Sylvia Martin

Due: May 20, 2015

Portfolio: MA Adolescent Math Education

Reflection - Domain B: Skills
As teachers, there are many hats we wear. We have to be good listeners, good
communicators, be caring and sympathetic to students needs. We have to be good at time
management and good at multi-tasking. As a student teacher, all of these things became evident
quickly. These are all skills that need to be nurtured and honed. I had a very supportive
cooperative teacher who not only helped me but who himself was open to refining his skills.
At the forefront of successful teaching is planning. I recall a very helpful quote, he who
fails to prepare, prepares to fail. This is a mantra I say to myself whenever I think I can
probably wing something. There is no better feeling than to be ready for students questions
once the lesson is in full swing. This keeps the a good discussion momentum. Additionally,
when you have really gone over and above being ready, you can even bring real life applications
to class. This is powerful support for when a student says, why do I need to know this Miss?
While many topics can be found and leveraged from text books, the internet or fellow
teachers, I wanted to put my own structure to the learning progression. As a result it could take
me hours to plan and develop a lesson from selecting a Do Now that would provide appropriate
practice in a skill they would utilize or build upon in the lesson to lesson transition points and
how much time to allot for individual and group work. As a reflective teacher, I made notes
following each lesson in order to improve and adjust any parts that were tricky or were not
effective. My ultimate goal is for the material to be accessible to all students. In the event we
ran out of time, I reflected on whether it was my teaching approach or the content itself that
needed adjusting or required more time. As a student teacher, I often found myself running out

of time. Week after week I found ways to multi-task so that things were not so sequential. What
I mean is that as one student wrote on the smartboard, I would have other students go to the side
white boards since only one student can write on the smartboard at a time. I would also begin
asking students to go to the board well before the timer was finished, about half way. This
helped to align the times-up buzzer with the solutions being ready for review. Another helpful
way to manage time is to select students randomly from a fairness cup. In a solo 16 oz. cup I
had Popsicle sticks with students names and we would select names to participate in the we do
questions or whenever I wanted to reinforce the steps in a process.
Naturally the best laid plans are sometimes foiled with disruptive behavior or outside
interruptions requiring teachers to be quick to respond and quick to return to teaching. This
requires a caring demeanor despite the situation that is occurring. My thoughts are that if a
student is being disruptive perhaps he/she is having a bad day and perhaps a little extra kindness
might settle them. Maybe the student needs to release some energy. Simple jobs can be saved
for just such an occasion when a student is antsy and cant stay put in their seat. Instead of
coming down on the student and stressing him/her and myself out, I would rather give him/her a
task that allows him/her to move around. I might ask, can you help me with something?, and
then have him/her pass out graded classwork or collect the current days Do Now.
In the school where I student teach there is a uniform and no hat policy, so you also have
to keep your eyes open and remind students immediately to either get a shirt or make sure it is
their outer most layer and remove hoodies and hats from their heads. This can take away from
class time so the sooner it can be addressed the less chance it will disrupt the lesson. Lateness is
another big concern in the high school where I student teach. As a practicing teacher, I would
like to establish a routine whereby late comers can catch up on the lesson and also include them

in the class discussion as soon as possible. I have not yet formalized it, but it may be an
annotated version of the lesson that they could read through. I would also pair students with a
partner or buddy so that scaffolding can occur, for late comers and classmates in general. Often
the same students are late and I want to make sure and keep them included and involved.
Math is most likely one of the more feared subjects by students. This could be at the root
for lateness but also for a negative attitude towards math, especially when a student says, When
will I ever use this in life? I addressed a question like this once by saying, if you become an
engineer or a scientist you might need to know how to deal with negative exponents. This
actually occurred on a day I was observed by one of the high schools assistant principals. He
suggested I can diffuse such questions with a class project that engaged students in reporting on a
real life profession that uses math. I thought this was genius and something I would definitely
want to do with my students at the start of a school year so we could post everyones work for
easy reference throughout the year. Also, wherever math can be tied back to making a good
salary students pay attention.
After all our noble efforts to reach students with the material, we must assess their
understanding and ability to repeat certain processes. Prior to any assessment you want to
inform students of the timing and content of the test. This allows them time to plan and study.
Additionally, there needs to be at least 1 day of review in order to remind students and level set
the topics that will be assessed. The format of the exam should be consistent with in class
questions they have experience with. There should be enough space provided for computations
and for free response questions. In order to promote continued learning, feedback needs to be
provided so students know where they went wrong in their approach. Finally, a thorough
assessment item analysis will inform teachers how they might improve their assessing skill.