Mini lesson reflection | noitcelfer nossel iniM
First, as has been said many times already, I liked all of your mini lessons! Each one had a slightly different style, some a bit more rambunctious, others a bit more mellow - it was neat to see all of your different personalities reflected in your lessons. It reminds me why they don't try and fit all of us in one "teacher mold."
I thought the math lesson went ok, but there are some things that could have used a bit more work, for myself. One, it was a bit ironic that Ms. Gaiptman was in the day before talking about organization, and there I was at 3:00am after finishing my sociology paper printing off stuff for the lesson, and cutting up little squares of construction paper over breakfast the next morning. Bleagh. The main problem was that I didn't really have a chance to clear my head and think through what the lesson was going to look like before we stood up and did it, which I think could have really helped.
Second, it was a good learning experience in terms of planning the timing of lessons. It seemed we tried to cram a certain amount (intro, activity, wrapup) into the 15 minutes, instead of trying to plan on what would actually fit into 15 minutes and doing that part in a relaxed/non-hurried manner. It just would have been nice to have a bit more discussion on people's ideas, and see if they could develop their ideas more through discussion - rather than rushing through the sharing of ideas, aborting any discussion, and then me going on to explain the answer on the board.
Third, I wish I had taken a few more minutes to review subject material - as I tried to wrap things up, Anna and Alan both jumped in and commented a couple times (thank you!) when my explanation was a bit incomplete or off base. By the way guys, I'm totally in awe of your knowledge of math - it seems I just can't pull that stuff out of memory and go at it, or teach it intuitively as you two can. So it was a good reminder that for my sake, to have confidence in what I'm saying in front of the class, I'm going to need to review the stuff before I tackle it in a lesson.
Allrighty, that about wraps that up. Cheerio!
posted by Mark at 7:22 AM
2 Comments:
Mark - I like what you had to say about how much stuff was crammed into 15 minutes. While I thought that your group did just fine in that amount of time, there is some unwritten expectation that you (studnet teachers) need to show that you can intro, do an activity, and wrap up a lesson in that amount of time. In an hour class a five minute intro, activity that is guided and a recap of the lesson is suggested, but let's keep in mind for our last mini-lesson that whatever aspect of teaching that you want to work on , should be what you allot enough time for- that is why I wanted comments on the lesson plans as to what you would have done before and after the lesson - so that info didn't get in the way of your teaching.
The being up to 3 am takes me back to me practicum! I was up until 11:30 last night commenting and last minute planning for this class - so new classes are not that unusual to see that - but planning ahead will help lessen that late night planning. In January you all could plan at least 4 weeks worth of activities and projects that will lesson your panic when you lead a class through their first month of the class.
I am still impressed with the creative way that your group facilitated our math learning - thanks!
8:44 AM
Very cute about the post title but that's physics not math. Ha ha ha.
9:36 PM
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