Experience from Week #8
The students were very busy this week! The first half of the week involved preparing for and taking a test on volume methods (the methods that I have been teaching for the past couple of weeks. The mass amounts of preparations went over pretty well with the students, as they felt that they needed it. I ended up grading most of the quizzes, with multiple choice scores being a little lower than the free response scores. This has happened in the past. Why? I feel like the multiple choice questions forced them to choose one method over another, which may have tricked them into doing something wrong, whereas in the free response, they were free to use whichever method they wanted. It was nice to see a lot of students getting the free response questions correct! We actually ran out of 100% stickers (the students get fun stickers on their quizzes if they get perfect scores :D)! Many of the students were happy with their grades, while some maybe not so much.
After the quiz, they started reviewing for their final exam, which all of the students will take on Monday and Tuesday. The seniors are required to do it this early because they only have a couple of days left, but the juniors (all Chinese foreign exchange students) will take it at the same time and use the rest of the time in the class to work on a project. I answered questions that the students had on the review on Friday. I hope they all do very well on the final!!
After the quiz, they started reviewing for their final exam, which all of the students will take on Monday and Tuesday. The seniors are required to do it this early because they only have a couple of days left, but the juniors (all Chinese foreign exchange students) will take it at the same time and use the rest of the time in the class to work on a project. I answered questions that the students had on the review on Friday. I hope they all do very well on the final!!
Letter of Recommendation
I wrote a letter of appreciation after Week #7, and Mrs. Roda wrote a very nice letter of recommendation back to me. You can see this below:
In this letter of recommendation, she tells how I am a student teacher in my senior year of high school with no prior teaching experience. She says that I "perform admirably in the classroom", which makes me feel very good about how I will do after I go to college and learn how to teach. She also talks about me personally, saying that I had a positive influence on the students and that my love for math was "contagious". That right there was my goal for the entire term. I hoped to pass on the love and enthusiasm that I have for math onto everybody in the classroom. I am very excited that I have achieved this goal!! I am ready for the next step, which is actually learning how to do this. I will forever be grateful for everything Mrs. Roda and her students have done for me this term!!
My Last Words...
In closing, I would like to thank Mrs. Candela for giving me the idea of student teaching and for making it all happen. Without you, this whole experience would not be possible. I would like to thank Mrs. Roda for allowing me to come into her classroom and be her student teacher for the past eight weeks. I know she loved not having to bring a bunch of paperwork home (because she could get it all done while I taught). I would like to thank all 43 students that I had the pleasure of teaching; some of which (79% of them), I will probably never get the chance to see again because they are foreign exchange students, and to them I say good luck with everything you do! If you wrote down my email address, let me know your AP scores, and write to me whenever! And to the other 21%, some of you I will see next year at MSU, some maybe I will not see until a high school reunion, but good luck in everything you do as well, and I'll see you around! To ALL students: you are all very smart, and I encourage you to USE YOUR POWERS FOR GOOD!
This entire experience has been so much fun, and it was the perfect way to end out my senior year of high school. Who would want GYM to be their last class?? I don't know. But one thing is for sure: I will always remember these classes as the first that I had the pleasure of teaching, and will always hold a special place for them in my heart. That's all for me! It's been real and it's been fun!
This entire experience has been so much fun, and it was the perfect way to end out my senior year of high school. Who would want GYM to be their last class?? I don't know. But one thing is for sure: I will always remember these classes as the first that I had the pleasure of teaching, and will always hold a special place for them in my heart. That's all for me! It's been real and it's been fun!