Date

Time

Description of
Visit

Reflection

2/5/15

1:402:40

Since today was my first

time in Mrs. Dowlings
class, she allowed me to
make a formal
introduction to the class
stating who I was and why
I was there. Afterwards
she went back into the
going over a test they
took previously, on metric
conversions. She was
upset with the test scores
in her class and was doing
a review on the content,
so they could retake the
test a score a higher
grade.

The first thing I noticed with

this particular class was that
all of the students are of the
African American ethnicity.
Although I found out later on
that she has a total of 21
students, there were only 15
students in class. I was
then told that some of the
students have other
obligations that they are
committed to, so they were
elsewhere. I could tell that
Mrs. Dowling was just as
bothered about the absence
of her students as I was. I
was left wondering what is
more important than getting
your education.

4/13/15

12:303:30

Today in class Mrs. Dowling

was teaching a lesson on
how to add and subtract
fractions with unlike
denominators. Although the
Common Core Standard had
a particular way that they
went about solving these
problems, Mrs. Dowling
taught them using the
butterfly method. After
going over several examples
and having the students
work it out on paper, most
of the students seemed fully
confident and able to do it
on their own. Mrs. Dowling
used both the Promethean
board to have the students
show how they got the
solution, as well as the
overhead projector to first
demonstrate how to solve

I noticed today that a lot of

the students were preoccupied
today during Mrs. Dowlings
lesson. She had to stop
several times to remind them
to pay attention, or else their
IPads would be confiscated.
Most of the students started to
pay more attention after the
threat, but there was still a few
students who had that I dont
care attitude. When the
students were doing their
independent practice, she
spoke with each one
separately to see why they
were having such difficulty
paying attention to the lesson.
I thought that this was very
effective because she was
seeking feedback from her
students, as well as showing
them that she cares about

4/20/15

9:3011:30

4/21/15

8:0010:00

4/22/15

8:0010:00

these types of problems

Since last week Mrs.
Dowlings students have
been preparing for the PASS
testing coming up in a week
or two. Shes basically
doing a review of everything
that was taught previously
to ensure that her students
were fully capable of
passing the standardized
test. The students didnt
seem too worried about the
test even though Mrs.
Dowling told them the
importance of taking this
test.
Today I presented my lesson
plan to Mrs. Dowlings class.
Since it was early the
students were initially a little
rowdy but calmed down
after a while. My lesson was
focused on adding and
subtracting fractions with
unlike denominators. A
topic that was covered the
previous week. Considering
that the students were doing
a review I figured that it
would be good to do a
review on this topic.
Overall, the students seem
to enjoy my lesson and the
activity. The lesson was
longer than anticipated but I
would consider it to be an
effective lesson.
Today will be my last day
with Mrs. Dowlings class.
Informed her students that
today was my last day, and
they all genuinely seemed
upset. I received a swarm of
hugs and Im going to miss
you. It was very touching

their feelings.
As Mrs. Dowling was
instructing her students I could
tell from the students faces
that they had forgotten a good
bit of information. Mrs.
Dowling was able to see it too,
and proceeded to review all
major areas that will be
covered on the exam. She did
a series of PowerPoints,
simulations, and
activities/games to promote
student engagement during
the review. She based the
review on the low test scores
of the class in certain areas.
I was extremely nervous
presenting this lesson at first,
and I feel that the students fed
off of my nervous energy.
After I had the students
complete their independent
practice I calmed down a little
bit and felt a little more
comfortable. I was a little
upset with the students
behavior during my activity. I
had students complain to me
that certain things werent
fair, students got attitudes
when they got their question
wrong, and some were just out
of control for a good period of
the lesson. Reflecting back on
my lesson I realize that I have
a lot of work to do when it
comes to classroom
management.
Since today was my last day I
wanted to help Mrs. Dowling in
any way that I could, so she
gave me several worksheets
and tests to grade. While
grading papers I noticed a
different aura in the class.
Although she was missing

to see how much I impacted

the students. Once they got
all of that off of their chest
Mrs. Dowling moved on to
the review. This time she
was going over finding the
volume in a threedimensional shape. The
students really enjoyed this
review because they were
able to go up to the
Promethean board and tell
the class what the volume of
a specific shape was, and
how they solved it. The
students really seem to
enjoy taking the teachers
place every once in a while,
and explaining how to solve
a particular problem.

quite a few students, most if

not all of the students were
paying close attention to the
lesson. Even some of the
students who are known for
being talkative and not paying
attention, were extremely
attentive today. Im not sure
what was discussed before my
arrival, but Mrs. Dowling did a
great job getting the students
attention and having them
cooperate in teaching how to
find the volume of a threedimensional object. I can
honestly say that I will miss
both Mrs. Dowling and her
students. I promised Mrs.
Dowling that I would keep in
touch and she told me that if I
never anything just give her a
ring.