Karen Anderson

RAPIL Spring 2016

Teaching Video Reflection
As mentioned in the lesson plan, I typically try to over-plan my lessons, because I
prefer to have too much rather than not enough to do, and I also enjoy the flexibility
it provides me. If I have two activities planned but only time for one, I have a
chance at the beginning of class to analyze my audience and decide activity might
be best based on energy levels, or even based on comments from students. Some
classes seem to prefer more hands-on activities, while others prefer more book
work.
This video was filmed the day of my first outside evaluation, as well as my first time
teaching to these studentsprior to this, I had only assisted during class, but was
never the main instructor.
I taught this lesson to three different blocks that day, and each was done a little
differently. 1st block I did take the students out into the hallway and we dropped
tennis and golf balls and tried to measure each bounce by taping a long sheet of
paper against a wall and marking on the paper the height of each bounce. It
worked, but was more complicated than I expected, and it ended up with most of
the students simply standing around watching. So, for the other two blocks, we
simply watched a video.
What went well and why?
I really enjoyed the rock-paper-scissors tournament at the beginning of the class. I
think that the students had fun and playing the tournament got them settled in their
seats and their minds focused on the class. It was especially effective for students
who typically dont participate very muchthey all played along in the tournament!
The group work went fairly wellmost of the groups were genuinely working on the
problem, and asked for my help when they got stuck.
By this lesson, I feel students have become more comfortable in understanding the
difference between linear and exponential functions. The students caught on quickly
to the pattern in the tournament and were eager to contribute to the discussion.
What hasnt gone well and why?
After watching the video, I could clearly see that several students werent paying
attention (I was aware of it to an extent, but the video captures it well). I have since
changed the group markers from flags (which apparently make tempting
projectiles/slapping sticks) to just colored squares of paper. This seems to have
helped a lot. Students seem to enjoy getting to choose their team color, and I hope
that it helps build more of a sense of a teaminstead of calling on individual
students, I can simply address the Green Team or the Pink Team.
I need to improve my classroom management more to help keep students on task
and to put the responsibility on the students. One of the groups in this video is a

group of students who dont generally participate in class. I allowed them to form
their group, and in general they were not too big of a disruption. I am trying to learn
the fine line of giving students autonomy over their actions without entirely forgoing
a structured class.
There was a lot of off-task conversation, but again, as the groups did not seem to be
impacting the other groups ability to work, I focused on helping them with the
exercise. This class always has very high noise levels and energy, but in general has
hard-working students.
One student appeared in class after lunch, and she chooses not to work with other
students, so I had to spend more time that I would have liked catching her up and
getting her to a point where she could work on her own.
I also ran out of time for the students to write their answers on the board, and to
discuss them properly. I was hoping to involve the students in the discussion more,
but time was almost up so I tried to just power through it. The main concepts were
then reiterated in class the next day and discussed more thoroughly.
How you overcame or didnt overcome a problem?
I noticed part way though that several students were having trouble multiplying by

the rate of decay, which for this example was 3 . Many students were converting
this fraction into a decimal and putting it in their calculator and multiplying, which
results in some difficult to work with decimals and makes the pattern harder to see.
Once I noticed most groups were struggling with this, I did a quick focus lesson with
the whole class quickly, but during the demonstration not all of the groups were
really paying attention and there was a lot of background chatter.
In the class after this, I reviewed multiplying with fractions while I was introducing
the lesson, and this helped tremendously.
Another issue with this particular class is noise level. Often students will not pay
attention and then ask a question I specifically addressed just moments before. In
order to place responsibility on the students for listening, I have since focused more
on organizers to help students take notes, and made sure to inform each student of
their responsibility to themselves and their groups to listen. In the video, I try to
wait until all students are quiet before speaking, but after watching the video I can
see that there was still a lot of background chatter, which undermines the
experience for everyone. I am working to improve my expectation that when I give
an instruction, it is followed by 100% of the students, and if it is not, repeating the
instruction or waiting until it is.
o What tools do you still need to meet your goals?
I need to learn more ways to encourage and scaffold students to take notes. This is
a class of freshman, and many of them take no notes at all and do not seem to
realize that the worksheets and notes we do provide for them will help them later in

the course, to review for the test or final exam. My experience prior to this has been
with adult learners and upper classmen who already have these skills developed to
some degree. I have observed other teachers using math binders, where they
require students to keep all of their class materials, and the use of graphic
organizers.
As always, developing relationships with students works wonders in engagement. I
had only seen these students two or three times before this video was shot
subsequent lessons have been better. Another thing that would be helpful is having
a more consistent schedule with themtypically I visit once a week and teach even
less than that. While I try to keep my routine similar to Dianes, I know that I do
some things differently and so the class doesnt flow as well. I believe when I have
my own class full time it will be easier to establish a routine and discipline plan that
students can be comfortable with.
What has worked for you and why?
Using popsicle sticks with the students name on them to call on students randomly
during the Do It Now has really increased participation. Students pay more attention
when they know they can be called at any time. I used this during the beginning of
the class during the Do It Now section. Notice as soon as I told the students that
was how I was going to be calling names, several immediately asked for more time
(since now they realized they might be called).
I want to bring that level of accountability to be in all of the activities that I do. For
this activity, I felt that requiring groups to write their answers on the board (without
knowing in advance which part they would need to report on) would encourage
students to work quickly to complete the entire problem. While this was not true for
all groups, it seemed to work for some.
Have you encountered something or someone that surprised you or
challenged your beliefs or your desire to be a teacher?
Until this semester, the majority of my field experiences and prior experience with
schools in the US had been in a smaller, more rural setting.
A couple of students in this class and the other sections are quite disruptive and
disrespectful to the class and their teachers, which has been an eye-opening
experience. However, the circumstances these students find themselves has been
even more eye-opening to me. It has me realize poor scores on standardized testing
is just a symptom of a much larger problem. I had certain beliefs and ideas about
testing and accountability before that have been completely turned on their heads
from this experience. My respect for my host teacher and the other teachers who
serve these students has also grown enormously.
One of these students is living in a shelter now and is from a very abusive home.
She is on runaway watch at the shelter because she tried to run away earlier in
the year, which means that she is not allowed to come early to school or to stay late
after school. I discovered this after I casually mentioned that I hang around after
school and would be happy to stay late if she needed help. I know she is bright but

she refuses to participate in classinstead she enjoys writing profanity in big letters
in her notebook or on the desk. I also have students in class who require a
translator to take tests, but the translator is not able to be in class the entire time,
so they are left trying to piece together what they can from my lessons and other
bilingual students.
At first I was intimidated by the scope of some of these problems, but ultimately it
has convinced me just how critical it is to have caring teachers in the classroom,
and who understand that they are teaching more than just their subject. They need
to be role models of how an adult behaves, and how to work with others, not just in
their subject but in life. These students also deserve to have caring adults in their
lives and a safe place to learn and interact with their peers.