Apprentice Teaching in Secondary Mathematics and Science

INSTRUCTION AND DELIVERY RE LECTION

Monday, October 21 Today marked the first day of the geometric construction project. Being Monday, and the first day of a project, my first period class was definitely the guinea pigs of starting something new. s an instructional strategy ! planned on going o"er the directions as a class to try to a"oid confusion. ! passed out the project instructions and rubric and began to go o"er it with the class. ! let students go collect supplies for the rest of their groups, and ! began to describe the steps for setting up their booklet pages as the first step in the project. #owe"er, while ! planned on modeling how to do the first construction with the whole class, ! did not anticipate the need to model how to set up the actual pages with margins, etc. By not modeling the page set up, we hit our first bump in the progression of this project. $tudents were confused right out of the gate, asking %is this what you mean&' %(id ! do this right&' %(oes the page ha"e to be split in half not counting the margin, or with the margin included&' This ate up more time out of the first day than it should ha"e. The instructional strategy of modeling is a powerful tool for understanding. !f ! would ha"e thought to model the set)up of the actual page with the class, ! would ha"e alle"iated confusion, and mistakes in the construction of the actual book, when what should be the focus is the construction of the geometries. ! knew for the ne*t period to make a change in my instructional approach to this project. ! was able to model how to format their pages for the whole class to see, and this pro"ed much more effecti"e than attacking the problem "erbally. +or the future, do not o"erestimate how students will interpret your directions, no matter how clear you think they are. ,isually modeling in a whole class format is an effecti"e way to ma*imi-e understanding in a classroom. Tuesday, October 22 Today was the second day of the geometric construction project. Today ! focused on augmenting my instructional effecti"eness by engaging students in an interesting .ouTube "ideo at the beginning of class. ! played a "ideo showing the painting process of /ulian Bee"er while he worked on his piece, 0a 1rieta. 2hile the "ideo by itself was not mathematical, ! e*plained to students at the end of the "ideo how Bee"er incorporates mathematical concepts e"ery time he does a work of art3through perspecti"e lines. ! related perspecti"e lines to the concept of parallel lines which was completely rele"ant in our classroom. ! furthered this e*planation by pulling up Bee"er4s official website and showing students a few more of his three dimensional works, and how they look from alternati"e "antage points. My intent for showing students this was to 5a6 get their attention, 5b6 engage them in thinking about the relationship math has to other disciplines, and 5c6 to set the stage for positi"e attitudes for the rest of the period. The result of this engagement3a success7 $tudents were mesmeri-ed by the "ideo8 it was so 9uiet in the class you could hear a pin drop. nd after the "ideo when ! showed some of Bee"er4s other work ! got all sorts of %ooooos' and %ahhhhhhs'. $tudents had upbeat attitudes the rest of class while they worked on their constructions. fter teaching the rest of the week, this day actually ended up being the most producti"e of

Apprentice Teaching in Secondary Mathematics and Science the four days and ! think it largely had to do with setting the stage with an interesting and thought pro"oking engagement at the "ery minute class started. 2ednesday, October 2: Today ! focused on my indi"iduali-ed instruction within the groups. 2hile the students worked on their geometric constructions, ! circulated throughout the classroom and offered help, making an effort to balance my time between all the teams. My rational was to make sure that all groups got my e9ual support. #owe"er, this plan made for two "ery e*hausting class periods. ;"erywhere ! turned ! heard, %Ms. 17 Ms. 17 <o, o"er here Ms. 17' ! spent the whole class bouncing around the room frantically helping as many students as ! could manage. The students know that ! am more than willing to help, and will offer "ery insightful ad"ice when they can get my one)on)one help. #owe"er this pro"ed ineffecti"e because a lot of the time ! spent repeating myself o"er and o"er again. =pon reflecting on this day, ! don4t know why ! did not call the class4s attention to the front of the room and ha"e students answer the 9uestions that were being repeated for the rest of the class. +urthermore, the role of working in groups is to seek help from teammates. +or the future, ! will not hesitate to call the attention of the whole class to the front of the room to address a common misconception or 9uestion amongst the class. +urthermore, ! will remind students of the resources a"ailable to them in their "ery groups. =sing their peers as educational resources can pro"e to be "aluable academically as well as socially. $tudents need to learn how to work together, think critically, and not rely solely on the teacher to walk them through at e"ery bump in the road they encounter. Thursday, October 2> Today ! also focused on my indi"iduali-ed instruction between groups, but used yesterday4s e*perience to make changes. ! before setting the class free to work on their constructions ! reminded them that one of the reasons they are in groups is to help each other out when they get stuck on a problem. ?hances are that the 9uestion that you are about to ask me, someone sitting ne*t to you has already figured out and will be more than willing to e*plain to you. fter releasing them to work ! was able to circulate throughout the room. ! could monitor student progress and check their work as they mo"ed forward in the project8 and there was a significant reduction in the number of times ! had to address a swarm of helpless hand raisers yelling out my name. This made for a much more producti"e and rela*ed atmosphere for students to work, and for me to teach in. +urthermore, ! was able to carry out more thorough e*planations within the groups. One group was struggling with one particular problem. ! was able to model step by step, with them, on a separate piece of paper the entire process. This was "ery effecti"e in assisting the group, and there were a lot of %ah)ha' moments when we completed the construction as a team.

Apprentice Teaching in Secondary Mathematics and Science