We discussed several classroom behaviour management strategies and looked into some of the curriculum that is covered at the grade 7-8 level.
We looked over a sample lesson plan and started thinking about how we would fill one in for a specific topic. (Dividing mixed fractions in my case)
Reflection Question:
What strategy will you use to get the attention of the class? Why? Will you have difficulty in this area?
I like the strategy of flashing the lights on and off a few times. I find this method easy to notice even when you are fairly deeply concentrated on a thought/conversation/etc. It also reminds me of my youth since it was one of the more popular methods used by my elementary teachers. It also doesn't require you to raise your voice above the volume of the class, which at times could be difficult. I hope that this area of classroom management doesn't give me problems, and I think that as long as I lay out my expectations and earn the respect of the class early I should be OK.
Day 2 - Motivation
Reflection Question
o How would you feel about letting student contribute the creation of class rules at the beginning of the year?
I really like the idea of letting the students help create the rules of the classroom. I think this has a lot of benefits and very few cons. If the students create the rules themselves they don't have the excuse that they didn't know the rule was being broken. They are also more likely to agree that the punishment is fair if they had input when the rule was created. It also eliminates some of the power struggle aspect, since if the students helped create the rules, they are no longer breaking your rules when they misbehave, but breaking their own rules. The only real con is that it does take away some time that could be used to cover curriculum material, but in my opinion its well worth the delay.
Day 3 - Learning Goals and Minds On
Would I use punishment in the classroom?
I dont think I would use much, I do however think there is some merit in isolating a student that is disturbing the rest of the class. Robin: I would never do this - probably the worst thing you can do is embarrass a child in front of his or her peers. You should always take the child aside and talk. If you do this in the higher grades you could be in big trouble.
Day 4 - Teaching Strategies - Constructive
What would you do if you felt that the math you will be teaching has no purpose?
Try to explain that even though this concept may not be super relevant in itself its still good practice developing basic math skills that can be put to use with other more useful topics later.
Minds on - we went over some useful minds on activities as a group.
Strategies:
- Visual Organizers
Fairly similar to the Frayer model, but a good way to get a feel for what the students already know about a given topic, and how they visualize it.
- Fermi Problems
These problems are great for getting the students to estimate and justify their estimations.
- Math Stories
These are a good way to get kids that aren't really interested in math to participate by writing their own stories about math.
- Math and Drama
Similar to the maht stories this is a good way to get kids to participate that might not otherwise and also a good way to lighten up what might otherwise be a fairly dry topic.
Day 5 - Manipulatives
Would you use manipulatives? Why or why not? Which ones do you like?
I sure would! I think they're a great for helping kids visualize exactly what's going on.
Day 6 - Teaching Strategies - Technology (Part 1)
today we started off with a really cool bell work activity, which was a good way to introduce why a negative number multiplied by another negative number gives a positive result.
Bell Fun Think of a movie you Like that had at least one good and one bad character How did you feel when (choose positive or negative)
Something good happened to the good character
Something bad happened to the good character
Something good happened to the bad character
Something bad happened to the bad character
Clickers
Next, we used clickers, definitely a neat little tool for either pre-assessing where the students are at, or for a quick anonymous consolidation to see if the students are getting the content presented to them.
Today we discussed the usefulness of homework in the classroom, or rather the lack there of. I tend to agree with the philosophy that homework should be kept fairly minimal for the most part. I do still think that some things can benefit from some well thought out homework questions, not with the purpose of making them spend loads of time on it, but just to reinforce some important concepts that were gone over in class. I also think that homework can be a good tool for encouraging a little parental involvement, which is an important aspect of education in my books.
