TED 5780 Student Teaching

LESSON 1

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: Teacher Reflection

Todays activity was a really good practice for students and it was effective.
First thing we thought about before doing the activity is how to form groups.
We didnt want the students to form their own groups because we know
they tend to select their friends. The goal of the activity is for students to
learn and work effectively with each other rather than socializing and being
off task. So, by assigning who works with who was better than letting
students choose their own partner.
Another thing that worked well was giving some students one-on-one
support. Students, who did not do well on the exit ticket that was given
yesterday, got one-on-one tutoring with the special education teacher. The
special education went over their exit ticket with them and helped them get
the support they need so that they are able to complete the activity with
their partners. For example, Edsel, who is one of the special education
students and is considered a low learner, was able to finish the activity on
time today. After he got the one-on-one support, he did excellent on the
activity; he and his partner finished it on time and turned in their work with
it. He usually does not finish his classwork on time, so he gets extra time to
take it as homework to complete it. This time, I was really impressed and I
was happy he was able to finish his classwork on time.

One thing that did not work well was checking on student progress and
comprehension. As I was walking around to help the students, I was doing
well with guiding them through the process with intentional questioning
rather than helping them with answers. Some students I was guiding them
by questioning them, some others I was showing them more than
questioning. Next time, I have to make sure I pause before I help or answer
students questions and see if I can guide them by rephrasing my words into
questions to help them come to the conclusions themselves. I will make
sure I guide them through questions that will allow them to determine the
strategies and steps needed for them to do.
What allowed me to determine whether or not each of the outcomes for the
lesson were met are the exit tickets that were given to students yesterday
and after todays activity. Comparing yesterdays exit ticket and the exit
ticket given after todays activity, I noticed a big difference. There was an
increase in correct answers and retention. Students did better on the exit
ticket given after the activity. I think that is because the activity gave the
students the chance to practice solving more of those problems and they
were working with others and get more support.
From the assessment and evaluation of todays lesson, the most common
mistake I noticed in students work is finding the x-intercepts part. This part
requires the students to follow three steps: expand, simplify, and then
factor. What students struggled with was expanding the binomial. Binomial
expansion was previously taught during the guided SLOT notes, where we
taught two ways of expanding. One way was the long way which is rewriting
the binomial twice and then using the FOIL (distribution) method to expand.
 The other way was a quick trick where they only need to follow three guided
steps. Students felt more comfortable with the trick way rather than the
long way, so we decided to continue with the trick way. However, when we
taught the vertex form, expanding binomials was part of it, but because
there was an additional number next to the binomial, students got
confused. Here is an example of what I mean by what I said above:
( x+1 )2 25

This quadratic equation is in the vertex form.

2
The first part which is: ( x+1 ) is a binomial which needs to be expanded.

So students were okay with this, but because the 25 was there, they
got confused of what to do with it. We had to clarify that they need to
rewrite it down after they do the expansion and then simplify it with its
other like term.

Students were still messing up on that, but we will continue to do more

practice and find other methods and strategies of explaining it differently if
needed. Overall, everything else was good and everyone worked hard and
did their work.

LESSON 2

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: Teacher Reflection

The overall lesson went well and students were able to understand the concepts taught
from this lesson. Students were also engaged and involved in the learning.

