Week 7 Reflection

My 7th week at MHS was full of fun and excitement because it was Homecoming week! Themed days were held throughout the week and it was interesting and fun to see the students participate in days such as SuperHero Day and Knee Sock Day. After school activies were also held, which gave students and an opportunity to participate in something new.

Thursday was a Parade on High Street, followed by a Street Fair at the school, where student organizations have booths and sell food, drinks, or other objects. It was a great time to visit with faculty members, fellow preservice teachers, and the students. Students seemed excited to see me outside the classroom and it was nice to talk to the students about topics other than Math! I was planning on attending the Homecoming football game on Friday, but due to the cold weather and rain, I decided to stay in for the evening. Instead of watching football, another MHS student teacher and I graded papers for the night.

The Homecoming dance was held on Saturday night and the Interns and I chaperoned the event. I felt that I got to learn a great deal about my students during this time, just by seeing how and with whom they interacted with throughout the night. It was another opportunity to see the students outside the classroom and better get to know them. I was excited to see both current and former students and see their happiness and excitement at the dance.

This week also held exciting events for teaching, including the Geometry students' first test on material that only I have presented. I have been grading papers, homework, and classwork and have been interested to see how students did on their test and figuring out improvements for the new unit. I have been disappointed in many of their performances, but have realized that many of the grades directly relate to their effort put forth in class and on homework assignments. I hope that by seeing how they performed on their test, it may help to motivate some students to focused more. I'm struggling with how to determine what I need to change and how I can better help students while still keeping high expectations for students to work outside the classroom to achieve in my class.

On Friday, I started to teach Algebra I full time and will continue to teach this course throughout the rest of my Internship. This means I am teaching Geometry and Algebra I full time and am co-teaching (or sometimes giving full instruction) in Probability and Statistics and Algebra Support.

Overall, the week was very fun. I played a review game with the Geometry classes, which I feel they enjoyed, but did not go as well as I had expected. I'm trying to decide how to integrate fun activities in the classroom while still maintaining control and productivity with 30 kids in the classroom. I'm very appreciative of the opportunities to better know the students throughout Homecoming week and to learn more about their math performances through grading their tests and assignments.