Field Blog: Week 5

During my last visit to HB I sat in a Pre-Calculus class. The first part of class they took notes. The teacher used the smart board and for certain parts of the lesson some girls went up to the board and did problems on it. Then they went over a test from the day before. They could ask the teacher about certain problems they had issues with on the test. After they went over the test they also went over their homework from the night before. The teacher had a few girls write the solutions to the problems on the board and then they went over them as a class. I really liked how the teacher allowed the girls to do have so much interaction as opposed to just sitting at their tables and writing down the material. I think that them going up to the board really helps in learning the new topics. This class was again a smaller class with only about 10 people. I think because it was smaller they were able to spend more time individually with the teacher and he was able to help them with what they were struggling with learning personally. Him being able to help them like this I think is good and shows the benefits of having small classes. Had the class been large, I feel that it would be difficult for him to go around and help each student with what they were struggling on with the lesson. The second class I sat in was a Freshman Algebra class. The teacher was Mrs. Walsh and I had sat in on one of her classes before. I really liked her and the students seemed to as well. The entire time she was very calm. One interesting thing about this particular class was that they had interactive workbooks that came with the text books. They took their notes in these work books and did their homework in them. I had never seen something like this so I found it very interesting. I thought that it was a good idea and helped them keep all their math material together. When they were doing their homework it probably was convenient to be able to flip back quickly to their notes if they got stuck on a problem or needed to be reminded of the lesson. Their homework for that night was to make flashcards with the equations they needed to know on them. I liked that their assigned homework was to make flashcards because often times they can be very helpful in learning. I liked this because they were forced to make them at the beginning of the chapter and then when they went to study for their test they would have already made them. Them making flashcards is also a convenient way for them to study quickly if they only have 10-15 minutes, they would still be able to run through them.