Mr. McClung’s What I Learned This Year (#2)
Mr. McClung reflected on his second year of teaching in this blog post. It is linked here. He wrote a very candid and honest post about how he had trouble with his new grade level and subject requirements as well as some administrators. Often we think when we become teachers, everything will revolve around our classroom but there are many more variables involved. He makes a good point about changing his techniques to allow for the more independent nature of older students. Even though we take our Human Growth and Development class early, we should not forget how important it is to teach on a level that will benefit our students. He talks about learning to let our students guide us in his reflection post about his first year of teaching and he seems to have put that realization to work in his new situation. Dealing with the expectations of administration can be a difficult part of teaching, especially if there are personality clashes. We have to be diplomats as well as teachers. I love his advice about finding a “school mom” and I am sure it helped him deal with the administrator issues he encountered. His advice about not being a control freak goes along with what he wrote after his first year of teaching about not expecting all lessons to be perfect. A good teacher is a flexible teacher. I also appreciated that he brought up the scope and sequence aspect of teaching. You have to be prepared to make the state standards fit into your school year, but since you have to be flexible you need to be well organized before you go in on the first day. Of course, you also have to know that your scope and sequence will be a “living” document that will have to change, but it will still keep you on track. It is similar to our continuously changing EDM 310 Instruction Manual. The road may change a little, but you understand your destination and how long you have to get there.
4 ISTE Videos
I enjoyed the videos I watched from this series because I am interested in good ways to teach students mathematical concepts. I subscribed to the fablab4teachers series and added it to my PLN so I can stay on top of this excellent reference.
Video 1: M-Cubed: ISTE Presentation (1:58)
From this video, I learned a noisy classroom can be a productive classroom. I sort of knew that already, but this is a good example of it.
Video 2:Robert Berry-Base 10 Rods and Division Part 1 (3:26)
I learned how to teach division with a multiplication mat from this video. It’s a great hands-on activity to help kids understand division.
Video 3: Robert Berry: Base 10 Rods and Division Part 2 (6:15)
From this video I learned how to use the multiplication mat for division with larger numbers and the low stress algorithm, which can help students get a better understanding of the concept of division.
Video 4: The Classroom Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) (2:39)
Watching this video helped me understand what the students were doing in the M-Cubed video (#1). I did not really understand the software program very well until I saw this one. I learned from this video that the FabLab program helps students internalize understanding of complicated mathematical concepts.
Excellent graphic Rebecca, (don't forget the alt and title tags).
ReplyDeleteI also appreciated what Mr. McClung said about finding a "school Mom". this is sound advice. I had a professor in my undergraduate work in Special Ed. who told us to make friends with the secretary ASAP. In my experience, This has always been true. ss