. Thursday was a review game for honors dealing with chapter 10 on quadratics. On Friday, they took their quiz. Once agian, those spring break surveys came in handy. The students who left early took the quiz early before they left. It was a lot of organization, but in the end it worked out. I only had three people who need to take the test yet.
Last week I set two goals: one was to make sure I had myself organized for all the tests and quizzes happening this week. I ended up being very organized and it worked out for the benefit of the students. My second goal was to incorporate more critical thinking this week. I added a component of thinking into each of my lesson plans. The one example that really surprised me and I really enjoyed was on my scatter plot lesson. I had the students think about what two things (pieces of data) would form positive, negative, and no correlations between them. The students did an excellent job and were very creative with ideas. I had answers ranging from amount of gas put in a car and amount of money spent on gas for positive relationships all the way to the Chicago Bulls winning record and the Miami Heat winning record for a negative correlation. They were creative and could compare things that interested them. I also made them think and write down how line graphs and scatter plots were different. I had some very nice insightful responses as we shared in class.
This week I need to make two goals for the following week (spring break is in between). My first goal is to put emphasis on the students being well-rounded. I think that this is good for the student's well-being and they need to learn life is more than school, or friends, or sports. They need to understand what well-rounded is and how that benefits them. A second goal is to make sure I'm ready with lots of activities for chapter 8 on percents.
A competent teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve students' learning and well-being. At my placement I have seen and heard so much more than I realized was going on in the minds and lives of 8th graders. I realize that my Christian family and private schooling has put me in a "bubble" in many ways. I didn't realize how many broken families these students have, how many cries for attention that these kids make, and the overwhelming amount of time students put into being "popular". These things were around to a small degree in my Christian schooling and life, but not the extent that I see in the public school setting. These "naughty" kids are usually from broken families and are screaming for attention, positive or negative. I have tried to connect with all my students in a professional way by talking before and inbetween classes about whatever interests each student, by going to their sporting events, and by listening to whatever they may be trying to tell me. This is the coolest and most rewarding part, for me, about becoming a teacher. It is saddening but rewarding all at the same time. I realized, yes, I need to teach, but more importantly I want to impact.
Impacting needs to be done at a professional level following all the state and school guidelines, which sometimes can seem to get in the way. I realize they are there for the safety not only of the students and their families, but also myself. I have had to avoid many words with parents and students to remain professional. It can be hard at times to not just speak my mind, but in the long run, I think that sugar-coating things will benefit more. ISAT week was huge on avoiding legal issues, but I got through it.
To my Seminar Instructor, the coolest thing about social justice is that it is teaching our students more than just knowledge from a textbook, but more importantly it is life skills that they will need. Sometimes it's holding students accountable, not accepting the late work, etc. that will teach them the most valuable lessons for life skills. I really enjoyed Schmidt's commentary on waking students up and explaining what students learn from social justice. Going back to what I wrote earlier, I want to impact kids. Things like personal convictions, their own abilities, belief in their own power to make differences are things that need to be taught to students, but in a way that teaches through social justice issues not from a textbook.
Last week I set two goals: one was to make sure I had myself organized for all the tests and quizzes happening this week. I ended up being very organized and it worked out for the benefit of the students. My second goal was to incorporate more critical thinking this week. I added a component of thinking into each of my lesson plans. The one example that really surprised me and I really enjoyed was on my scatter plot lesson. I had the students think about what two things (pieces of data) would form positive, negative, and no correlations between them. The students did an excellent job and were very creative with ideas. I had answers ranging from amount of gas put in a car and amount of money spent on gas for positive relationships all the way to the Chicago Bulls winning record and the Miami Heat winning record for a negative correlation. They were creative and could compare things that interested them. I also made them think and write down how line graphs and scatter plots were different. I had some very nice insightful responses as we shared in class.
This week I need to make two goals for the following week (spring break is in between). My first goal is to put emphasis on the students being well-rounded. I think that this is good for the student's well-being and they need to learn life is more than school, or friends, or sports. They need to understand what well-rounded is and how that benefits them. A second goal is to make sure I'm ready with lots of activities for chapter 8 on percents.
