I spent the majority of this week in Calculus again; the students are working with multiple derivative rules that intertwine and it's important to work through problems with them and make sure they understand how and when to apply each rule. Since the unit is started with the most basic problems, students tend to think that most of the rules only apply in certain cases, so they tell themselves they don't need to worry about them for some problems. Really, the problems at the beginning of the unit usually use most of the rules anyway, the difference was just negligible to the problem. I spend a lot of time demonstrating this to the students, often showing how there are just extra "times one" occurrences that don't physically alter the easier equations most of the time. I definitely feel like the classes benefit from my presence, and each week I enjoy observations more and more. I really like hearing a student explain their thought process to me, and trying to pinpoint where things went wrong so that they don't repeat their mistake; the more time I spend doing this, the better I seem to get.
While in Mrs. Horne's room, I really enjoyed working on quadratic functions with the Algebra II students. Whenever they're confused, I like hearing them explain their work to me and basically explain the concepts. It's interesting to see how strong of an understanding some students have, and how weak of a grasp others have. However, I've been able to help students of all math strengths and levels of understanding so far, and it's been a naturally rewarding process. I just really like it when somebody's eyes light up with that "Aha" moment once they get it, and my favorite thing is when they can interrupt and finish my explanation on their own because they just figured everything out.
While in Mrs. Horne's room, I really enjoyed working on quadratic functions with the Algebra II students. Whenever they're confused, I like hearing them explain their work to me and basically explain the concepts. It's interesting to see how strong of an understanding some students have, and how weak of a grasp others have. However, I've been able to help students of all math strengths and levels of understanding so far, and it's been a naturally rewarding process. I just really like it when somebody's eyes light up with that "Aha" moment once they get it, and my favorite thing is when they can interrupt and finish my explanation on their own because they just figured everything out.