Samantha Griffith 10/7/13 Learning Environment Reflection 1.

9/26, SIMULATES LEARNER INTEREST The planned strategy for this lesson was simulating learner interest, which includes mentioning the importance of the topic to math and real life, using interesting or unusual dimensions of the topic, stimulating interest in the activities with techniques such as thought-provoking questions or humor, and personalizing lessons for learners by using their own experiences. This is important for developing a good learning environment because if students are interested in the material, they are more likely to want to learn it. Todays lesson was on solving inequalities using the words and and or. For this lesson, my main thing I did was talk about where you actually see compound inequalities, whether or not you know it. As a class we talked about when you go to restuarants, sometimes its cheaper if youre younger, for example 12 and under, or able to get a senior discount if youre 60 or older. I gave an example saying at a buffet the cost is $10, unless you fit in one of those two prior categories, then it only costs $6. We then wrote two compound inequalities for this situation one for the $6 and one for $10 before the lesson started, which was a great way to engage them and show them they already are familiar with the material. They all said how they had seen it before, but never recognized it as an inequality. I had every students complete attention and interest as we talked about buffets, and they really seemed to enjoy the example. I will definitely continue to bring in real would examples in the future to maintain learner interest.

2. 9/27, OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS TO ENGAGE IN INTERPERSONAL COLLABORATIONS The planned strategy for this lesson was providing opportunities for students to engage in interpersonal collaborations, which includes having students communicate to one another and working in pairs or small groups. This is important for developing a good learning environment because it helps students practice expressing themselves mathematically and works towards building a sense of community within the classroom. Todays lesson was a continuation on what they had learned yesterday, so more on solving inequalities using the words and and or. For this activity they had to each work

out one of four questions, and then explain to their other group members what work they did and how they arrived at their answer. Then as a group they had to agree whether or not this was the correct answer, until they had gone over all four questions. I think this activity was engaging, and exciting as a teacher because I love hearing students discuss math and how to arrive at a correct answer. The students love it, and its great for changing up how the class normally goes.

3. 10/2, HELPS LEARNERS DEVELOP POSITIVE SELF-CONCEPTS The planned strategy for this lesson was helping learners develop positive self-concepts, which includes making sure your language is free of sarcasm, ridicule, and derogatory or humiliating references, treating learners courteously and with respect, and giving learners personalized praise for specific performance when they do well or encouragement when they have difficulty. This is important for developing a good learning environment because if a teacher doesnt seem excited or enthusiastic about a topic, theres very little chance the students will be enthusiastic to learn. Todays lesson was on finding the union and intersection of sets. I feel like this strategy is the most intuitive of all of them, and something I already do every day. I made sure this time to be more specific with my praise, since I have a tendency to just say nice or good job rather than praise specifically what they did. There was also an instance when Donavan, one of my students who has been absent the past couple days, said he couldnt do something when I called on him since hes missed class. I then encouraged him and helped him work it out rather than give up and call on another student. I think it was a great example for all the students that at first you might not think you know something, but youre always capable of doing it given the right encouragement. I definitely plan on continue doing this in all my classes in the future. 4. 10/3, COMMUNICATES PERSONAL ENTHUSIASM The planned strategy for this lesson was communicating personal enthusiasm, which includes using eye contact and facial expressions to communicate enthusiasm, using voice inflections to stress points of interest, having an energetic posture, and using gestures to accentuate points. This is important for developing a good learning environment because if a teacher doesnt seem excited or enthusiastic about a topic, theres very little chance the students will be enthusiastic to learn. Todays lesson was a Chapter 3 review for their test on Chapter 3 tomorrow. I always try to seem excited about every lesson (even when Im not) but I thought todays activity was perfect because I was really excited to do it as a class. Students also seemed to get

excited when I said how I thought it was a fun activity. I also communicated this enthusiasm through facial expressions as well, which also helped translate my excitement. As far as gestures go, Ive been told I use my hands and gestures too much when speaking in front of a group so that it gets to where they arent meani ngful, so today I focused more on using them only to accentuate points I thought were important. This was particularly helpful when going over what they were doing for the review activity. For the future, I will continue to always use eye contact and voice inflections for points of interest, but also do my best to always seem enthusiastic about lessons, since it has such a great impact on the students and their mood about that days class. 5. 10/7, DEMONSTRATES WARMTH AND FRIENDLINESS The planned strategy for this lesson was demonstrating warmth and friendliness, which includes using a pleasant tone of voice and eye contact to accompany verbal interactions, using learners names in a warm and friendly way, smiling, laughing, and displaying a sense of humor to demonstrate warmth and friendliness, and sitting or standing near learners. This is important for developing a good learning environment because it demonstrates respect for the students, which is crucial in a classroom. Todays lesson was on representing mathematical relations using graphs. For my classes I made sure to use their names more than just when I was calling on them (so for example: Great thinking, Luke! or So using what Isabelle said about the graph), which didnt seem to have much impact. Ill keep doing it though, since I think it helps with the praise identifying it as their correct response. I also always greet the students at the beginning of the class with a hello or good afternoon, but today I tried to say it in a warmer/friendlier manner, which ended up sounding a bit sing-songy, which they kinda laughed at but then imitated me back, which seemed to go well since it put them in a cheerful mood. Today we went over Pearsons website, and on the help videos they have this animated guy who asks questions, but is kind of strange, so as a class we laughed at him. This was in my second class only, and they seemed to enjoy the videos much more than the first class (my second class requested to watch another, whereas my first class seemed slightly bored watching) so it definitely had a positive impact on the class getting them interested/excited to watch the help videos was the whole point of introducing Pearsons website and all the resources they have. I never would have thought laughing or some humor could have that big of an effect on a class, but the differences between the two definitely show how positive it can be for a learning environment, so I will definitely do my best to incorporate it more in the future, as long as it is minimal enough that it doesnt distract students and take away from the lesson.