Lesson+Plan+1+Reflection

This is a reflection of the lesson that I taught on 01 October 2008 at Medical Lake High School. The lesson was prepared for a second year algebra class. The environment of this class was something that I am not, at this point, accustomed to. In previous field experience I was at Chase Middle School where I worked with the CORE Plus curriculum. The lessons there were very highly geared toward student self discovery and were high on interactions between the students. At this school the curriculum that has been adopted is one that seems more geared to traditional “teacher-preacher” type instruction. The transition to this type of book will be a challenge to me throughout the year. The lesson as a whole went well. I had sufficient time to prepare the materials and to review the items that were being taught and discussed in the classroom. The lesson had some openings for whole class discussion, but the opportunity for the class to actually discuss things is normally so limited that the students were more reserved than I wanted. With a little bit of encouragement they did begin to open up and to speak with each other. Looking back at the lesson there are some things that I would be happy to change. In previous classroom experiences I was at a place that was high in technology. The classrooms at Chase were all fitted with document cameras and could be used to show the students the work that was being done in a real time manner. In the rooms at Medical Lake no such technology exists. In this room they are still using the traditional overhead projector. This has similar application as the camera but the bulk of the item, as well as the noise and glare that it produces, act as a barrier to interacting with the students. Perhaps over time I will become accustomed to this presentation method, but at this point it was an obstacle to interacting with the students. As I reflect on how the presentation of the lesson went, my discussion with my master teacher following the lesson, and looking at the written materials of the lesson itself I can say that it was a good thing that I knew the materials well. As I worked through the materials of the lesson I would make equations for the students to solve that I hadn’t planned in advance. The numbers did not work out to be as friendly as I like for the students to have when they are learning new items. Tim Martin, my master teacher, was having to write frantically to keep track of my examples so that he could present the same materials to his students later in the day. The lack of predetermined examples would make it nearly impossible for another educator to step in and use the lesson plan that I had prepared to teach the lesson in the event that I would be ill. This lack of planning must be resolved for future lessons. As far as covering the materials that were needed, I would say that I did do what was required of me. I could have provided more examples but the general idea of constructing linear equations from two points was taught. The question then becomes if it was received. Due to the lack of guidance that I had come to expect from CORE Plus I did not allow for the lesson to be as student centered as I would have liked. The students seemed bored with the material as I was going through it but I was so centered on just getting the material to them that I forgot that it had to be received as well. Next time I will do better at that. I will be more familiar with the room and be better able to get the students the information in a way that makes sense to them. Thankfully, the students were very well behaved. The only thing that I had problems with in the field of classroom management was that the overhead projector was so loud that I could not hear the students speaking. Perhaps this simple obstacle will force me to get away from the projector and interact with the students more.


 * The evaluation of my Master Teacher can be found at this link: [|Lesson 1 Eval.pdf].