New Math Program Meetings with New Math Peers
In order for me to achieve my goal of getting the most out of my student teaching experience, I made a point to get myself involved with all the aspects of teaching. I actually wanted to grade papers, participate in parent teacher conferences, and even attend both professional conferences and teacher in service days. If there was ever a time to get involved now would be that time, because as I have grown to learn, there is a lot more to this teaching business than I had previously thought. I have been given the best opportunity to really experience first hand what it takes to be a professional educator. I was not going to let this chance past me by without getting the most out of it.
The first experience that I had to really dive in to my field involves a new math program that was instilled the smae year that I got to do my student teaching. It is a new math program in the school and my cooperating teacher really made it a point to understand the pedagogical strategy behind this switch. So when the option to drive to Longview, Wa to meet with other 5th grade teachers and representatives of the program, we signed up for my first ever professional conference.
The first conference was in a class with teachers all there to talk about the same issues. How was this math program working, and what do we need to do differently to make it better for our students? As you walk in to the room there was large pieces of paper taped to the walls. One titled what works for us, the other, what do we have problems with. We were asked to sit and think about these questions and then place them on the appropriate list. We did this before the conference got started. Once we began, the room started in to discussions. Most of the talk was about what was not going so well with this new book, and not so much as to what was nice. At this conference we learned that we were not going to meet with a representative, because she, at this moment, was unavailable. So we scheduled another conference for later in the month.
There was not much that I could take from this conference, because it did not really feel that there was a whole lot done with what they all set out to do. What I did learn is that we as teachers all have a common goal, and that is we are continually looking out for our classes best interest. We gather to talk about how we as educators can better our class environment, to pass down the majority of our knowledge to each of our kids in hopes that they will have a better chance to "get it" and "keep it." At the next conference we did get to meet with a representative, and the meeting became much more productive than that of the first one. We all had the same goals, but we got to learn more about how to use our text books.
The first thing I will say about using a text, not only math, is that it seems to be the best idea to go though each chapter backwards. Read objectives first, and then read the end. Learn what the text wants you to learn, and then find out where the text goes with it. That way when you go back through, and you start planning your lessons, you can make sure that the direction is right and that your focus stays on track. This was the best piece of advice that I got from this meeting. The math was fun and informative, but it was all stuff that I had learned in college. It was stuff that I already knew, so it wasn't something that I took from the meeting. The ability to sit down with a teacher copy and plan out an entire unit is something that I will always take with me as my career progresses. I am sure that math will be modified again. It will evolve with the times as our demands for our students continually change. Being able to work with the material from the perspective of an instructor gives me the confidence that I need to be able to become as effective as I believe that I can be.
The first experience that I had to really dive in to my field involves a new math program that was instilled the smae year that I got to do my student teaching. It is a new math program in the school and my cooperating teacher really made it a point to understand the pedagogical strategy behind this switch. So when the option to drive to Longview, Wa to meet with other 5th grade teachers and representatives of the program, we signed up for my first ever professional conference.
The first conference was in a class with teachers all there to talk about the same issues. How was this math program working, and what do we need to do differently to make it better for our students? As you walk in to the room there was large pieces of paper taped to the walls. One titled what works for us, the other, what do we have problems with. We were asked to sit and think about these questions and then place them on the appropriate list. We did this before the conference got started. Once we began, the room started in to discussions. Most of the talk was about what was not going so well with this new book, and not so much as to what was nice. At this conference we learned that we were not going to meet with a representative, because she, at this moment, was unavailable. So we scheduled another conference for later in the month.
There was not much that I could take from this conference, because it did not really feel that there was a whole lot done with what they all set out to do. What I did learn is that we as teachers all have a common goal, and that is we are continually looking out for our classes best interest. We gather to talk about how we as educators can better our class environment, to pass down the majority of our knowledge to each of our kids in hopes that they will have a better chance to "get it" and "keep it." At the next conference we did get to meet with a representative, and the meeting became much more productive than that of the first one. We all had the same goals, but we got to learn more about how to use our text books.
The first thing I will say about using a text, not only math, is that it seems to be the best idea to go though each chapter backwards. Read objectives first, and then read the end. Learn what the text wants you to learn, and then find out where the text goes with it. That way when you go back through, and you start planning your lessons, you can make sure that the direction is right and that your focus stays on track. This was the best piece of advice that I got from this meeting. The math was fun and informative, but it was all stuff that I had learned in college. It was stuff that I already knew, so it wasn't something that I took from the meeting. The ability to sit down with a teacher copy and plan out an entire unit is something that I will always take with me as my career progresses. I am sure that math will be modified again. It will evolve with the times as our demands for our students continually change. Being able to work with the material from the perspective of an instructor gives me the confidence that I need to be able to become as effective as I believe that I can be.
