Reflection

I honestly really enjoyed creating the lesson plan with Hannah! It was exciting to find ways to use the strategy we were teaching within the lesson. I think that our desire to guide our classmates through the second KWL was not as perfect as we had planned which I think was due to picking a random topic in a Math class. I think if we would have looked into the background of symmetry more, we could have given a more accurate example of what it would look like to use this strategy in math class while students have just learned multiple concepts relating to the topic that was in question. It was challenging to come up with guiding questions for the knowledge and want to learn columns, and I would definitely spend more time on that part specifically in the future. But overall, I truly think that Hannah and I worked really well together and had fun creating a lesson. Going through the powerpoint and discussing what points we wanted to highlight went really for both us together, and I believe we executed that effectively in class. However, answering comments that were made in class was more difficult than I had imagined. It was hard to know what to say after someone made a point that agreed with what we were talking about. It was just weird because I realized I didn't know what else to say other than 'yes, great point' with an awkward pause moving on to the next question. This is something I hope I will be able to learn and get better at is responding to what students say in class. 

Word Count: 265 

P.S. Yes this is late :( I forgot to post it this morning 

Resource Blog #3

https://minds-in-bloom.com/implementing-giant-graphs/

I found a blog by a teacher who is passionate teaching her students in a way they will truly understand! Her blog is full of a ton of great ideas, but one that specifically caught my attention was something that related to a discussion we had in class about bringing the topics into real life. This teacher created a large graph on which students could actually stand on and be a part of and construct graphs on their own. This create collaboration and communication! After the group activity of hands-on learning, she has them answer questions about the deeper meaning as an assessment to evaluate whether the activity was successful in their understanding. She uses this time as a class discussion to continue their learning rather than as simply something to check for comprehension.

                                           Word Count: 134

Textbooks.... How to use them?

According to Subjects Matter, there are multiple ways to help your students figure out the textbook they will be using for that class. One of the options is actually something my teachers this semester are using in their classes. Most of my teachers have substituted textbooks with other materials that they have decided will be more valuable for us. Our math textbook was written by our Math teacher just like the teacher in the Subjects Matter book, and our other two professors both picked out specific articles and books for us to read throughout the semester. Obviously they had to research and read these materials to determine if they were going to be the best option for class. Honestly, this opened my eyes to how willing we need to be as teachers to search for the bestsellers resources for our students. The materials given to us are not always the options we should choose.

One of my favorite activities to use with a textbook was the textbook circles, however I was not exactly sure what this would like in a math class when I was reading about the activity. After I was thinking about it, I was coming up with ideas and ways that it would work in a math class. I think that one of the best ways is to have them read through a section that has been tough for them to understand. I would create guiding questions for them to ask each other and determine what the key words were for them to understand. Then I would have a problem for them to solve together to help them walk through the concepts they read and see if they were able to comprehend the section.

Word Count: 287

How many resources for students are needed?

http://matheminutes.blogspot.com
This link is a blog that I found through an IB Math teacher resources page. I wanted to post the entire blog because it has so many articles and ideas for extra materials to use in class. The teachers posted different teaching methods and ideas they used in class for others to look at and potentially use. There are some with different types of readings or even some with different types of activities to use in class rather than constantly using the textbook. It is a much better idea to use several avenues to teach from since many students learn without the textbook. This source is specifically for math classes, so I think it will be super helpful for us to have this for examples of what teachers do in their classrooms.





Word count (131)

Struggling Readers

An article we read in EMAT 5280 discussed that students make each other feel less comfortable answering questions in groups because there is an atmosphere of status levels that correlate to the intelligence of each student. I was wondering what the best way to combat this was until I read chapter 11 in our subjects matter book. There is a teacher who groups her students into four types of intelligence including relational, organizational, analytical, and high energy. The students are able to understand each other's differences and utilize strengths in their groups once these four types have been identified and pointed out to them. This is huge especially when some students are not proficient readers. We should not make them feel bad about their reading level instead encouraging each other to help them become better readers. Encourage the students by having different level of materials in order to display their ability to read some of the passages. Defeated students will not grow without encouragement in what they can do already. This chapter offered many strategies on how to help struggling readers, and almost every example was in a class that was not an English Language Arts class. Reading a word problem in Math has a very different thought process than in ELA or history. As teachers it is our job to model for our students the correct way to think through a specific passage in our specific content area. A math problem will require the strategy of deciphering what is important information in order to not get confused on the extra information. I remember in my Math classes mixing up what was important and getting problems wrong because I missed an important piece of information. These strategies are taught not expectations.

Word Count: 291