What have I learned?
This week I've learned that it is highly useful to use family or friends to help come up with different ways to solve challenging math problems before teaching the lesson. I taught a complex fraction story problem. Some students found it to be easy while other students found it to be fairly difficult. Several strategies were necessary to get through to all students. We acted the problem out, we used manipulatives and last, we talked about it in the traditional way to come up with a mathematical solution. It took students some time to think about this as most students came up with visual solutions. One student plugged in a large number. He came to the board to explain his process. It was long. I would not have been competent to sum up what he did had I not asked my husband the night before what his approach would be. He had the exact same approach but used a much smaller number. I learned that the more you prepare for a lesson, the better you will be able to teach it. I've also learned that such preparation may not always be possible and I hope that I get better and more efficient with this. I've also learned that there is a lot of room for creativity in these pre-established lessons and taking risks and using last minute ideas is fun and helpful.
I have questions about efficiency and how to become an efficient planner. If I am spending several hours preparing for one lesson, that equates to an unrealistic amount of time outside of the classroom if calculated for all subjects. I am assuming that efficiency comes with experience and once you do a lesson, you know how to approach it or not to approach it the next time however, what if I'm wrong. Thoughtfulness takes time and a good lesson takes a lot of thought.
This week I've learned that it is highly useful to use family or friends to help come up with different ways to solve challenging math problems before teaching the lesson. I taught a complex fraction story problem. Some students found it to be easy while other students found it to be fairly difficult. Several strategies were necessary to get through to all students. We acted the problem out, we used manipulatives and last, we talked about it in the traditional way to come up with a mathematical solution. It took students some time to think about this as most students came up with visual solutions. One student plugged in a large number. He came to the board to explain his process. It was long. I would not have been competent to sum up what he did had I not asked my husband the night before what his approach would be. He had the exact same approach but used a much smaller number. I learned that the more you prepare for a lesson, the better you will be able to teach it. I've also learned that such preparation may not always be possible and I hope that I get better and more efficient with this. I've also learned that there is a lot of room for creativity in these pre-established lessons and taking risks and using last minute ideas is fun and helpful.
I have questions about efficiency and how to become an efficient planner. If I am spending several hours preparing for one lesson, that equates to an unrealistic amount of time outside of the classroom if calculated for all subjects. I am assuming that efficiency comes with experience and once you do a lesson, you know how to approach it or not to approach it the next time however, what if I'm wrong. Thoughtfulness takes time and a good lesson takes a lot of thought.
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