Day 3.
Because Mrs. C, my master teacher, has
allowed me to take over the math portion of her class I taught the
math section again. Today we focused on subtraction with regrouping,
only instead of the questions being set up in a vertical equation
they were laid out in a horizontal line.
I started by asking the students to
remind me what we worked on yesterday. I emphasized the key term
“regrouping” by asking several students what they had learned
from yesterday's lesson. They each gave me the “subtraction with
regrouping answer” including my Superman.*
“Subtraction and borrowing”
“Minus and regrouping”
“Subtracting with borrowing”
*I'm not sure if I've mentioned
Superman before. If not, here's a quick recap. Superman is an amazing
student who we believe to be slightly autistic. He has trouble paying
attention in class for long periods of time and struggles with
articulation. Superman has the ability, and when prompted and
constantly reminded, he completes all of the expected work. He has an
amazing heart but tends to get frustrated with himself. At the
beginning on student teaching he had little to no desire to complete
any work. Today he surprised even himself.
While I explained what is expected and
worked through some problems with the class I also gave out tickets
using positive reinforcement. “Oh my word, Miss Dots*, thank you so
much for staying on task and working quietly.” In doing so, it
prompted other students to get back on task and reminded them that
they had things to accomplish.
*Miss Dots: Adorable young lady who
asked to sit next to me yesterday. I call her miss dots because she
is my girly-girl of the class. She loves anything and everything
girly and pays me at least on compliment per day on my outfit.
In my opinion, my lesson went smoothly
and I engaged all students for the majority of the time. I was very
proud of Superman because he was consistently on task and completed
ALL of his work. He earned 9 tickets today for all that he had
accomplished today. He even passed his timed math, which made my
heart happy because I did not see the disappointment that I normally
see at the end of the testing period. I'm sure he's very proud of
himself and after school I made a point to tell his father about his
accomplishments. Superman light up while I was talking about him.
**Happy Dance**
I found the ticket system to be highly
motivating. I also found that when I am stern and the students know
what I expect of them it is easier to motivate them to complete work.
When I try to be the “best teacher” by being a friend to
everyone, then nothing gets done. I think I am beginning to find a
good balance.
Friday's schedule is a little
different. I will not be teaching a math section, but this weekend I
will be preparing to take over the writing and language arts section
as well as math. I will be teaching a pretty big portion of class
time for only being in my second week of student teaching. I've said
it before and I will say it again. My master teacher is awesome.
Favorite Moment of the Day:
During the math lesson I asked if
anyone could tell me how they knew, during a subtraction problem, if
they needed to regroup. Miss Dots raised her hand and answered with
an extremely well put together solution to my question. I made my “OH
MY GOODNESS” very impressed face as I walked over to pick up my
roll of tickets. While Miss Dots was still explaining her answer I
slowly unrolled the tickets. All of the students were watching and
gasped at the amount of tickets I handed Miss Dots.
I'll be honest, the amount probably
only totaled about ten or eleven...but the reaction was priceless.
And to the kids "Das alotta tickets!!!"
Miss Dot's answer prompted me to share
some of their math homework from yesterday that I was able to grade
and the few answers, given by students, that I was very proud of. The
question was “How do you know in a subtraction problem if you need
to regroup?” Now, I can only imagine how hard that question was to
answer and there were 4 students out of the bunch that really stood
out. During the math lesson I pulled out their homework and I shared,
with the whole class, the four students that I was extremely
impressed with. Loved seeing their smiles as I shared their answers.
My outfit today!
Wish me luck,
Megs
No comments:
Post a Comment