Passionate Teacher Reflection Teaching a lesson to a 6th grade math class was a very good learning experience. When planning out my lesson I wanted to make sure that my lesson was very educational, effective, and engaging. I learned a lot by spending my Tuesdays at Wedgewood Park in Milwaukee and being around the students on a regular basis helped me to better understand student engagement and how teachers can promote it. After reading “The Passionate Teacher” written by Robert Fried along with my experiences at Wedgewood found connections between the two on how to engage students. To further involve and engage my students I used many of the High Leverage Practices in my lesson. In this reflection I will further explore the knowledge I gained …show more content…
By reading “The Passionate Teacher” I was able to learn more about how teachers can promote more student engagement in their classrooms. An inspirational quote that really stood out to me was, “Students need us, not because we have all the answers, but because we can help them discover the right questions,” (29). I believe that teaching should be more of a partnership between the teacher and student. They must work together to accomplish educational goals and learn from one another together. Teachers should not just be the expert of knowledge, but instead be a helpful guide that can help students with their struggles and give them extra assistance when needed. As I helped out students at Wedgewood Park I kept this particular quote in mind so that I would remember to work with the student as a partner problem solver so that the student can understand concepts and material easier. To involve the students that I worked with I made sure to ask them questions and worked on the problems together so that I wasn’t just lecturing and doing all of the …show more content…
In my video lesson I taught the students a new math concept on how to solve 2 step inequalities that involve negative numbers. I first started out by gaging student knowledge by doing a review and then having the students solve a simple inequality. I had the students write on whiteboards so that I could see their work as the solved the equation that I wrote on the board. The students would then show me their answers. If the student had the answer wrong I would look at their work, find where they had made an error, and advise them on how they could fix it. Once most of the students had gotten the answer correct I would progressively start to make the equations more difficult. As it got more difficult I was able to introduce how to solve 2 step inequalities with negative numbers. To make sure that students understood what I was teaching them I watched them solve some more equations and helped them if needed. Luckily almost all of the students understood what I had taught them. When teaching my lesson I had also tried to engage the students, by leading a discussion. I started with a review and I drew some terms dealing with inequalities and asked the students what exactly each meant. I thought that this was extremely important as Fried mentioned in his book, “One of the best ways to
Depending on the topic, certain pedagogies fail to facilitate the understanding that is necessary to continue a student’s growth in the subject. Connecting with the students is important, especially with our centennial generation, who need the social connection more than any other. They do not know a world before technology and the connections that it facilitates, the choice to voice opinions and be heard. This follows well with the training that I participated in this summer, Captivating Kids Hearts (CKH). Our school is promoting the activities, allowing us to integrate collaborative codes of conduct and positive affirmations. During our training we spent time learning how to connect with each other on a personal level, emotions were difficult, but what it has given me is the permission to take time to make better connections with my students. What I have found is that class seems to work smoother, and I expect to see other changes as the year
The job of a teacher is never easy but we have seen how cooperative discipline and enabling students to feel capable, connected and contributing can improve classroom management and maybe even our own moods. If we create an environment of mutual respect and give our students legitimate power of voice and choice in the classroom we will see positive results in improved student behavior and student achievement. Because when our students believe that they can succeed, they will.
In this interview I conducted with my host teacher at Benton STEM Elementary, I talked about the various ways that she explores strategies inside her classroom for how students are provided access to mathematical learning experiences. My host teacher has been teaching elementary education for eleven years now and is currently teaching 2nd grade. Talking with her about the various methods that she uses in the classroom really informed me of how I want to teach as a future educator. When conducting the interview, we talked from the differentiation practices that she uses in her classroom when teaching mathematics. I will be connecting this interview to chapter 5 by Jo Boaler that I read on tracking in the mainstream classroom and how students mathematical abilities are affected by this.
