This week, I observed on Monday because Mrs. Horne was out, so I was in her room helping the students for two periods as they continued working with quadratic functions. It was pretty simple, and the substitute was able to just stay at her desk all period while I went around the room assisting students here and there. For the most part, I would have students pull out their old notes and classwork to see if they could figure things out with their own notes; I want them to be able to see what it's like to take useful notes. Most of them were able to use their notes, but if they couldn't, I'd help them and then suggest better ways to point out minor details to themselves in the future.
Tuesday and Thursday were spent in Mr. Gmerek's room; His students have been working with derivatives of trigonometric functions and more advanced derivative rules. I've really enjoyed working through complex concepts with the students and breaking down the complex language of calculus to something they can easily understand. Typically I'll just provide a basic example of something that they already understand, and then see if they can explain it to me and suddenly realize what their problem set is trying to say. That tends to work best; I would definitely say that this has been good practice for me in communicating with students.
Mrs. Horne left positive feedback for me, so I guess that means I'm doing pretty well. She asked me on Tuesday how her students were with the concepts from Monday, and she said that based on my general confidence in them she was wiling to give them a small risk-free pop quiz. I think so far my observations have gone well and been beneficial to everyone involved, which is a good feeling to have.
Tuesday and Thursday were spent in Mr. Gmerek's room; His students have been working with derivatives of trigonometric functions and more advanced derivative rules. I've really enjoyed working through complex concepts with the students and breaking down the complex language of calculus to something they can easily understand. Typically I'll just provide a basic example of something that they already understand, and then see if they can explain it to me and suddenly realize what their problem set is trying to say. That tends to work best; I would definitely say that this has been good practice for me in communicating with students.
Mrs. Horne left positive feedback for me, so I guess that means I'm doing pretty well. She asked me on Tuesday how her students were with the concepts from Monday, and she said that based on my general confidence in them she was wiling to give them a small risk-free pop quiz. I think so far my observations have gone well and been beneficial to everyone involved, which is a good feeling to have.