Post Math Menu Lesson Thoughts

I taught my observed Math Menu Lesson today and it went really well. It was something that the students really enjoyed because it was so different from their everyday math that they typically do. I started by relating to the students about eating at restaurants then we talked about budgeting. After practicing making plans on how to stay into budget the students explored the different restaurant options and choose where they wanted to eat and with who. A lot of students chose to eat at Taco Cabana and formed one massive group, I split the group into two groups but that was a little chaotic. I think it would have worked better if I set a maximum number of students limit to each group to four students. This would have kept the groups more organized and the expectation would have been set in place ahead of time. The students had a lot of fun placing their orders and trying to get the most for their menu. We came back as a whole group in the end and discussed our budgets and restaurant choices.

Thoughts Prior to Teaching Math Menu Lesson

I am teaching a lesson in math about planning and sticking to a budget. For this lesson I am going to use menu's from local restaurants and student's will go to dinner with a friend and have to stick to budget.This will be an active lesson and I anticipate that the students will really enjoy it. I expect this lesson to be slightly chaotic which is okay. When the students break into groups everyone will be talking and discussing things so the noise level in the room will be high, I just hope it does not get out of control.

Midterm Reflection

My first rotation has been wonderful. It has been a fantastic experience and I have learned a lot! I still feel that all the Professional Attributes that I would not have a problem with was accurate. The ones I felt I might have a problem with were creativity, initiative and risk-taking.

I don’t feel that I am struggling with them as much as I thought I would be. Creativity is still something I have to push myself to do, but my methods teachers have helped me accomplish this by requiring creativity out of our lessons. I have found that when I am creative the students enjoy and benefit from the lesson more. Initiative actually has not been a struggle. My mentor teacher made her classroom very welcoming and I felt comfortable getting involved and taking initiative. Risk-taking is still something that I struggle with but am getting more comfortable with. I find if I am in an environment where I trust the people around me then I am more likely to take risks.

I have learned that teaching is not a job where you have short days and you can leave your work at work and forget about it. I have been averaging 10 hour days on the days I am with my mentor teacher. It takes time to create lessons and then there is always after school activities or tutoring, it is never ending but it is definitely worth it. This is not a job where I watch the clock, time just flies.
I have really had challenges with not getting emotional over everything my little kids go through outside of school. Some of their lives are so tough and I have to try hard to not bring home all the baggage with me on a daily basis. When kids bring up things that are of concern to me or the class I discuss it with my mentor teacher to see how she handles it. She usually has the child document the even either by writing a story or drawing pictures and when necessary the event gets reported to the school counselor or whatever person necessary.

My personal learning goal for the remainder of the semester is to grasp a better understanding on how to write objectives and lessons for an inclusion classroom. I spent my first rotation in the 2nd grade inclusion classroom and will spend my second rotation in the 3rd grade inclusion classroom at Westwood Elementary and targeting lessons to reach all of the students can be a very difficult task. If I can get master this it will greatly benefit me.