Module 2- Teaching Practice

Module 2

In the last week, I spent most of my time focusing on improving my classroom management when my students got too loud. For the most part, I felt that I handled my classrooms fairly well especially with my two larger classes of 33 and 29 students. As a new teacher, this is the skill that I am most eager to improve and master. Being able to draw my students back in after they get loud or off topic is so valuable throughout the school year because as students get to know me they will feel comfortable around me and will begin to test their limits in the classroom.

It is my goal that my students will always be engaged and focused in the classroom, but I know this will not always be the case. There will be good days and then there will be Fridays where they have a holiday break and their minds have already been lost by 9 a.m. It is my hope that I can find fun and competitive ways to keep my students interested and learning.

For instance, this last week I noticed that my standard level students were losing interest in the class work even though I made it engaging through using whiteboards and made it group involved as well. I decided mid-class to switch up my plans to have an exit ticket in order to see what my students had learned since many of them were not participating since classwork and participation are no longer part of the grading policy in Baltimore County Public Schools.

The exit ticket brought my students back to attention and allowed me to see what they had learned. I also found the importance of motivating my students through the use of food. I worked with my students through several examples of inequalities for algebra 1 and factoring for algebra 2 and then had students work in groups of 2 for Algebra 1 and groups of 4 for algebra 2 and then had them race to solve problems correctly and the team who answered correctly first got the most points while the last team got only one point and the team who had the most points in the end won Welch's Fruit Snacks. The students liked the competitiveness of this activity and the opportunity to work with their classmates allowed them to help each other through the problem.

All in all, I was exhausted by the end of this week but I felt accomplished as my students did very well on their first quiz and those who did not do well already asked questions and seem to understand the errors that they made.