First lesson experiences from my perspective

The students were confused at the beginning. Then they begin using trail and error. Students began making progress when they started working together. As time passed, students continued being engaged in the problem. They became excited once they found the value of a variable. They really worked well together, and students who finished first begin assisting other students. During the final class discussion, students were able to explain how and why they had their answers.

Expectations about going to Sandtown Middle School

I honestly do not know what to expect. This will be my first time seeing an entire lesson done by problem based teaching with middle school students. Although the task is an algebra task, I feel the 6th graders will have access to the problem based on our group planning. I am looking forward to this lesson.

I also believe it may be a challenge because we do not know these students. We don’t know their ability level. Although I understand all lessons do not go as planned, I believe we as teachers are better prepared when we know our students and their learning styles.

Teaching without Procedure?

I understand the importance of students constructing knowledge. I also understand that problems/tasks should be relevant to the lives of students. But how who I teach order of operations, without giving rules. I think this is a topic that will have to be taught through procedure. Another topic is slope, a student can understand the concept of slope, but without giving the student the formula m=y2-y1/x2-x1. How will students solve a problem?

Importance of Relevant Task

Problems that are relevant to the lives of students are interesting because it is something to relate to. Middle school students need to be engaged to learn. By having good problems/tasks that students can relate to, we should be able to assist student in learning and making connections to what they already know.

First Lesson Plan

One major change made to my lesson plan was the big idea. The new big ideas were a bigger picture of what the lesson plan was about. Big ideas are important because they identify what is require to be learn by the end of the lesson. I also had to make changes in the before stage.
The first lesson plan was mostly teacher-center. The opening started with the word “fraction” on the board and students were to individually write a definition for the word, using pictures, diagrams, words, etc. Students would then label all known parts of the fraction: fraction bar, numerator, and denominator. Next they would answer a series of questions, including what does numerator mean? What does it stand for? What does denominator? Again this process was teacher-centered and depending on previous lessons taught by the teacher, not constructed knowledge. There was also no clear task, students were asked to compare fractions 1/10, 2/5, and 4/10. This was not a clear problem-based task. As a result the task was changed to
There are eighteen pencils on the table. Ten of the pencils are sharp. What fractions of pencils are sharp? What fractions of the pencils are not sharp? Are there more pencils sharp or not sharp?
This task is more student center. Teacher would monitor student’s progress.

Letting Go.

To me letting go means avoiding direct instruction. Letting go allows students to think for themselves and allow conversation among students. This allows students to utilize and sharpen their thinking skills. Letting go, may be difficult because it is a new concept to us. We want to teach the way we were taught. But in order to teach what needs to be taught by the new Performance Standards, we may need to try constructivism as the new deliver of mathematic concept. I am willing and definitely will try these new concepts in my classroom. However, I know I will definitely need to work my questioning technique. Again, as a new concept, it may seem hard. Only because it is different, it is not what we are use to doing. But I believe it is doable.

Math in the Real World

Math is used all the time. We use math in our personal lives to balance our checking accounts, to calculate or estimate our groceries bills, to set monthly budgets, just to name a few. A sales company may use math to budget expenses, make sales predictions, interpreting graphs and charts and analyzing data. A mortgage company uses math to calculate monthly payments for loans depending on the amount borrowed, the interest rate and the time period of the loan. Tire shops use the circumference and area of a tire and/or rim to determine if it will fix on a specific car.

Math is all around us. Math teachers should use this to our advantage. We should find information and problems that are relative to experiences of our students. By using relative information and problems, the students are more likely to retain information.