Day 10 - Individual Differences
we watched a video about just how difficult the class can be for a child with a learning disability. It was interesting to see the classroom from the perspective of someone with a learning disability. I hope that I will be able to make my classroom a warm and encouraging learning environment for any students I may have with Learning disabilities. The video was a little dated, I mean that in the sense of some of the issues he discussed as common practice have been regarded as major no nos for a while now. Such as ripping up a students work in front of the class, telling the students that they should be able to do a certain task, since it's so simple or passing the buck on to the students when they don't understand what's being taught to them. These are philosophies that we now apply to all students, to create a positive learning environment, not just students with difficulties. I also liked the concrete example of where a reward as motivation can be counter productive. If a student is asked to answer a question and can't, offering them a reward to come up with the answer without extra help is just frustrating, because they still can't answer the question if they don't understand.
Day 11 - Wiki Time
We went over wiki progress today, mine is a little behind schedule, but coming along slowly. I also have a lot of information in OneNote that simply needs to be transfered over here.
We also started Ontario Math Curriculum Wiki which will be a great resource to get us started if we're assigned a highschool level math class for our next practicum. It will also come in handy once we have a job teaching.
Watched a video with a bunch of neat strategies for teaching - also discussed some of our personal favorites see Curriculum for some of the ideas discussed and my opinions on them.
Day 14 - Lesson Plans
Today we had no formal class, but met up and worked on our Lesson Plan. Eddie was an awesome partner for this activity, he fired off ideas like crazy, and good ones! His Wiki: Edward Gissing
Day 15-17 - Lesson Plan Presentations
Some great resources were acquired throughout these 3 lessons, some really great ideas were presented by my classmates. See the results here: Lesson Plans
Day 18 - Technology, Individual Differences and Summary
TI83 Calculators! I still love these little guys, I have fond memories of writing super simple programs on them and keeping myself entertained for hours.... in hindsight maybe I should have been paying attention to the lesson, or doing homework, but I had fun. I couldn't recall the syntax and therefore was unable to fully relive the glory days, but it was fun to play around with them again.
Day 1 - Introduction & Classroom Management
We discussed several classroom behaviour management strategies and looked into some of the curriculum that is covered at the grade 7-8 level.
We looked over a sample lesson plan and started thinking about how we would fill one in for a specific topic. (Dividing mixed fractions in my case)
Reflection Question:
I like the strategy of flashing the lights on and off a few times. I find this method easy to notice even when you are fairly deeply concentrated on a thought/conversation/etc. It also reminds me of my youth since it was one of the more popular methods used by my elementary teachers. It also doesn't require you to raise your voice above the volume of the class, which at times could be difficult. I hope that this area of classroom management doesn't give me problems, and I think that as long as I lay out my expectations and earn the respect of the class early I should be OK.
Day 2 - Motivation
Reflection Question
o How would you feel about letting student contribute the creation of class rules at the beginning of the year?
I really like the idea of letting the students help create the rules of the classroom. I think this has a lot of benefits and very few cons. If the students create the rules themselves they don't have the excuse that they didn't know the rule was being broken. They are also more likely to agree that the punishment is fair if they had input when the rule was created. It also eliminates some of the power struggle aspect, since if the students helped create the rules, they are no longer breaking your rules when they misbehave, but breaking their own rules. The only real con is that it does take away some time that could be used to cover curriculum material, but in my opinion its well worth the delay.
Day 3 - Learning Goals and Minds On
Would I use punishment in the classroom?
I dont think I would use much, I do however think there is some merit in isolating a student that is disturbing the rest of the class.
Robin: I would never do this - probably the worst thing you can do is embarrass a child in front of his or her peers.
You should always take the child aside and talk. If you do this in the higher grades you could be in big trouble.
Day 4 - Teaching Strategies - Constructive
What would you do if you felt that the math you will be teaching has no purpose?
Try to explain that even though this concept may not be super relevant in itself its still good practice developing basic math skills that can be put to use with other more useful topics later.
Minds on - we went over some useful minds on activities as a group.
Strategies:
- Visual Organizers
Fairly similar to the Frayer model, but a good way to get a feel for what the students already know about a given topic, and how they visualize it.
- Fermi Problems
These problems are great for getting the students to estimate and justify their estimations.
- Math Stories
These are a good way to get kids that aren't really interested in math to participate by writing their own stories about math.
