Memorable experiences from the short practicum

First lesson:

One of my most memorable experiences during the short practicum was my very first lesson. I was teaching a grade 11 math class on the quadratic equation. Leading up to it, I was planning the lesson and decided to make them do 2 things: allow them to formulate the equation for themselves (by nudging them in the right direction of course) and also have an activity where they race to find solutions of x, with one side being able to use the quadratic formula and the other side had to anything but the formula. I alloted about 30-40 mins for the entire thing along with examples during the lesson. But as I started teaching, I quickly fell behind time-wise as students weren't able to get the formula themselves. I had a few students get close to it, but eventually I guided them through the process in front of the entire class. The amount of time spent on the formula did not allow for me to do the race as I had to give more examples and discuss properties of the formula. Though the lesson was far from what I imagined it to be, I did gain some valuable experience and also found that I really did enjoy teaching and interacting with the students.

Fight:

Another memorable experience I had was sitting in on an applications Math class. It was interesting to see the difference in what was being taught in this class and also the difference in classroom management issues the teacher had to deal with. But in this particular class, a fight broke out between 2 male students. Though it was terrible that I fight broke out, it was interesting to see how the teacher handled it, splitting them up right away and sending them to the office, separately. Because of the fight, it made me think about how I would have handled it and the importance of just getting them away from each other right away. I obviously would send them to the principal's office, but when I thought of what I'd do, I would probably go with them, together. This would likely increase tension between them. So it was nice to see how this teacher handled it and even how she discussed it openly in class afterwards.

Two-Column Method Reflection

At first it was actually tough to write on the second column, it seemed like I was trying to make it really clear as to what I was doing. But once I got started with it, things just started to flow out. Writing down what I was doing step by step actually helped me through the process in that for every step it was clear what I was trying to do and I seemed to try to cover as many scenarios as I could. Also writing down my thought process allowed me to understand it better and let it stick with me better, enabling me to not have to go back to previous steps. The two column method is a great way do go about problem solving. It is a bit more time consuming, but I think for tougher questions, it actually would help you move forward rather than keep going around in circles.

Two Column Method - Black Friday

Reflection on free writing exercise

The free write exercise is something that students can definitely have fun with. It's something that doesn't require effort on anyone's part and it does bring about a great way to understand what students think about a certain subject. Of course they might miss out on certain things they think about a subject but giving them five mins to write anything about the subject down makes them pretty much write down what they know. They start forming webs of connections linking one idea to another within their understanding of the subject. It may even create a better link to certain ideas of what they had about the subject as they being to think about it more consciously after they finish the activity. It also on another level actually makes them ponder whether they understand the subject or not. If they begin to start questioning ideas that they're having, they can see it on paper and further investigate the subject. This exercise is a great way to find out the students' understanding as well as allow the students themselves to realize whether they understand it or not.

Poem on dividing by zero

How do you split something by nothing?

Can you not fit an infinite amount of nothings into something?
Let us ask our digital friend.

Oh Calculator you give me an error when i try it so.
Is it that you cannot calculate it?
or do you not understand the question?

how about dividing nothing by nothing?
Doesn't a number divided by itself equal to one?

But if you have nothing, you have NO thing, meaning you cannot do anything with it.

So when you divide by no thing, you're not doing anything.

So we have just done nothing, learned nothing.
Or have we made something out of nothing?

Timed Writing

These were my thoughts during the exercise:

On zero:

-Nothing

-Empty

-Vacuum, how can there be nothing

-empty thought, non-existence

-dividing by zero, how do you divide by nothing

-zero points, great defense or bad offense?

-nada

-zilch, zip

-shutouts, goose egg

-circle

-multiplying by 0

-0 on a test, is it possible to get a zero if your wrote the test? how can you not know ANYTHING

-what's the number immediately after it?

-time 0, is there such a thing or is time cyclical?

-does infinity mean looping back to 0 and that's why it's never ending?

-i can't think of anything 0 thoughts

-is it really even a number?

-how many 0's will my paycheck have?

On dividing:

fractions, splitting a number by another number. Opposite of multiplication, cut into pieces. Split something up. Separation of things. Segregation. A gulf between ideas and people. Cause of conflict because of differing views and not being able to cross the idea between the two ideologies. Divide and conquer relates to strategic plan in battle going back to the conflict idea. School = a divide between me and sleep. Dividing teams up by position. Cultural divide translates to classroom division at times. The divide between top students vs. low students

Microteaching Reflection

From self reflection as well as comments from our peers, there was much that could be worked on with our microteaching. Mostly with regards to time constraints, our lesson plan wasn't fully expressed in the microteaching. Firstly, we already had a limited time for the microteaching, add on the fact that setup took a while and the end result was a lack of a post test and summary for the lesson. Upon thinking about it, the setup that took up much of our time produced minimal educational purposes for the class. But saying that, it did engage the class right away and it let to the topic of the lesson. I was also proud of our multimedia approach as well as allowing the students to participate in multiple activities. I thought our group did well presenting the actual transformation part of topic, which included participation from the class. So although it didn't materialize as what we had hoped, the lesson was still a pretty good lesson. For the future more emphasis will be put on the time constraints and make sure any set-up done will be very beneficial especially if it takes away from presentation time.