A competent teacher understands education as a profession, maintains standards of professional conduct, and provides leadership to improve students' learning and well-being. At my placement I have seen and heard so much more than I realized was going on in the minds and lives of 8th graders. I realize that my Christian family and private schooling has put me in a "bubble" in many ways. I didn't realize how many broken families these students have, how many cries for attention that these kids make, and the overwhelming amount of time students put into being "popular". These things were around to a small degree in my Christian schooling and life, but not the extent that I see in the public school setting. These "naughty" kids are usually from broken families and are screaming for attention, positive or negative. I have tried to connect with all my students in a professional way by talking before and inbetween classes about whatever interests each student, by going to their sporting events, and by listening to whatever they may be trying to tell me. This is the coolest and most rewarding part, for me, about becoming a teacher. It is saddening but rewarding all at the same time. I realized, yes, I need to teach, but more importantly I want to impact.
Impacting needs to be done at a professional level following all the state and school guidelines, which sometimes can seem to get in the way. I realize they are there for the safety not only of the students and their families, but also myself. I have had to avoid many words with parents and students to remain professional. It can be hard at times to not just speak my mind, but in the long run, I think that sugar-coating things will benefit more. ISAT week was huge on avoiding legal issues, but I got through it.
To my Seminar Instructor, the coolest thing about social justice is that it is teaching our students more than just knowledge from a textbook, but more importantly it is life skills that they will need. Sometimes it's holding students accountable, not accepting the late work, etc. that will teach them the most valuable lessons for life skills. I really enjoyed Schmidt's commentary on waking students up and explaining what students learn from social justice. Going back to what I wrote earlier, I want to impact kids. Things like personal convictions, their own abilities, belief in their own power to make differences are things that need to be taught to students, but in a way that teaches through social justice issues not from a textbook.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
My thoughts for the week of 3/8 - 3/11 (Week 10)
This past week was truly a week of positives for me. The past couple weeks I feel like my classroom management was slipping. I took it upon myself to try to be more stern, in fact I used the school's "step" system this week like I've never used it before. I handed out close to 15 steps to students this week for shouting out. I know I like a very interactive classroom, but I felt that the students were getting away from me. After talking with my cooperating teacher and other teachers on the team I found that I have not been slipping on my classroom management, but was reassured that it is just this years make-up of students. I plan to continue to hit the students hard with their "step" program. I feel like a handful of students just don't really care.
Another positive for me this week was getting deeply involved with one of the school's psychologists who has been working closely with one of the students I have everyday. He has made a plan that has been in place over the last few weeks to try to better this students behavior. This student is known for blatant shout-outs, rudeness with teachers, saying sexually harassing comments, saying racist comments, and overall just struggles with bad behavior. Over the past few weeks he has to come to every teacher at the end of the class and they fill out a four question survey about the student's behavior by answering yes or no (yes's being good). Although he is getting many yes's I still felt like his behavior in my class was not improving. Later to find out that other teachers agreed that he was not improving. For some reason he was still getting a majority of yes's on his sheet and his father was rewarding him for all his yes's. At one of the team meetings where the psychologist was at with our team, I brought up the very fact that this student's sheet needs to be changed. One question the sheet asked was if he used any racial/anti-semetical comments. Since this doesn't occur everyday or maybe he has improved in this category it was getting yes's. And since they pulled him from language and have him working like a study hall with the school psychologist for a period he was getting his homework done and coming to class, which gave him another yes. Since there were only four questions he was getting an astounding 50% of his points right off the bat every day. Getting 50% of his points and being rewarded still wasn't changing his shout-out problems or his problem of staying on-task in class. I fought hard with the psychologist to get his sheet changed so that he has to work harder to be rewarded. To my surprise, the other teachers all agreed. The psychologist, not so much, but since all of us teachers were pushing for it now, he had to change the sheet. Next week will start a new behavior sheet so we will see how it goes. This kid is very bright and finds ways to get around anything he can. For instance, if the sheet said, 'does not shout out in class', he may try not to, but instead would be using non-verbal motions and expressions to get the students to notice him and get them off-track. I know I get the raw end of the deal, because I have him 7th period, which is his last period of the day before he goes to his study hall with the psychologist. He is smart enough to know if he is good enough during the day that he can loose points with me and still have enough points to be rewarded by his father! Any way, I feel like I've been empowered through this situation and respected by the other teachers for standing up to the school psychologist and trying to get something done to benefit not only our classrooms, but more importantly this student. This student scares me a bit. He wrote an essay about what he wants to be in life and the paper was about wanting to be a terrorist. I don't know if the kid is just screaming for attention in any way possible or what?
