Upon being assigned to Gullett Elementary School for my internship this semester, I have become very familiar with the campus and much of the teachers and staff. It is a very happy and welcoming school with animals and artwork along every hallway. It is also a very open campus - meaning that their are "wings' of grade level classes - so that the school has a very in-door/out-door feel to it.
So far I have only participated in the resource room during the math period of the day. I have observed my cooperation teacher working with a small group of three for math intervention. She uses games and interactive activities to keep the students engaged in the lesson. The lessons are designed to meet the needs of the students individual areas of struggle in math.
My cooperating teacher is one of two resource teachers at Gullett. However, the other teacher is a reading specialist, therefore my cooperating teacher leads all of the mathematics, science, and social studies intervention groups. This means that she is very well verse in mathematical strategies and activities to implement with students who have learning disabilities, or students who just struggle a little bit with the general education curriculum.
I am worried about mathematical vocabulary. For example, I am constantly afraid that I am going to slip up when it comes to using the words "re-group" instead of "borrow" when talking about subtraction. I think that there are so many different ways of teaching math, as well as so many different ways to solve individual math problems, I am constantly concerned about confusing students when it comes to understanding math. I think that in the future when I am teaching these methods of computation, I am going to need help with thinking outside of the box for other ways to solve the problem so that I can show my students all possible ways.
PICTURES TO OUTLINE MY PLACEMENT:
 |
| One of the many animal cages that fill the halls | . | |
|
|
|
 |
| Resource Room / Learning Lab | | | | | |
|
|
|
|
 |
| Many "Math Tool Kits" can be found on the shelves of the Resource Room |
 |
| another section of the math shelf |
 |
| temporary organization of student's work |
 |
| behavior / emotion check-in table |
 |
| Working at the math table |
What a wonderful placement it looks like you have! ☺ Though I totally understand your uncertainties when it comes to math instruction, I think the very presence of these uncertainties is what’s going to make you an effective math instructor. As I think back to the math teachers who made the most difference in my mathematical development, it was not the teachers who necessarily knew the most math facts or had memorized math vocabulary the best that made the most impact; rather, it was the math teachers who could put themselves in my shoes as the learner and who cared enough to make their instruction effective and relevant for me that made me love math and feel competent in my own abilities. I’m sure as an educator you’ll fall into this latter category, and as we have more and more experiences teaching mathematics and practicing thinking like mathematics teachers, such instruction will feel more natural and rewarding rather than worrisome!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great new blog, Katelyn!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reflection and the photos! I can't wait to hear more about it as you get deeper into teaching and observing.
As far are your concerns about "confusing" students, I think we all feel that way about math sometimes. Alli is right, it's not the vocabulary that matters, but rather the relationship you build with students to establish mathematical confidence. I hope you've been learning more about your approach to teaching math this semester, and just learning to listen to their thinking. If you do that, you don't have to worry about using the wrong mathematical terms.
Ah! I completely forgot about the fear you mentioned, the fear of using the wrong terminology during instruction! At the moment, I am experiencing the same fear during our reading intervention/fluency lessons. I never learned word ID that included identifying syllable patterns as a child, so how am I expected to teach it as an adult. We haven't even begun to teach our math lessons, but I am sure that I will come across times where I am thinking, "Shoot what's the word for that step?!?" I agree that there are a variety of ways to teach math and how are we supposed to know the strategies our CT teaches for every individual topic, even those learned in previous years.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, we are still learning so we shouldn't worry about it too much! I just try to listen to my CT as much as possible to see what she's teaching. Your kids are going to learn and love you either way!