I really should have reflected on last semester before now, but it was sooo nice to enjoy some me-time this winter break. But alas, tomorrow is the start of a new semester which means I should really tie up loose ends.
For my first semester of teaching, I honestly did much better than I anticipated. There were only three referrals. No fights in my classroom (an issue at my school). I communicated with parents frequently. I collaborated with other math teachers often. I incorporated other disciplines into my classroom. I read many, many math teachers' blogs (Thank you Dan Meyer, Kate Nowak, Miss Calcul8, Mr. D, Sam Shah...just to name a few) and actually used their ideas in my classroom. And most importantly, I had fun.
New goals for second semester:
1) Take better care of myself (sleep and exercise more!)
2) Figure out a way to keep students engaged while working on ALEKS.
3) Decide my stance on homework (must finish Kohn's book first...).
4) Questioning strategies, engagement in general.
5) Play more games with my regular algebra 1 class.
January 3, 2012
December 4, 2011
Week 16: Paired Reading
I have been slacking on these reflection posts. Tsk tsk. Anyways, this past week I have been focused on paired reading. This was a perfect fit for my word problems. I had students pair up, and the activity required them to read, summarize, and then solve the word problem. Reflections will be broken down by class period.
1st hour: Did not do a paired reading activity. This was a bummer, because I think it would have helped some students. I was behind with this class, so we skipped the activity in order to catch up.
3rd/4th hour: They did great with this activity. I break my students into low, medium, and high groups. I think the group that benefited the most was my medium group. I worked with them, and they were finally starting to realize where to put the given numbers.
5th/6th hour: Only one of the three groups was stellar. My low group consists of students who are anywhere between a 2nd and 5th grade reading level. For them, I had to modify the activity. I read to them, and they had to summarize. We did two summaries together before I let them try on their own. These kids tried, but I don't think they got as much out of the activity as I would have liked.
All in all, I would definitely do this again. I will work to incorporate more of this into my classroom.
1st hour: Did not do a paired reading activity. This was a bummer, because I think it would have helped some students. I was behind with this class, so we skipped the activity in order to catch up.
3rd/4th hour: They did great with this activity. I break my students into low, medium, and high groups. I think the group that benefited the most was my medium group. I worked with them, and they were finally starting to realize where to put the given numbers.
5th/6th hour: Only one of the three groups was stellar. My low group consists of students who are anywhere between a 2nd and 5th grade reading level. For them, I had to modify the activity. I read to them, and they had to summarize. We did two summaries together before I let them try on their own. These kids tried, but I don't think they got as much out of the activity as I would have liked.
All in all, I would definitely do this again. I will work to incorporate more of this into my classroom.
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