The aspects that worked well in this lesson are the guided notes and the verbal
assessment where students volunteered to do the problem on the board. This is
because the guided notes helped students understand how to find the parts of the
equation in intercept form. Also, giving students the opportunity to volunteer
helped me as a teacher identify how much students understood from the lesson.
The portion of the lesson that did not go as planned is finding the axis of
symmetry, the vertex, and the y-intercept. Students kept forgetting to take the
opposite signs of what was inside the parentheses which are the p and q and
sometimes forgetting to apply the a when plugging the x-value to find the y-
value of the vertex point. I think this is because students tend to rush to solve the
problem without looking at the problem and its variables carefully. Even when
walking around to assess the students, they would say that they forget to talk the
opposite signs. When plugging in the x-value to find the y-value of the vertex point,
they dont consider the a value in the original equation anymore. They ignore it
and only plug in the x which then gives them the wrong answer.
Next time, I will make sure to give more examples and emphasize the important
things students need to know before doing any activity. I will also make sure to
 rephrase my words if students do not seem to understand and use different
methods of explaining to better support students learning. Another thing I will do
is to make sure to check on every student when I walk around to assess them
during individual practice.
Choosing students to volunteer on the board and playing the kahoot game were
not enough evidence that allowed me to determine whether or not each of the
outcomes for the lesson were met. In our classroom, we have students with
different learning preferences as well as different personalities. For example, some
students are reflective learners; they do not speak often in class and typically
develop ideas and questions in their minds before speaking. We have others who
are shy and feel uncomfortable speaking in front of groups or get up on the board.
For these reasons, my goal next time is to create conditions that enable students
of various learning preferences and personalities to contribute. I will need to
encourage quiet students to speak up and ask the more speaking students to hold
back from answering in order to give others a chance.
Since this lesson is a 3 day long, I will use the data from todays assessment to
inform future lessons by implementing new methods of teaching the lesson and
creating activities that will focus on what students struggles with mostly. For
example, I saw that students struggled more on finding the vertex point because
they kept ignoring the a value. What I would do to help them understand better
is give them different questions that ask them to find the vertex point. Then
discuss these questions together as a whole class. Another thing I would do is to
assign each student a question to answer on their own and after that get up on the
board to write their answers. Then we will compare answers and discuss what is
right and what is wrong and why.

Self-Study Video

Lesson Plan: Testing Bridge Thickness

Teaching Self- Study Reflection

I liked the lesson plan and the activity that was involved. Students did an

experiment to discover mathematical patterns involved in building bridges. Students also

explored relationships between variables. They represented relationships in graphs and

tables, and used patterns to help them express those relationships as equations. With

this activity, students collect data, search for patterns in graphs and tables of the data,

and use those patterns to make predictions. The goal of the lesson was for students to

see that the relationship between the bridge layers and the pennies (breaking weight)

was linear. The more layers are added, the more pennies are needed to break the bridge.
 This did not go well for all the students. Some errors occurred with the data

students came up with; the breaking weight was not linear. Some students had a graph

that was close to linear, but not exact and the table did not show a constant rate of

change. Errors that occur are related to how accurate the bridge is built. First, when

building the bridge using the printing paper, it is important to make sure that folding up

on each long side is one inch. Second, when suspending the bridge between the books,

the bridge should overlap each book by about one inch, and then placing the cup in the

center of the bridge. Third, when putting the pennies into the cup, it has to be one at a

time until the bridge collapses. If these steps are not accurate, the breaking weight will

not be linear.

I think this is why the results did not come up as expected for everyone. A mistake

I noticed while watching the video is that I rushed through the demonstration at the

beginning, so I did not explain each step in detail. It would have been better if I provided

the students with instructions sheet after doing the demonstration. I needed to explain

what it means for a bridge to collapse and discuss ways to minimize variability, such as

marking the books to indicate where the strips will be placed, marking the strips to

indicate where the cup will be placed, and using a consistent method for adding pennies

to the cup. These instructions would have helped students avoid errors in recording.

From this lesson, I learned that it is important to make sure and keep in mind that

when explaining, it is clear and understandable for the students. What I also learned is

that using video as a tool in teacher reflection was beneficial for helping me to evaluate

my teaching. After using video to reflect, I was able to: identify gaps between my beliefs

about good teaching and my actual teaching practices, notice things about my teaching

that I did not remember, focus my reflections on multiple aspects of classroom teaching,

and assess the strengths and weaknesses of my teaching. When I video recorded myself,

I was finally able to see myself as students see me. This gave me great insight into what
I do well, but also into the many flaws that I have as a teacher too. Watching myself

teach made my mistakes apparent and gave me the opportunity to reflect on how to

improve.