West Virginia State University

College of Professional Studies

Department of Education
Professional Development (PD) Reflection Outline

Name:
Kaylee Dillon
Major Content Area:
Elementary Education
Circle one:
FR SOPH JR SR
PD Topic/Title:
Richmond Elementary: Fishbowl
PD Date:
February 19, 2013
PD Units:
9:30- 10:45

Please respond to the following prompts:
1. Summarize the key points you learned from this Professional Development
experience.
Using a math note book to supplement the Every Day Math workbook.
Effective uses/ application of Number Talks with hang signals.
Emphasizing that there are multiple ways to get the correct answer.
Effective teaching strategy to teach adding and subtracting integers by using a
Walking Man strategy on a number line
o The first number in an equation tells you were to start The symbol tells you
which direction to face. The next number in the equation tells you if you need to
move forward or backward (depending on a positive or negative number) and
how many steps to move. For instance -1+ (-6). The -1 means you will face to the
negative side of the number line, and the -6 means you will walk backwards 6
steps, landing on -7, which is your answer.

2. Discuss how these key points connect to your content area.
Number Talks is being used in many elementary schools around the country. This PD
introduced me to effective applications in the classroom. I loved the hand gestures that
were used for this strategy. This is a create way for the students to communicate their
understanding. I also really like how the teacher emphasized that there is no wrong way
to get the answer to a math problem. I think it is important to let students find a
solution in a way that they feel most comfortable and understand the best.

3. Share how you might use this new information in your future classroom.
I will use the idea of a notebook or journal to supplement a workbook or text book in
my future classroom. I feel that students retain more knowledge of a new concept or
vocabulary word if they actually write it. I will also use the hand gestures across the
curriculum to get a clear idea of if my students understand a new concept, or if I need to
approach it in another way. Also, I will remember the Walking Man strategy for
future instances when I may teach integers on the number line.