For my second lesson, I decided to conduct a math lesson as I had never conducted a math lesson in an elementary classroom let alone a 3rd grade classroom. I discussed with my CT what math concept I could teach that pertained to one of the 3rd grade standards. My CT told me that I could introduce the new concept of area to the class on the Friday that I was supposed to teach my lesson. I knew that that introducing a new topic on a Friday in an elementary classroom was not ideal as the majority of teachers that I have observed in the past usually wrap up their week’s lessons on Friday. The Friday I was conducting my lesson was also a shorten day due to Fall Break, so I thought the students would show some off task behavior for the early release day. These circumstances made me think hard about how I was going to introduce the concept of area to the students in an effective way. I knew that I needed to have a lesson that included an exploratory hands- on activity to keep the students engaged and wanting to learn. Therefore, I decided to use cheese crackers as manipulatives to represent square units. The students were to first guess what the area of the different shapes in a worksheet packet were and then they were to use the crackers to figure out the actually area of the different shapes. I had been grading the students’ weekly math quizzes that pertained to arrays and multiplication a couple of weeks prior to my lesson which helped me presses the students’ knowledge on
When I was in the eighth grade, I had two very contrasting instructors. One instructor was remarkably entertaining, but the other instructor was truly ordinary and tedious. The teacher who was engaging taught mathematics, and the stale teacher taught me literature. The both of them taught my two favorite subjects at the time; however, as the school year went on, my interest in literature declined and my interest in mathematics rose to a special high. The literature teacher taught like every traditional teacher. This instructor’s class had the same routine everyday. The class consisted of taking turns reading out loud and at the end of class, the teacher would stand by the door and hand out the homework for that night, which was over what we read in class. No one looked forward to going to that particular class because it was the same lifeless routine everyday; however, my mathematic teacher was an unpredictable person. He transformed work problems into little games. His teaching tactic goes as follows: he would spend the first half of our hour long class lecturing, then he spent the last half of class constructing work problems on the board with random, absurd work problems. If you got a question right, he gave you the option of either shooting a ball of notebook paper into a basket or throw to the same ball of paper at a bullseye target that was poorly drawn on the board. The trick was either you can receive a piece of candy
2. Describe the pattern of growth in the “Number of people told” column for both Scenario A and Scenario B.
For my Field Experience I chose to observe at Krahn Elementary which is a part of Klein Independent School District. After my approval, I was assigned to four teachers and their classrooms. I observed at Krahn Elementary on six Tuesdays between 15 September 2015 and 27 October 2015, and more or less followed the schedule that was given to me by the Assistant Principal Ms. Shannon Strole. From 8:30 am to 9:15 am I observed Ms. Judy Burkes, who is a third grade Math and Science teacher. Her classroom is comprised of twenty students which range from average to below average learners and a student with ADHD and another with autism. For most part of my observation, M. Burkes had been working with her students on fractions and multiple digits addition and subtraction. From 9:15 am to 10:30 am I observed Ms. Lisa Parker who is a Math co-teacher and resource teacher at Krahn Elementary for grades K-5. During my assigned time, Ms. Parker usually joined Mr. Duru’s fifth grade class of twenty three students as a co-teacher and when required would pull out a group of six students after initial instructions from Mr. Duru and would teach them the concepts separately at a slower pace. This particular group of students with special needs was mostly seen to be focusing more and more on mathematical word problems. These students were students with Learning disabilities, behavioral issues and one of them was a student with ADHD. From 10:30 am to 11:15, I was with Ms. Janice Bluhms, who is a
Decision Rule: The calculated test statistic of -3.024 does fall in the rejection region of z<-1.645, therefore I would reject the null and say there is sufficient evidence to indicate mu<50.
While student teaching, I planned many small group activities, hands-on science lessons, and math lessons using manipulatives. I planned for each possible classroom management issue so that I could avoid problems. For example, when introducing base ten blocks to the first graders, I knew these brand new manipulatives could be a distraction. To avoid this, I allowed the students to use bellwork time (the first 15 minutes of school) to explore and play with these new math manipulatives. When the time came for our math lesson that afternoon, I stressed that students had an opportunity to play with the base ten blocks this morning, but now it was time for us to use these as our math tools, not math toys. Our lesson ended up being a very productive one.