Besides these issues I felt like the classroom was positively a week of growth for the students. With the regular classes we went over bar graphs, histograms, frequency tables, and line graphs on Tuesday and Wednesday. The students proved to be that although they are not artists they definitely understood the concepts of graphing. On Thursday we had fun as a group discussing how graphs and statistics can be misleading and talked about seeing misleading graphs and statistics through advertisement all around us. Then on Friday, I had them do a fun review activity with dice. They had to roll two dice to get the sum thirty times. Then find the mean, median, mode, and range. Then make a frequency table of their findings. Finally, they got to choose two graphs to make to display their data: stem-and-leaf plot, box-and-whisker plot, bar graph, or histogram. With honors we worked for a few days on how to solve for the x-value, vertex, points on the parabola, and reflection points with functions that are in the quadratic form. Finally they had to graph them and shade them if they were inequalities. The students really struggled with this concept so I had to extend an extra day of practice for them on the subject. I am confident that the majority really grasped this concept by the end, which was rewarding, because after Tuesday and Wednesday I was a bit nervous that they would never understand it. But they got it! On Friday we moved on to solving and estimating square roots so that on Monday I can move to solving quadratic functions by using square roots. Next week, will be interesting I know a lot of students are leaving early for spring break and we have tests for the regulars and honors next Thursday and Friday. Students will be taking them early if they are leaving early.
An effective teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional techniques that encourage students to develop critical thinking and problem solving. I am a teacher who often uses word problems, which both make the students use their critical thinking and problem solving skills. I try to throw a word problem in most of my lessons and in the students homework if at all possible. Life to me is about thinking critically and solving problems, so these students should be practicing and perfecting these skills. In this placement, it can be frustrating because to my knowledge the sixth grade math teachers do not require them to do word problems, they just tell them to try them. This is so sad in my opinion, the word problems are the most applicable to life. In real life someone is not going to ask what's 10 x 12. When your carpeting your floor and your room is ten feet by 12 feet you need to buy carpet that is 10 x 12 or 120 square feet. Just this week alone in my class with, I had the students reading word problem type information and they had to pick out the important information and graph what was necessary. This uses their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Then they needed to be able to read the graphs and decode what they meant. As I have said in the past, I am lucky to have a para-professional in my room with all my LD and BD students. There isn't that many, but she makes sure she is floating in the room to help them out. Many of them seem to pick up the concepts they just want reassurance as they start to work on their own. I try to do multiple examples to give them different situations. She also gets to have them for one period a day to re-hit anything they struggle with. Math is one they do often, since it is a testable subject and usually a problem area for LD and BD students.
I feared my Thursday lesson the most with my regular students, which was about misleading graphs and statistics. It ended up being one of my favorites. The students seemed to really respond and like it. What I did was just put up on the ELMO multiple examples of misleading graphs and statistics. As a class we would silently look at the graph or statistic then talk about how we thought they were misleading. I was pleasantly surprised by many of their answers. They thought of truthful things that I didn't even think about. As a class they were on their own to right some examples of what could be misleading about graphs in their notes. At the end they came up with on their own, that statistics need to be read word for word, considering each word to find where companies try to mislead the general public. I was very pleased, for the most part, how well they acted and more importantly how they responded. They loved to be "detectives" and find where we were being misled. This made them use critical thinking the entire lesson. Some finds were bigger and more important, while others were interesting and thought provoking. When someone commented on something unimportant I would guide the students back into their thoughts by saying something like, "hmmm...that's interesting I didn't think about that, very nice observation, but is there anything bigger in this graph (statement) that is trying to mislead us in some way?" This seemed to work well with the students.
With the honors students this week they struggled a lot with the concepts of pulling apart quadratic functions to find useful information to graph it. I thought this lesson would be a breeze for them, but it wasn't. It required a lot of patience not only from me to deal with their struggling, but patience from the students to stick with it until they understood it. I tried with all my might on Wednesday to go over multiple examples. I repeated myself over and over with both the same wording and different wording to get the students on board. By the end of Wednesday, I think 75% of the students got it, which was much better than Tuesday were I think 75% were confused. I wanted to give them all a chance to practice and to try to catch the other 25% so on Thursday instead of moving on, I spent the entire period going over the homework problems and then going over some more examples of the same types of problems. Then gave them another assignment doing the same type of problems that I wrote out by hand. On Friday, the students showed me that 98% of them totally understood this concept. I pulled one of the two students aside after class who didn't quite grab it yet and we worked for a few moment together to reinforce him. I hope it helped. Instead of using book examples, I went with their homework examples because it meant something to the students to really understand their homework and get it done. I also had to re-word and repeated often to make them understand. Then finally throw-out my schedule and use and extra day to go over it again. This seemed to work with them and I am now confident that they understand it.
