Mar. 10th and 11th.

MARCH 10TH

Pre-Algebra Classes

Today I was continuing the discussion on finding the area of shapes. After looking at the students' responses to some of the trapezoidal areas, I decided to start off the class with a frayer Model that involved identifying shapes to understand which area formula to use. It was nice for them to realize what kind of shape they were working with. I also had the students work on a worksheet about area, with a little remediation on using Pythagorean Theorem. I thought this was a great idea because they had some trouble on the ISTEP prep test over the Pythagorean Theorem, and really have no idea when to use it in general. So I thought that showing them when they need to use the theorem is as important as knowing how to use it as well. Many students did well with understanding what needed to be done, but there were also students that needed help across the board. With this worksheet, I not only had them find the area, I also had them name the shape so they could go to their Frayer reference sheet to find what area formula goes with each shape. This seemed to work pretty well, and students were now able to distinguish between a Parallelogram and a Trapezoid. The principal walked into today's class and really liked the remediation I had chosen to do. I found out how he liked it because he talked to my cooperating teacher while it was all going on. I felt proud to know that the principal thought well of what I was doing in his school's classroom.

Algebra Classes

Today was yet another day of solving quadratic equations by both graphing and finding the square root. In 4th period I corrected any lost souls that might have been lost. My teacher said he was going to do what he did yesterday in 7th hour and step in and teach the lesson. I wasn't going to let that happen again, so I just went with the flow and did a great job. It seemed like the students really understood what was going on. I gave them step by step instructions to solving a quadratic equation by graphing, which cleared up many problems that the students had from the previous day. The first thing I did in my 4th period class was talk about 4 "Bell work" problems we had done the day before. Discussed how not one student put both the positive and negative answers for a square root. This was pretty fun, because they all thought they were correct. I then proceeded to review how to graph and solve a quadratic function step-by-step. This really helped this class and allowed them to better grasp the topic. 7th hour was basically the same topic. I did a good job in this class making sure all the students understood what was going on. Gave both classes a worksheet to work on where they find the axis of symmetry, vertex, and are given a t-table to graph.



FRIDAY MARCH 11TH


Pre-Algebra Classes

Since I had spent multiple days on finding area, I decided to re-teach in a sense, the topic of finding volume of prisms. I had a worksheet with half of it a Frayer model of Prism, Triangular Prism, and cylinder. I had them draw pictures for the examples and non-examples, I thought it was really important for them to understand what the formula in the back of the book meant for base times height, where it really means Area of the Base times the height. Many completed the worksheet very promptly and quickly, in 5th period that is. 1st period, most students did not finish, but were nearly finished. I assigned the remaining problems for homework in both classes. It seemed like they were finally understanding this concept of volume of prisms.


Algebra Classes

Today was the last day I plan on spending on solving quadratic equations by graphing. I spent a few minutes beginning the day with more review. It seemed to be going really well. A worksheet was given to them, which had 12 problems where they needed to solve the equations by graphing. It seemed, at first, that the students were completely getting it. They knew the steps to finding the solutions, and they seemed to understand what was going on. I could tell a few students weren't on the same page, but I figured everyone was just about ready to move on. My teacher suggested that I give them a problem where the function isn't in standard form, in an attempt to make the students think more. I thought it was a good suggestion so I think I am going to go with it on Monday, and hopefully move on to solving quadratic equations by factoring.




I'm not sure what it is with these girls, but I was cleverly given a girls sexual education papers she had written during her health class. I did not even attempt to read them, and simply threw them out. When they asked later about the papers I simply told them "What Papers?"