Student B demonstrates mathematical strengths in the explanation of both solutions of the area and perimeter, although one of the formula used was incorrect. Mathematical strength was also displayed in the actual multiplication 5x2x5x2=100, and addition 5+2+5+2=14 cm, failing to include the units of measurement
Students had previously covered the topic of developing fluency in multiplication by 2-digit numbers. After that topic students moved on to cover number sense, dividing by 1-digit divisors using mental math to prepare them for the following topic of my learning segment. The topic of my learning segment consists of developing fluency, dividing by 1-digit divisors. I designed my lesson as a three-day unit focusing on long division by modeling division with place-value blocks, dividing 2-digit by 1-digit numbers, and dividing 3-digit by 1-digit numbers. Students were introduced to division prior to my learning segment but the struggled to understand and comprehend division because students were only introduced to the division algorithm and were not provided with a mnemonic to help them recall the steps. Students also weren’t introduced to division with manipulatives or drawings. Therefore, I
Teachers play an important role in fostering mathematics skills. In the “play dough” (Appendix A) episode, the educators can push student thinking and place the burden of thought on the student. Strategic questioning can really promote higher order thinking a natural integration between math and play (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 1999). Questions such as “How can you tell which one is the biggest/smallest? How do you put them in order? Teachers should be encouraged to think about, not only the questions they are asking as children are working but also the frame that sets students off to larger problem solving and mathematical discoveries – measure and compare the lengths and capacities (ACARA, 2016). It is important for teachers to think about the questions that are embedded in the task itself but must also analyse the questions to ensure that children are set on a path to deeper understanding of the concept being taught rather than rote regurgitation – as evident in the play dough experience chosen. When it comes to questioning, educators “need to know when to probe, when to wait for answers and when to reinforce responses and when not ta ask questions” (NCTM, 1999, p.187). As seen in the ‘play dough’ (Appendix A) activity chosen, educators can introduce the mathematical concept of measurement and connect new knowledge with old through the use of effective questioning which crates a “link between actions and the language” (Knaus, 2013,
During this semester I was lucky to be placed at Mink Shoals in a fifth grade class. I taught a total of five lessons. For my assessment chart I choose to show the progress that my students made on the math lesson. They took a pre-test and a post test. I knew that math was a good subject for about half of the class, and half of the class struggled. I knew this was going to be difficult to teach. Before I taught my lesson I did a lot of planning, but before I planned I worked with students every day in a math group. These math groups showed me what the students understood and did not understand. When I planned my lesson I talked to my cooperating teacher to see what I should go over if I wanted to help prepare them for the smaterbalance. After we talked, I decided to look up standards, and practice math tests to see what I should review for the test. After looking everything over
AJ DAVIS is a department store chain, which has many credit customers. A sample of 50 credit customers is selected with data collected on location, income, credit balance, number of people and years lived in the house
For this week’s Assignment we are given a word problem involving buried treasure and the use of the Pythagorean Theorem. We will use many different ways to attempt to factor down the three quadratic expressions which is in this problem. The problem is as, ““Ahmed has half of a treasure map, which indicates that the treasure is buried in the desert 2x + 6 paces from Castle Rock. Vanessa has the other half of the map. Her half indicates that to find the treasure, one must get to Castle Rock, walk x paces to the north, and then walk 2x + 4 paces to the east. If they share their information, then they can find x and save a lot of digging.
Simulation results will always equal analytical results if 30 trials of the simulation have been conducted.
This allows the student to become increasingly engaged and motivated in the class. Peter is engaged during peer discussion and classroom discussion. Peter is not a ‘leader’ among the group; however, he did participate to complete a multiplication problem in front of the class. During this volunteer time, Peter was aided by his peer, Michael to further his understanding of repeated addition. It has also been discovered throughout the school year that Peter is a hands on learner; the manipulatives present in the lesson keep Peter more engaged and increase his learning outcomes. Peter was able to complete the multiplication problem 10x3 on the board using the area model format; this displays that Peter understands the method of breaking numbers into equal groups.
Math manipulatives can have a positive effect on the learning experience of a child. These manipulatives can help students maintain focus and develop a stronger overall understanding of mathematics (Florence). Students respond well to the addition of hands-on activities versus a strictly traditional lecture method of learning. The sense of touch and handling of objects kinesthetically kindles the interest and imagination of the students and assists in building understanding and beyond drill and stimulus-response method used.
While watching National Hockey League (NHL) games, I often heard the play-by-play announcer mention at the start of the third and final period how it would be tough for a team to come back from a one goal deficit. This led me to wonder just how difficult it was mathematically, and how much previous periods affected the final one. In this project, I will investigate whether the scores at the end of the first period affect the final score of NHL games.