My hook and hold methods are becoming repetitive. I've been looking online for some new ideas. I love stories, pictures, questioning the students as ways to hook and hold them. The anticipatory set is huge I'm always open to learning and using new methods. Looking online at lesson plans often gives some helpful insight for anticipatory sets.
One goal last week was to get ahead on some class stuff. I did finish a couple of things, but didn't get done as much as I wanted, so hopefully spring break will let me catch up on some things. My other goal was to work with the para-professional and start coming up with ideas for the chapter four group test for the regular students and to start grouping them together. We sat down a day this week and grouped the students in groups of threes. We will have to edit this week as we find out which students are leaving early for spring break. We also have edited an older version of the group test to better fit our needs and have added a component of rating their group members as well.
For this coming week I would like to set my first goal as getting things together nicely for those students leaving early and to prepare myself as multiple students will be testing multiple days this week in order to include this test in everyone's last grade for the quarter. My second goal is to make sure I include components of critical thinking and problem solving in every lesson I create for the week.
I look forward to the week ahead...
Another positive for me this week was getting deeply involved with one of the school's psychologists who has been working closely with one of the students I have everyday. He has made a plan that has been in place over the last few weeks to try to better this students behavior. This student is known for blatant shout-outs, rudeness with teachers, saying sexually harassing comments, saying racist comments, and overall just struggles with bad behavior. Over the past few weeks he has to come to every teacher at the end of the class and they fill out a four question survey about the student's behavior by answering yes or no (yes's being good). Although he is getting many yes's I still felt like his behavior in my class was not improving. Later to find out that other teachers agreed that he was not improving. For some reason he was still getting a majority of yes's on his sheet and his father was rewarding him for all his yes's. At one of the team meetings where the psychologist was at with our team, I brought up the very fact that this student's sheet needs to be changed. One question the sheet asked was if he used any racial/anti-semetical comments. Since this doesn't occur everyday or maybe he has improved in this category it was getting yes's. And since they pulled him from language and have him working like a study hall with the school psychologist for a period he was getting his homework done and coming to class, which gave him another yes. Since there were only four questions he was getting an astounding 50% of his points right off the bat every day. Getting 50% of his points and being rewarded still wasn't changing his shout-out problems or his problem of staying on-task in class. I fought hard with the psychologist to get his sheet changed so that he has to work harder to be rewarded. To my surprise, the other teachers all agreed. The psychologist, not so much, but since all of us teachers were pushing for it now, he had to change the sheet. Next week will start a new behavior sheet so we will see how it goes. This kid is very bright and finds ways to get around anything he can. For instance, if the sheet said, 'does not shout out in class', he may try not to, but instead would be using non-verbal motions and expressions to get the students to notice him and get them off-track. I know I get the raw end of the deal, because I have him 7th period, which is his last period of the day before he goes to his study hall with the psychologist. He is smart enough to know if he is good enough during the day that he can loose points with me and still have enough points to be rewarded by his father! Any way, I feel like I've been empowered through this situation and respected by the other teachers for standing up to the school psychologist and trying to get something done to benefit not only our classrooms, but more importantly this student. This student scares me a bit. He wrote an essay about what he wants to be in life and the paper was about wanting to be a terrorist. I don't know if the kid is just screaming for attention in any way possible or what?
Besides these issues I felt like the classroom was positively a week of growth for the students. With the regular classes we went over bar graphs, histograms, frequency tables, and line graphs on Tuesday and Wednesday. The students proved to be that although they are not artists they definitely understood the concepts of graphing. On Thursday we had fun as a group discussing how graphs and statistics can be misleading and talked about seeing misleading graphs and statistics through advertisement all around us. Then on Friday, I had them do a fun review activity with dice. They had to roll two dice to get the sum thirty times. Then find the mean, median, mode, and range. Then make a frequency table of their findings. Finally, they got to choose two graphs to make to display their data: stem-and-leaf plot, box-and-whisker plot, bar graph, or histogram. With honors we worked for a few days on how to solve for the x-value, vertex, points on the parabola, and reflection points with functions that are in the quadratic form. Finally they had to graph them and shade them if they were inequalities. The students really struggled with this concept so I had to extend an extra day of practice for them on the subject. I am confident that the majority really grasped this concept by the end, which was rewarding, because after Tuesday and Wednesday I was a bit nervous that they would never understand it. But they got it! On Friday we moved on to solving and estimating square roots so that on Monday I can move to solving quadratic functions by using square roots. Next week, will be interesting I know a lot of students are leaving early for spring break and we have tests for the regulars and honors next Thursday and Friday. Students will be taking them early if they are leaving early.
