On to High School...

So getting back into the high school grove makes me miss middle school. I thought I would never really miss it. I just don't feel like I am making connections and relationships with students here at high school like I did in middle school. This might be because they are more subdued and ask less questions. However recently I did get talking to some students about my thesis on the average number of turns it takes to complete the game of candy land. I will have to share this fun fact when I introduce myself since it grabs students interest.

However I am really excited to teach two sections of Algebra Concepts next semester. That class has some of my favorite stuff in algebra included into the curriculum. Graphing equations, solving a system of equations, graphing inequalities, and graphing a system of inequalities. I loved graphing a system of inequalities because I always used different colors to shade the graph. I am going to bring in lots of color into my graphs for my students and make sure they use colored pencils as well.

However my other supervising teacher is still getting his teaching schedule rearranged. There is only one 47 minute period of calculus scheduled next semester. The students wanted more time to work with the difficult concepts and they are looking to add another period. So I will need to take one math class from him once his schedule is set. It will most likely be some basic algebra class which is cool with me because I love algebra. Hopefully I can bring in some Abstract algebra into the class as well. I am a little worried I will not have enough time to plan for this class since I won't have time to work with the curriculum and textbook until January 3rd.

I will also be working with the calculus class some once I have graduated and they have finished with the AP test. I am thinking of teaching them how to work with LaTeX and have them type up test corrections using it. LaTeX is used by professional mathematicians and almost every math textbook is written using the program. I think using it would allow students to understand how to problem solve when using technology and review math concepts. I think they will still be reviewing math problems as they type up old problems, but it will not be the focus of the activity. I think that they would love to spend some time in the computer lab learning something new after the test, but we will see. I will have to keep a vigilant eye on the use of facebook. I think I may introduce another math program that I used in my undergraduate program, but I am not sure what I would include just yet. I think I will have to talk to my professors and become more of an expert at the program. However playing around on the computers with math related programs that are used in college level math courses is something I hope the students will find interesting and will be able to learn from.

It seems that January 31st is drawing closer. I will become even more of a teacher after that time. I will be teaching three math classes for a whole semester. I think it will be a very different experience. It is also something I have dreamed of doing for over ten years. I am much more excited to work with the faculty, work in this high school, and teach this curriculum. Algebra is much more exciting and cool then stupid decimals. Now I just hope that I can show my students how exciting and cool algebra can be. I hope that I find my place and calling at the high school level.

My Final Day and Reflection

 On my last day I was sort of stupid and thought my students were passing a note. I took it away and put it in the recycling. My supervising teacher took it out and had the class pass it around again because it was actually a thank you note. I felt so bad about it when I opened it up to read it. It was very sweet and felt good to see the kids appreciate me. But I felt stupid for thinking it was a note.

 On my last day I played a math game called set with them. They seemed to like it. I asked them to step up to the front to find a set and often they got it wrong at first. I guided them to the answer so they didn't feel so bad. Everyone wanted to try and find a set in the cards. Play it online here.

So here is a reflection on my practicum time:

 During my practicum I could never really get my students to be quiet. They talked during tests and during my class. I think all of this talking may have thrown off my data. I did my best to be firm and get them to be quiet, but I did not have that command of the class. I also could not control the noise after the test. This loud testing environment may have impacted students testing abilities. I don’t think I observed them being quiet for my supervising teacher either, so I believe that this was not a group norm. I may not have this problem when I teach high school students. This just may be because they are sixth graders and have lots of hormones. If I was a student in that room I could not have worked in that class. I will need to work on being more firm about a quiet testing environment.

                I believe that I did too much direct instruction during my teaching. I was just more comfortable using direct instruction. I would have like to do more collaborative work, so that students were doing more of the learning and discovering knowledge for themselves. That is one of my theoretical beliefs that students need to discover and formulate ideas on their own. However I do not think the class had the group norms for doing collaborative work when I arrived. I therefore did not have time to teach them the group norms. I don’t think if I was ready to teach the group norms with everything else I had on my plate. I will have to make sure that I set up good group norms in my high school classroom and find ways to incorporate collaborative work into my curriculum.

                I also think I need to work on transitioning students from different activities. I had trouble giving directions and having students switch gears. It takes a lot of time to get the quiet and settled into the new activity. I think this is important to help them settle into the test and get the brains in gear. Plus that way I don’t have to say what page number and problem we are five different times. I will have to have a signal to help transition students and make sure my transition set is more solid.

               I will also have to make sure that I chunck up worksheets or assignments so that students do not get haywire after working on the same thing for too long. I learned that sixth grade students could not work on the same worksheet for very long. The next time I gave them a worksheet I made sure that I lead students through the worksheet step by step instead. This kept more students on task and most of them got the worksheet done. 

             After looking at my assessment data I saw real learning gains from students. I saw that the class as the whole improved their concept of decimal place value by a large amount. There was a 200 percent change from the pre test to the post test. I was really proud of that learning gain. However students were still struggling with adding and subtracting decimals that had a different number of place values. I think that is a hard concept to grasp when not using calculators and will take some time to understand. I will have to focus more on this learning target since it is what gives the students the most trouble.  I demanded my students to do this without a calculator so that they would become better mathematicians and have a solid foundation with decimals. However this is difficult and will take a while to learn. I did not think about how I would teach this concept and realized part way through that working with decimals with different place values was an important learning target. I think this showed me why teachers have to lay out concretely the learning goals and targets of each unit.

So all in all it was a difficult and stressful experience, but it was definitely worth while. I don't know how I would teach those students for longer than three weeks. I would like to teach at middle school because of the high energy, but some days that high energy is too much to handle.