Field Blog: Week 4

During my fourth visit to HB the first class I sat in was an Algebra 2 class. They had a quiz that ended up taking about half the period and the other time in class was spent on learning the new lesson. The teacher gave them the choice at the beginning of class if they wanted to take the quiz first or learn the new lesson first. They ended up taking the quiz at the end of class. During the first half of class while they were learning new material, the smart board that they normally use for lectures stopped working. The teacher quickly switched the using the white board to teach. When he didn’t get flustered at the smart board not working, I was impressed. I saw that teaching does not always go as planned, and that teachers need to be prepared for the unexpected. I am going to need to be prepared to quickly react to problems I didn’t expect to happen in the classroom. At the end of class he told the class that their homework was 3.6 A and B. He had given them a chapter syllabus with all the homework problems they needed to do listed. They didn't have to worry about writing down every problem they had to do because the teacher was organized and prepared. This made me think back to when I was in high school and how I always preferred the teachers that were organized. I always was more inclined to work harder in classes where it was evident that the teacher was working hard as well. If the teacher was organized and it was clear, I knew they were putting in effort to my education and that therefore it would be worth it for me to put in effort as well. The second class I observed was Calculus. They were given a note sheet to follow along with and fill out as the teacher lectured. I know that some people think it's better for students to completely take their own notes but the students seemed to really enjoy having the notes sheets and even said they preferred it to other classes and ways of taking notes. Having the notes sheets I noticed helped them stay on topic. The students could follow along with the material and I really think that it helped them learn it better. Seeing how the teachers taught differently showed me that I am going to have to choose how exactly I think my students will be able to learn the best based on how I present the material.