Professional Practice: Members apply professional knowledge and experience to

promote student learning. They use appropriate pedagogy, assessment and

evaluation, resources and technology in planning for and responding to the needs of
individual students and learning communities. Members refine their professional
practice through ongoing inquiry, dialogue and reflection.
Artifact Description: This artifact is a grade 3 lesson plan on Geometry and
Spatial Sense which I completed in my Methods of teaching Math and Science
class. The purpose of the assignment was to design a lesson plan around a
specific subject within the math and science curriculum while making it engaging
as well as hands on. The activity was to create the lesson plan using the Niagara
template and present specifically the Minds On part. The Minds On part
activates the students prior knowledge and grips them into the lesson. It is an
important part of the lesson plan because it is where the teacher needs to
capture the students attention and make them interested in the lesson.
Artifact Rationale: Lesson planning holds such a vital importance due to its
effectiveness in the classroom. A well prepared teacher simply will be a more
effective educator and lesson planning is one of the best ways of ensuring this.
Specifically speaking of mathematics and this artifact in particular it is important
to prepare due to the struggle math could be to teach, and the faults through the
way it is taught. In far too many classrooms, mathematics instruction includes
review of the previous lesson's homework assignment, quick delivery of a set of
rules and procedures by the teacher, and the rest of the lesson, if there is any
time left, is filled out with a set of exercises for practice (Panasuk, Stone, Todd.
2002).Due to this struggle with mathematics and being able to present in it the
correct way so that all students can grasp lesson planning becomes an
extremely important tool. It allows teachers to not only simply plan their lessons
and what they are or are not going to cover, but it allows them to understand
their learners and in a sense draw out how their class learns; When developing
objectives, the teacher can decide in advance what all students will learn, what
most students will learn, and what some students will learn (Lynch, Warner
2008). By this logic, teachers are not struggling during the lesson to try and
understand why some students understand and some dont, but instead are
differentiating instruction and covering all bases. This concept and this way of
reaching ones students is most effectively done through lesson planning.
Reflection: My work on this artifact truly helped me understand the time it
takes into creating an effective lesson. When presenting my lesson to my
classmates it felt natural and simple because I was prepared. I was able to adapt
more efficiently, and though I had this script of a lesson plan I was able to work
with it because I knew where I wanted to end up. When teaching mathematics to
children, it is easy for some to drift off and not pay attention, but with this lesson
plan I was able to take that into account ahead of time and plan to make it that
much more engaging. Without a lesson plan, it is very easy for teachers to not
only make mistakes in their lesson but also lose where they are and where they
wanted to go. It is also more difficult to teach to all the students and easy to find
yourself teaching just to the ones who understand. With a properly structured

lesson plan, one can anticipate student struggles and adapt to it in advance
instead of on the spot with little time to adapt. I truly believe that lesson
planning is on the same level of importance and effectiveness as blueprints are
to an architect. When building a building or constructing any structure, the
blueprint are the start and the most important piece to the whole project. It is
where one takes into account each and every factor which goes into the building
thus making the builders that much more prepared when executing. And though
unexpected instances may come up, they are prepared to deal with it because
they have planned in advance and that is the same with teaching. By being
prepared not only is it easier to walk into class every day and teach but the
children will be learning and a much higher rate due to your preparation.

Bibliography
Sharon A. Lynch & Laverne Warner, (2012) A New Theoretical Perspective of
Cognitive Abilities. Childhood Education 88:6, pages 347-353.
Panasuk, Regina. Stone, Walter. Todd, Jeffrey, (2008). Lesson Planning Strategy for
Effective Mathematics Teaching. Vol. 122 No. 4. Retrieved from:
https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-90188954/lesson-planning-strategy-foreffective-mathematics