Week 9 wasn't horribly interesting. My students were still doing probability, but it began to get a bit more extensive. It was a quick chapter, and they ended up testing on Friday! Since I've noticed that my students tend to struggle with paying attention during class, I decided to print out notes for each student and have them sort of fill in the blank. This helped with their attention since they already had the basic format of the notes. Since they had the notes, I was able to walk around more and discuss and also look at the students' papers to see what they were understanding. I also noticed that I was able to ask the students to work on a single problem for a short period of time (no more than a minute) and I could assess how each student was doing by whether or not they had any ideas written down. The students also seem to like having the notes in front of them, so I think this is something I may continue.
On Friday, our CT invited us to the Algebra 4 All Conference. We started by working with nspire TI calculators (which, by the way, are SO cool) and seeing how we could create graphs, lists, and use this data to answer questions. After this, we mostly discussed direct variation and completed worksheets that were given to be used during class time. They presented many interesting ideas to not only question students, but have them actually think about what they did rather than just mimic. They also used the term 'Meyerize' to create questions that questioned the students' understanding. I thought that was pretty entertaining. Other than that, the week seemed pretty simple. On to next week!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Week 8
So this past week came and went..unfortunately I missed school Thursday and Friday for a funeral, so I'll have to end up staying two full days to make up for the lost time. So that was a bit confusing, but I'm hoping the students are ready to test tomorrow!
Where to start...last week was a bit of a confusing week since the MME was occurring and the students were being sent to different rooms. It made it a bit difficult for planning and such, but we ended up moving the Algebra 2 test to tomorrow (3/7) since many of the students were missing for testing. It seemed to go a bit better than the previous week, but I'm judging that on the questions students began to ask. It seems as though they're becoming more comfortable with asking questions when they don't understand something. I try and put myself into their shoes and I remember avoiding questions because I was shy. I try and tell them all that questions are encouraged! I'd rather answer a ton of questions than sit in a classroom of silence. Something I have noticed though is that I struggle a bit with 'seeing' all the students while I'm teaching since I tend to avoid my peripheral vision, but I'm trying VERY hard to look at everyone. I've also noticed that it helps if I randomly question students to keep their attention.
As for the Algebra 1 students, they seem to be doing okay with the material. Jill is teaching the properties of exponents and it seems as though the students are struggling with when to use which property. We created flip books for them to use so they could refer back to their notes when studying, but part of me thinks that the whole studying part is missing from this issue. My main struggle with these students is getting them motived and interested in math! Clearly these are the students that need to be doing more activities that may include hands-on work or group work. This is something that we'll have to plan and work on to get them excited for class. If only every student loved math...!
Where to start...last week was a bit of a confusing week since the MME was occurring and the students were being sent to different rooms. It made it a bit difficult for planning and such, but we ended up moving the Algebra 2 test to tomorrow (3/7) since many of the students were missing for testing. It seemed to go a bit better than the previous week, but I'm judging that on the questions students began to ask. It seems as though they're becoming more comfortable with asking questions when they don't understand something. I try and put myself into their shoes and I remember avoiding questions because I was shy. I try and tell them all that questions are encouraged! I'd rather answer a ton of questions than sit in a classroom of silence. Something I have noticed though is that I struggle a bit with 'seeing' all the students while I'm teaching since I tend to avoid my peripheral vision, but I'm trying VERY hard to look at everyone. I've also noticed that it helps if I randomly question students to keep their attention.
As for the Algebra 1 students, they seem to be doing okay with the material. Jill is teaching the properties of exponents and it seems as though the students are struggling with when to use which property. We created flip books for them to use so they could refer back to their notes when studying, but part of me thinks that the whole studying part is missing from this issue. My main struggle with these students is getting them motived and interested in math! Clearly these are the students that need to be doing more activities that may include hands-on work or group work. This is something that we'll have to plan and work on to get them excited for class. If only every student loved math...!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