An effective teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional techniques that encourage students to develop critical thinking and problem solving. I am a teacher who often uses word problems, which both make the students use their critical thinking and problem solving skills. I try to throw a word problem in most of my lessons and in the students homework if at all possible. Life to me is about thinking critically and solving problems, so these students should be practicing and perfecting these skills. In this placement, it can be frustrating because to my knowledge the sixth grade math teachers do not require them to do word problems, they just tell them to try them. This is so sad in my opinion, the word problems are the most applicable to life. In real life someone is not going to ask what's 10 x 12. When your carpeting your floor and your room is ten feet by 12 feet you need to buy carpet that is 10 x 12 or 120 square feet. Just this week alone in my class with, I had the students reading word problem type information and they had to pick out the important information and graph what was necessary. This uses their critical thinking and problem solving skills. Then they needed to be able to read the graphs and decode what they meant. As I have said in the past, I am lucky to have a para-professional in my room with all my LD and BD students. There isn't that many, but she makes sure she is floating in the room to help them out. Many of them seem to pick up the concepts they just want reassurance as they start to work on their own. I try to do multiple examples to give them different situations. She also gets to have them for one period a day to re-hit anything they struggle with. Math is one they do often, since it is a testable subject and usually a problem area for LD and BD students.
I feared my Thursday lesson the most with my regular students, which was about misleading graphs and statistics. It ended up being one of my favorites. The students seemed to really respond and like it. What I did was just put up on the ELMO multiple examples of misleading graphs and statistics. As a class we would silently look at the graph or statistic then talk about how we thought they were misleading. I was pleasantly surprised by many of their answers. They thought of truthful things that I didn't even think about. As a class they were on their own to right some examples of what could be misleading about graphs in their notes. At the end they came up with on their own, that statistics need to be read word for word, considering each word to find where companies try to mislead the general public. I was very pleased, for the most part, how well they acted and more importantly how they responded. They loved to be "detectives" and find where we were being misled. This made them use critical thinking the entire lesson. Some finds were bigger and more important, while others were interesting and thought provoking. When someone commented on something unimportant I would guide the students back into their thoughts by saying something like, "hmmm...that's interesting I didn't think about that, very nice observation, but is there anything bigger in this graph (statement) that is trying to mislead us in some way?" This seemed to work well with the students.
With the honors students this week they struggled a lot with the concepts of pulling apart quadratic functions to find useful information to graph it. I thought this lesson would be a breeze for them, but it wasn't. It required a lot of patience not only from me to deal with their struggling, but patience from the students to stick with it until they understood it. I tried with all my might on Wednesday to go over multiple examples. I repeated myself over and over with both the same wording and different wording to get the students on board. By the end of Wednesday, I think 75% of the students got it, which was much better than Tuesday were I think 75% were confused. I wanted to give them all a chance to practice and to try to catch the other 25% so on Thursday instead of moving on, I spent the entire period going over the homework problems and then going over some more examples of the same types of problems. Then gave them another assignment doing the same type of problems that I wrote out by hand. On Friday, the students showed me that 98% of them totally understood this concept. I pulled one of the two students aside after class who didn't quite grab it yet and we worked for a few moment together to reinforce him. I hope it helped. Instead of using book examples, I went with their homework examples because it meant something to the students to really understand their homework and get it done. I also had to re-word and repeated often to make them understand. Then finally throw-out my schedule and use and extra day to go over it again. This seemed to work with them and I am now confident that they understand it.
My hook and hold methods are becoming repetitive. I've been looking online for some new ideas. I love stories, pictures, questioning the students as ways to hook and hold them. The anticipatory set is huge I'm always open to learning and using new methods. Looking online at lesson plans often gives some helpful insight for anticipatory sets.
One goal last week was to get ahead on some class stuff. I did finish a couple of things, but didn't get done as much as I wanted, so hopefully spring break will let me catch up on some things. My other goal was to work with the para-professional and start coming up with ideas for the chapter four group test for the regular students and to start grouping them together. We sat down a day this week and grouped the students in groups of threes. We will have to edit this week as we find out which students are leaving early for spring break. We also have edited an older version of the group test to better fit our needs and have added a component of rating their group members as well.
For this coming week I would like to set my first goal as getting things together nicely for those students leaving early and to prepare myself as multiple students will be testing multiple days this week in order to include this test in everyone's last grade for the quarter. My second goal is to make sure I include components of critical thinking and problem solving in every lesson I create for the week.
I look forward to the week ahead...
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