Reflection on High School Mathematics Strategies

After observing many mathematics teachers in my district I have seen many strategies being used in the high school classroom environment. Many of the strategies that I have seen are successful for teaching mathematics, though there are some that are not. My blog is going to talk about five strategies that are used successfully for the high school math classroom and one strategy that I feel is not successful. For each of these strategies I will include a video on what they are and how they are used in the classroom. If there is anyone that feels I have not included a strategy that would be useful or feel that the strategy that I picked for no use in this particular type of classroom, please feel free to leave me a comment.

The first strategy that I feel is successful in the mathematics classroom is Collaborative or Cooperative Learning. Collaborative learning is an approach where students are encouraged to learn in small groups to achieve the same task. I feel that this approach to learning has become essential in a mathematics classroom, mostly due to the implementation of Common Core. The Common Core standards require a more collaborative environment. The standards are based on using

Reflection on Teacher Evaluation

Currently being worked on! Come back later to check it out!

Tackling Grading

     I recently had to read this great article by Rebecca Alber about grading in the classroom. As a future mathematics teacher for high school, before reading this article I never really took the time to think about grading. This article had some great ideas and made me think of a few on my own. If you would like to read this article it is available at: http://www.edutopia.org/grading-dilemma-strategies-tactics. Feel free to read this article and leave comments! I would love to know if there are some other great grading ideas out there!

Peer/Self Assessments
     Students in high school can purposely give a student a bad score just because they do not get along. Even if students do not grade fairly, it may be able to spot. However, if the goal was to ensure that you, as the teacher, has less grading, what would be the point if you have to go through all of them yourself anyway?
The positive with peer assessments is that students can learn from each other about what is acceptable in the classroom. Self assessment is a great tool to use for grading. It gets each student involved in their own success, or sometimes failure. For students in high school, it is important for them to start learning how to be accountable for their own actions.

The One-in-Four Rule
     The one in four rule is to grade one out of every four assignments. I have never heard of this rule before. However, I did have a teacher that explained to me how important it was to grade assignments and get the back as soon as possible. With this rule, I feel that getting the students their graded assignments back quickly will be so much easier. I also feel that this rule can even be added to by including grading just the problems that students are having the most difficulty with. For example, in my future high school math classroom I may give them credit for turning in their homework, but examine closely their word problems and make comments to help them feel more comfortable with these types of problems.

The Stamping Method
     I loved Rebecca Alber's idea with creating your own stamps for the classroom. What a great way to personalize your classroom and encourage your students! Stamping cuts down the grading time. I believe that switching the stamping between a stamp for credit and a stamp that is based on how well the students are doing on the homework. This is important because the students don't know what is the stamp for the day so they have to make sure their homework is done.

Student Journals
     I love the idea for student journals. I feel that students in high school need to learn these important study and note-taking skills so they can use it throughout their college careers. In a high school mathematics classroom with Common Core Standards, the students need to learn to write about how a problem is solved. I feel that this is important because if you can teach it, you know it. This way the students can talk about the problems with each other and help each other succeed.

     As a future teacher, I know that when it comes to rewarding a student, no matter their age, it is not always about the reward, it is about the fact that you took the time to recognize the student for their skills. Some students do not get this kind of attention at home. So, as the teacher, you can provide some motivation, even if it is giving a sticker that you got from the Dollar Store!

High Expectations

This blog will explain how I am going to communicate high expectations to my students. Come back later to see how I can achieve this in a high school mathematics classroom.

Writing Lesson Plans...

When it comes to writing lesson plans, all teachers can think of is work,Work, WORK!! Successful lesson plans need to be thought out very carefully and tailored to fit your classroom. Each of your classes have a different groups of students with different capabilities. You may encounter a class that understands the lesson quicker than others. If you run into a class like this, you need to have a lesson plan that has other activities (maybe they are more challenging, maybe they are different, or maybe you move to the next lesson). As a teacher, being prepared with your lesson plans and the ability to change the classroom based on your students level is extremely important. 

My favorite part about writing a lesson plan is finding the anticipatory set! I think that the anticipatory set is the most important part of the lesson plan. Why you ask??? Well as a soon to be high school mathematics teacher, I feel that students do not have much interest in mathematics because they cannot relate to the process. Students also have a hard time seeing the end product, the reason why we learn the concepts in mathematics. As a teacher creating or finding the anticipatory set, I am finding the reason why students should be focusing on what I am teaching them. It is the hook of the lesson! I have to catch the students attention and Keep it! Whether I do this through a problem students often face or I find a really great YouTube video that keeps the kids excited about learning. 

My least favorite part of lesson planning is deciding what standards I can hit with every lesson. I think that choosing the standards is the most tedious part of the lesson. Often times the standards are written in awkward language and are hard to interpret. Also, when it comes to mathematics, most of the time the students that come into the classroom are behind so I have to teach them standards that they were supposed to learn from last year or a few years ago. 

I believe that when I am able to start teaching these lesson plans in a classroom I will be able to determine if I need more structure or options in certain areas. I also feel that my format of lesson planning may change as I accumulate more years of teaching experience. 

This is one of my assignments to receive my teaching credential. If I were to write this module that we just concluded. I would include a group assignment, which groups everyone based on their area. This assignment would have us all write a lesson plan. After we have all written our lesson plans, we would meet and talk about all of our lesson plans. (What we liked? What we didn't? Give each other ideas about the parts of our lesson plans. Talk about our experiences of trying certain things in the classroom.)

Formative Assessment

Check out my video of my presentation on Formative Assessments!!!!!!!!

Video on Observed Classroom with Differentiated Instruction

Check out my video on my experiences with differentiated instruction!