Teaching NEEDS Preparation

     About a month ago, Meghan and I went to the local high school to speak in an English class about September 11^th. It went really well! The students paid attention the entire time we talked, and they asked questions. I was amazed how well a class of 24 15-year olds paid attention. It was very different than my experiences during student teaching.

     So two weeks ago when the same teacher asked me if I would like to teach two math lessons, I gladly accepted. I met with her for coffee to discuss the math lessons. She is an English and Swedish teacher so she didn’t have too much information for me at least mathematics wise. She told me that the first lesson would be going over some English math terms and that she would make a list of these terms that she would give to the students and me. As for the second lesson, I would be working with a different teacher. She gave me the textbook and showed me the activity that I would be doing with the students. It was an activity working with the quadratic equation and discovering how the parabola shifted around the graph.

     It was then up to me to come with what to do! I decided that a good way to learn the different English math terms was to play a game like Pictionary. I gave the students about 5 minutes to look over the terms again, and then I divided them into groups of 4 students. I gave each group four different terms that they would have to draw on the board to have the rest of the class figure out what mathematical term they had. I thought this lesson went really well. The students all participated, and even better, they also paid attention while the other students were drawing. It wasn’t the same students who knew the answer every time either. I was very satisfied with how the lesson went!

     The second lesson did not go the same at all. :( I met the math teacher for the first time at 14:20, and the class began at 14:25! All he really told me was that first he wanted to show the students how you go from ax²+bx+c=0 to the quadratic formula.

After that, I would do the activity as a class. That was all the instruction I got! The lesson could have been done in 15 minutes. I tried to add in a little extra information to stretch it out. I decided to show them how we F.O.I.L., but I was flustered from not being prepared and I made a mistake. I think I only confused them rather than teach them! I made it through the rest of the activity as best as I could. But by no means am I satisfied with how it went. I am actually really upset about what happened. It was my first time back in a math class since student teaching, and it was terrible! I am trying to tell myself that it was not my fault. That if I would have had more information and able to prepare for the lesson, I would have done better. But I am still very disappointed right now…