- Math and Drama
Similar to the maht stories this is a good way to get kids to participate that might not otherwise and also a good way to lighten up what might otherwise be a fairly dry topic.
Day 5 - Manipulatives
Would you use manipulatives? Why or why not? Which ones do you like?
I sure would! I think they're a great for helping kids visualize exactly what's going on.
Day 6 - Teaching Strategies - Technology (Part 1)
today we started off with a really cool bell work activity, which was a good way to introduce why a negative number multiplied by another negative number gives a positive result.
Bell Fun
Think of a movie you Like that had at least one good and one bad character
How did you feel when (choose positive or negative)
Clickers
Next, we used clickers, definitely a neat little tool for either pre-assessing where the students are at, or for a quick anonymous consolidation to see if the students are getting the content presented to them.Guides on using them:
video 1
video 2
Geometer's Sketchpad
The next topic was geometer's sketchpad, also a really cool tool, if technology permits you to use it.Tinker Plots -
Also very cool application, if lab time permits this is a great tool to use during the Data Management units.Day 7 - Teaching strategies with Technology (Part 2)
Khan Academy -
Some really awesome videos for either quickly reviewing a topic myself, or showing to the class.Gizmos
Also cool technology, http://www.explorelearning.com/, could be used if technology resources permit.Day 8 - Discussion & Problem Based Learning
We watched the following video:
Day 9 - Assessment
Today we discussed the usefulness of homework in the classroom, or rather the lack there of. I tend to agree with the philosophy that homework should be kept fairly minimal for the most part. I do still think that some things can benefit from some well thought out homework questions, not with the purpose of making them spend loads of time on it, but just to reinforce some important concepts that were gone over in class. I also think that homework can be a good tool for encouraging a little parental involvement, which is an important aspect of education in my books.
Day 10 - Individual Differences
we watched a video about just how difficult the class can be for a child with a learning disability. It was interesting to see the classroom from the perspective of someone with a learning disability. I hope that I will be able to make my classroom a warm and encouraging learning environment for any students I may have with Learning disabilities. The video was a little dated, I mean that in the sense of some of the issues he discussed as common practice have been regarded as major no nos for a while now. Such as ripping up a students work in front of the class, telling the students that they should be able to do a certain task, since it's so simple or passing the buck on to the students when they don't understand what's being taught to them. These are philosophies that we now apply to all students, to create a positive learning environment, not just students with difficulties. I also liked the concrete example of where a reward as motivation can be counter productive. If a student is asked to answer a question and can't, offering them a reward to come up with the answer without extra help is just frustrating, because they still can't answer the question if they don't understand.
Day 11 - Wiki Time
We went over wiki progress today, mine is a little behind schedule, but coming along slowly. I also have a lot of information in OneNote that simply needs to be transfered over here.
We also started Ontario Math Curriculum Wiki which will be a great resource to get us started if we're assigned a highschool level math class for our next practicum. It will also come in handy once we have a job teaching.
Day 12 - grade 9-12 Math Curriculum
No Class! Worked on Ontario Math Curriculum Wiki / slept in!
Day 13 - teaching strategies
Watched a video with a bunch of neat strategies for teaching - also discussed some of our personal favorites see Curriculum for some of the ideas discussed and my opinions on them.
Day 14 - Lesson Plans
Today we had no formal class, but met up and worked on our Lesson Plan. Eddie was an awesome partner for this activity, he fired off ideas like crazy, and good ones! His Wiki: Edward Gissing
Day 15-17 - Lesson Plan Presentations
Some great resources were acquired throughout these 3 lessons, some really great ideas were presented by my classmates. See the results here: Lesson Plans
Day 18 - Technology, Individual Differences and Summary
TI83 Calculators! I still love these little guys, I have fond memories of writing super simple programs on them and keeping myself entertained for hours.... in hindsight maybe I should have been paying attention to the lesson, or doing homework, but I had fun. I couldn't recall the syntax and therefore was unable to fully relive the glory days, but it was fun to play around with them again.