It's been QUITE a while...

Well, once student teaching got in to full swing, it was VERY hard to keep this updated. I've had so much lesson planning, worksheet making, and sleep to catch up on! I have been taking notes in my notebook, though, during student teaching, so this weekend or whenever I get free time I plan to get back on here and do some updates. Of course, they will say the date of the day I post, but I will make sure to include the date that the event I'm talking about happened.

I can't believe I've slacked so much on this! I love to write things down so that I can remember them, but I just have not had time to do this over mandatory things I have to turn in. At least this blog will be up-to-date soon!

The one day of school this week...

Due to snow, Montgomery County has only been open one day this week (in fact, they cancelled school for today around 5 p.m. yesterday before the snow even started!). I did get to go to school yesterday on a two-hour delay. I learned that teachers only get a one-hour delay, so that was something new to me. Anyway, here are a few observations.

Scheduling

Krista and I were talking on the ride home, and we agreed that the two-hour delay schedule is PERFECT for our school. The classes were an hour long each, and the students were actually busy the whole time. Normally, in the 90-minute classes, the last twenty or thirty minutes are just a complete waste of time as either the students finish their work fast and nothing else is planned, or the students have just checked out for the day. But, on the schedule yesterday, the teachers had enough planned and the students were on task the whole time. I wish every day was scheduled like that!

Distractions

I've noticed that particular students will just keep asking me questions to keep from doing work. I do my best to not answer their questions and encourage them to do work, but it's kind of hard when that's all they're doing. I think one way to avoid this would have been for me to take five minutes at the beginning of class to introduce myself and for them to ask me (appropriate) questions then if they wanted. My CT didn't do this, though, and I think I'm just more of a distraction in class because of it. Hopefully this trend will die down, especially when I'm teaching!

Intro to Sec. Math Class

On Thursday, the Intro. to Secondary Math class had a worksheet about subtracting whole numbers to complete. The front side involved no "borrowing," and the back side was all "borrowing" problems. I worked with one student on this worksheet who had problems doing 8-7 without counting on his fingers. I suggested that he draw 8 objects and take away 7 of them (there were no counters of any kind in her classroom...). It seemed to work with him, and he used that method when he needed to throughout the front side. When we got to the back of the worksheet, I showed him the "borrowing" method with base-ten block drawings (again, no base-ten blocks in the classroom). I had him model the first number of the subtraction problem, try to take away the number of ones in the second number, realize he couldn't, trade one ten for ten ones, and then complete the problem from there. He said that method helped him to see it better, and I told him I would actually bring some base-ten blocks in for us to work with the next day they have school (whenever that may be). I felt pretty proud of myself because I actually used something I learned in a class (Elem. and Middle Math) to help a student! I think this class will be a great outlet for those activities, as a lot of the topics they will be covering are actually the same topics we talked about in that class. Should be a fun time, and I can't wait to get started with that class!

Snow day problems

The problem with missing three days of school in a row (especially a Monday-Wednesday) is that students do not remember what happened on Friday. In the Algebra I, Part 2 classes on Friday, the students reviewed for a quiz they would have coming up on slope-intercept form and writing equations of lines. When they came back on Thursday, they started to finish their review sheet, and my CT pretty much had to reteach the entire thing. She told them they would have a quiz on the material the next day they had school, but I really doubt the students will remember anything, let alone study, for this quiz. As cool as it is to get off of school for a day, it really hurts the learning process and makes planning difficult as well.

Snow Days

One of the benefits of teaching is snow days! But, when you are a student teacher, snow days are not too great. My first day at Eastern Montgomery High School was on Friday but have not been back since due to the 10+ inches of snow we got this weekend. While one or two days off is nice, I need to get back in to the schools! Anywhere, here are some reflections on my first day.

Intro to Sec. Math/Personal Living and Finance

Mrs. Ratliff's first period is a remedial math class where they talk about business and finance, too. On Friday, we played the game Life and let other students catch up on work. I helped one group of students with the rules and how to play the game. First off, I was very surprised that no one had played the board game before. That was quite a staple in my childhood, but I guess these families didn't play a lot of board games together. Second, many of the students could not make change or figure out how much they got if they passed two paydays. I can tell that I will have a lot of work to do with this class, but I'll have a lot of fun coming up with some fun activities and tasks for them to do in class!

Algebra I, Part 2

Mrs. Ratliff has two Algebra I Part 2 classes. A few of the students are the same from last semester, but some of the students in Part 1 had failed. There are also students in both classes that took Algebra I Part I in last year, so they are having problems recalling the information they learned. A lot of the students are really disrespectful, so I'll have to establish myself as an authority figure so that they will respect me. The way they were treating Mrs. Ratliff on Friday is not how they should be behaving, and I will not put up with it!

Planning

Planning is fourth block, which makes the end of the day come really slow. We talked about what I would be teaching, and my first unit is on polynomials and factoring. I'm pretty excited about it, because I loved that stuff when I learned it and it'll be a challenge for me. I can use some manipulatives that I've learned about, and hopefully I'll get a good variety of types of lessons to practice. I guess the hardest part will just be where to start!

Overall, it was an interesting but fun first day. I have my work cut out for me, but I am ready for the challenge and excited to do so!

Assessment Standards and Practice

Well, it's been quite a while since I updated this! I've started my final semester as a student (so crazy!) and actually begin going to my student teaching assignment tomorrow. But, in class today, we talked about assessment and I learned some interesting things

Standards

We discussed the NCTM Standards that were outlined in the 1995 document addressing assessment. There are 6 standards, and I found the openness one very interesting. The standards say that the assessment process should be open in all aspects: students should know what they are being assessed about, teachers should know what students expect, students should know how they're doing in the class and receive feedback about what they have done. It's interesting that this is a standard because too often teachers give tests without any indication of what they're actually assessing. As a teacher, I will do my best to uphold this openness standards. It's very important for students to know what they're being assessed on and know how they're doing in the mathematics classroom.

Assessment Task

We looked at a task that was given to a 6th grade math class to assess their knowledge about fractions. After looking at the solutions and the reasoning behind their answers, it's clear that these students needed more instruction about fractions. Tasks like this, as opposed to traditional tests, can really show teachers what their students know. It required answers and explanations. It also required creating an example like the task they began with. The teacher also interviewed some of the students that worked in groups and listened to their reasoning and explanation for their solution. Teachers can learn so much about students' understanding by using tasks like this on a regular basis. This information also helps with lesson planning in addition to grading. I've never thought of assessments as a task, but after exploring this task, I think they are a great way to assess students and gather a lot of important information.

Well, I head back to Eastern Montgomery High School tomorrow to start observing and planning for my student teaching! I'm very excited, a little nervous, and ready to start teaching!