Experience from Week #4
Had an absolutely amazing break (went to Chicago and to Arizona, absolutely beautiful weather down there). Anyways, we just got back into the swing of things this week! I was able to accomplish some things and we had an overall successful week!!
This week, I mainly went over homework questions with my students. Other than that, I did a LOT of grading! Mrs. Roda had me grade extra credit problems and parts of their quizzes! I must say, grading IS tedious, but it MUST be done. I noticed that these quizzes had MUCH better grades than the last, and I think that I know why. Mrs. Roda came up with flashcards that she had the students fill out. 14 problems, in flashcard form. She had told them, and she stood by this, that the questions from the flashcards were to be VERY similar to the questions on the quiz. I took the quiz (because why not?), and those questions were VERY similar to the ones she gave out on the flashcards, with only little changes. One question, I believe, was even the SAME as one of the study questions. So, I believe that that was a helpful factor in giving the students better grades. I also noticed that the multiple choice and short answer portions were fairly equal, in terms of grades. Last time, the short answer questions had much better grades, mostly due to the fact that the multiple choice questions on the last quiz were more abstract, and they made you think a little more. This time around, they were just like the study questions. In the end, it is just GREAT to see the students doing well!!
Today (Friday, April 17), I played the trig review game that I made a while back with my students. They seemed to like it and they thought it was pretty fun. I am excited to make more activities (Kahoot, anyone?!?!)!! Also, in fourth hour, I taught a new lesson! In fifth hour, Mrs. Roda taught it so that I could grade more tests. The lesson dealt with the separation of variables, or separable differential equations, that could solve for a function, given the function's derivative. The difference between this and what they HAVE been doing is that these functions are implicit, meaning that they are not all in terms of one variable. Usually, this means that they will be in terms of x AND y, instead of just x. Enough calculus lingo... Here is a photo of the first page of notes that I gave my students!!!
This week, I mainly went over homework questions with my students. Other than that, I did a LOT of grading! Mrs. Roda had me grade extra credit problems and parts of their quizzes! I must say, grading IS tedious, but it MUST be done. I noticed that these quizzes had MUCH better grades than the last, and I think that I know why. Mrs. Roda came up with flashcards that she had the students fill out. 14 problems, in flashcard form. She had told them, and she stood by this, that the questions from the flashcards were to be VERY similar to the questions on the quiz. I took the quiz (because why not?), and those questions were VERY similar to the ones she gave out on the flashcards, with only little changes. One question, I believe, was even the SAME as one of the study questions. So, I believe that that was a helpful factor in giving the students better grades. I also noticed that the multiple choice and short answer portions were fairly equal, in terms of grades. Last time, the short answer questions had much better grades, mostly due to the fact that the multiple choice questions on the last quiz were more abstract, and they made you think a little more. This time around, they were just like the study questions. In the end, it is just GREAT to see the students doing well!!
Today (Friday, April 17), I played the trig review game that I made a while back with my students. They seemed to like it and they thought it was pretty fun. I am excited to make more activities (Kahoot, anyone?!?!)!! Also, in fourth hour, I taught a new lesson! In fifth hour, Mrs. Roda taught it so that I could grade more tests. The lesson dealt with the separation of variables, or separable differential equations, that could solve for a function, given the function's derivative. The difference between this and what they HAVE been doing is that these functions are implicit, meaning that they are not all in terms of one variable. Usually, this means that they will be in terms of x AND y, instead of just x. Enough calculus lingo... Here is a photo of the first page of notes that I gave my students!!!
Weaknesses
All throughout the experience, I have been proud of how I've been catching on to everything that my classes are doing. I can remove myself from the AP Calculus class at butcher and place myself into the one at Lake Shore very easily, even remembering things from earlier this year that might help my students remember the content better. However, there is something that I believe that I need to work on. Mrs. Roda commented on how I should work on projecting my voice to get people's attention. I take that in two ways: 1. To literally be louder, and 2. To put more enthusiasm and love into it as I would at Butcher. I have been working on those things all week, and I am getting much better (she even told me today that the lesson went "really well"). That "really" in there made me that much more confident! I will continue to work towards being as comfortable as possible in front of others in the next couple of weeks!! Here is a slideshow of pictures of me teaching the lesson today (photo credits: Mrs. Candela :D)!