What is the most effective way to teach? Can students really learn and fully understand the material teachers convey to them on a day to day basis? According to a middle school mathematics teacher, his methods of teaching the traditional way was not as effective and producing a long-term impact as he would have liked. The article "Never Say Anything a Kid Can Say!" enriches us to the possibility of applying slight gradual modifications to our teaching methods and how we could find ways to utilize that information in the search for more effective teaching methods to encourage students to explain their thinking and become more deeply involved in the classroom discussions, thus developing their questioning skills (Reinhart, 2000). After analyzing his research, I can say as an aspiring Mathematics teacher myself, there are some positive aspects to his newfound teaching methods, as well as some questions of concern that I have pertaining the longevity of this approach to teaching.
The key aspect of teaching is engaging the students. I can testify that I learn best when the teacher is involving me, as well as others, in the assignment. Making the material personal is a useful skill and helps the students learn at a faster rate.
In my teaching, I use the principles of active and cooperative learning. As a teacher I encourage students to understand concepts and apply them to problems, rather than simply memorize information. I have observed that the students’ motivation is the highest when I incorporate real-world examples in lectures and laboratory instructions. Most impor...
These authentic learning activities are more engaging for the students and allow for a wide range of learning styles. It is imperative that all teachers attempt to integrate these experiences into their classroom as often as possible. These activities usually take more time and energy to plan and implement, but the benefit to the students make the extra work worthwhile.
Robinsons says that, “In fact, the real challenges for education will only be met by empowering passionate and creative teachers and by firing up the imaginations and motivations of the students.” (247). The reason why he says that is because most often having a teacher not take a lot of interest in what they are teaching or not having the inspiration in wanting to get students excited for learning. What he means by this is
To do this and make this happen, students need to learn through their own personal experiences by being engaged by the resources, tools, material, empowered educators, and learning about the things they are interested in. This can happen if teacher are protecting student growth. Teachers need to be more active when it comes to participating and guiding thee students through learning and
Each year, as a new group of students enter my classroom, I will encourage them to be expressive of their imaginations in their favorite subjects, whether it will be art, literature, math or music. We all have rules and regulations to follow, and each student will know that there is no exception in the school or the classroom. Another goal in my classroom will be to keep the students excited about learning, not to treat school as a game or a social event, but to encourage a unique and fun atmosphere to learn.
A teacher today needs to have an ability to relate to and create partnerships not with their students, but also families, administrators and other professionals. This ensures that all persons involved with the education of the student are on the same page. All involved then work in harmony and help each other achieve the common goal of educating the student in the best possible way for the best possible result. (Wesley, 1998, p 80)
This being my first year of teaching I feel there are so many things that I have learned, and have helped me too become a good teacher. Yet I have so much more to learn, I still believe that students have the ability to learn and as a teacher it is my job to find ways to help them to become the best person they can be. Through being a reflective teacher, using professionalism, respecting diversity and having collaboration and community connecting this can be accomplished. When I am having fun teaching the student will have learning that material, this will help them to be relaxed and engaged in that lesson. I feel it is important to connect what they are learning to things that they have experienced in the real-world.
Many students view mathematics as a very difficult subject since it does not only focusses on numbers but also in letters. Mathematics does not only require the students to come up with an answer but it also requires them to show the solutions on how they arrived at the answer. While in elementary, students were already taught on how to solve problems in a step-by-step procedure starting with what is asked in the problem, what are the given, make a number sentence or formulate an equation and solve the problem. These procedures are called problem-solving which cannot only apply in mathematics but also in other areas such as in Science, businesses and most
Indeed, involving the students in the learning process can only enhance learning and self-development. Infusing the love of learning within the students may encourage them to become lifelong learners, always striving to become better knowledgeable citizens, long after compulsory schooling. I find teaching to be an ongoing, continuous yet challenging process that is rewarding in return. I see no end for improvement. I want to be a teacher who even after years of teaching, still strives to make each lesson better than the previous one, with my mind set on engaging my students to love Physics and Science as much as I do.
The second step in developing an engaging lesson is to focus on the instructional strategies used to help the students understand the material. It is at this point, the teacher decides what activities they will use to help address the “big ideas” or the “essential questions”.