Week 9 Reflection

Week of October 19-23:

Week 9 of my Interning can be best described as stressful. With changes in the Benedum Program, decided which courses to take, trying to create more involved lessons, and papers to grade piling up, I have felt overwhelmed by the busyness.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I created a lesson for the Geometry students that focused on helping them see the logical progression of Geometric proofs. I took Comic Strip pieces and cut them into individual clips. I then had students arrange the comics in “logical” order, or the order they thought they would appear. After completing the comic strip assignment, students were given proofs that were cut into pieces, with each step and reason separated. I had students place the statements in logical order, just as they had with the comic strips, and place corresponding reasons with the statements. On Monday, many students were missing due to a Spanish field trip, so the group completing the activity was much smaller and easier to manage. Each student wanted individual attention to ensure they had completed the steps correctly, which made it difficult to handle. During this period, I had the opportunity to be observed by my Liason, Dr. Stack, and appreciated his input. He gave me advice and words of encouragement.

Period 5 on Tuesday was also relatively easy to manage, due to a large amount of students being out due to illness. I was again, pulled in many directions, but felt that it was mostly manageable. I was also lucky that Mrs. Tucker jumped in and helped me to guide students through the proofs. Seventh period, which is my largest group of students, had no people missing from class. This meant that I had 30 students with clips of comic strips and proofs. This group was much more hard to handle, and I overall feel this activity is best with a small group of students.

Also this week, I have created worksheets to guide students through proofs with segment relationships and angle relationships. As the week went on, students began to understand proofs and had their own "light bulb" moments of understanding. It was so fun to see the students suddenly understand the concepts. Some students came into the class worried and complaining that they didn't understand any of the material. By the end of the day, these same students were saying they felt the material was easy. Watching their understanding evolve throughout the class period was very rewarding!

On Thursday I was able to be observed by Mrs. Muniz. I always enjoy getting feedback from such knowledgable people. Being able to talk about my teaching and learn more about myself is something that I really enjoy and appreciate from all those willing to observe me.

In Algebra, students are working with inequalities and I am gradually learning the best way to describe the concepts and come up with “catchy” ways for students to remember the information. I've created a Jeopardy game review that will, hopefully, be fun and useful for the kids to review for their test.

In probability and Statistics, the students and I have begun working on a lab that involves calculating statistics with M&Ms. I really enjoy doing a "fun" lab with them and think that they are appreciative of something different to do.