Stressed to the Max!

Alas!!! The work of the portfolio is finished!! I have put a lot of man hours into collecting work and writing and now it seems likes it’s over. Yesterday I submitted my portfolio and now I can clear my mind a little. That might have been the most mentally abusive project I have ever experienced, but I am proud and happy it is complete.
This has not been the best week. It was suppose to be a week of relaxation because there was no school this week due to “Children’s Day”, but of course I spent most of it making changes to my portfolio and added some last minute artifacts and just not feeling satisfied with my work. Then…I had been having such a good time at the school. I was coming to school early, I was creating great lessons and they were all going really well, and I was starting to feel like I had dug myself out of the hole, but then Thursday came. There was no school this week except for on Thursday. The fourth grade was going on a field trip to tour the city of Seoul. My CT asked me last week if I wanted to go. She gave me option of either coming along on the field trip or taking the day off. I thought it would be a good experience first of all to see how Koreans run their field trips and also because I had yet to have a tour of Seoul. So I said I would love to go. On Thursday I left about 20 minutes earlier than I usually do and I took a taxi to school and guess what!? There was apparently an accident and it caused a lot of traffic and I was stuck right in the middle of it. I tried to contact Ms. Lee to let her know I would be about 15 or 20 minutes late, but she never responded. By the time I got to school it was 9:10 and the whole fourth grade and all the teachers had already left. So I left Ms. Lee a message on the school communication system and worked on my portfolio until about 11:00, then I went to Korea University’s library and finished working on my portfolio. Later that day I received some text messages from Jen Kang saying that Ms. Lee was very upset with me for missing the field trip and not letting her know and I hope I can resolve this when I return to the school on Monday. I want to apologize to you and Ms. Lee for this incident. I hope this doesn’t send me deeper into the hole.
On a better note, my personal life here for this past week has been good. Last weekend three of my friends and I went on a trip to the sea. We left a little late in the day so instead of taking about 3 hours to drive there, it took 7 hours because of all the traffic. Seoul is a crazy place for traffic!!! However, it was a fun trip and was completely relaxing and just the pick me up I needed for the previous drama that I have been experiencing. On the trip we walked along the beach, it was a little too cold to go swimming but it was still very nice to just look at the ocean and watch the sun set. Later that night we shot off fireworks on the beach along with about 50 other people. It was just a one day trip but it was very nice and comforting.
Tomorrow I am going on another trip because we don’t have school on Monday. This time 6 of my friend and I are taking a train to the northern part of the Han river to stay at this amazing resort and do watersports. Apparently they have some things called banana boats and fly fishing (which is not fishing at all) and I am so excited to go. I think it is going to be a great time and I hope it will ease my mind from the stress I have been through this week.
Next week I am not too excited about teaching. I will be teaching Physical education. I like PE, but I don’t really think I’m qualified to teach it and I am concerned because I will be teaching 2 classes at one time. This means I will have about 70 students in each session that I teach. That is way too many 8 and 9 year olds to teach and watch over. I really hope that the homeroom teachers can help me out, because I worry about the rambunctious-ness of the students and if I can control them. My classroom management plan really needs some adjustments to teaching a P.E. class.
One thing I am getting excited about is the drama class I working with. Our play is coming up in a couple of weeks so we only have about 5 or 6 more rehearsals and these students are working so hard. They are all 5th and 6th grade students and their English levels are great and they are completely dedicated to this play. I am excited to see how the performance goes. Next week we will be working on their costumes and I just think it is a really fun aspect of this student teaching experience. These are the students that I get to work with on a one-to-one basis and therefore have been able to first of all learn their names and secondly form good relationships with them. In my other classes I have 34-40 students who I see in a class twice a week, it is difficult to learn everyone’s names or get to spend real time getting to know them and developing a teacher-student relationship. I think I have rambled on enough for now…til next time….

Time to Assess

These are various assessments I used throughout my teaching. Some were formal and some were informal.

The first one is a picture of the students holding up numbers. This was for my first lesson I taught on “Place Value”. In this activity the students were all given numbers and I would call out a phrase such as “I need a 2 in the ones place” and any student who had a number 2 would race up to the front of the classroom and get in the correct position. This activity allowed me to informally assess the students’ understanding of both English numbers and the location of place value. After the full number was created, together as a class we would read the number. For example in the picture shown the students would read the number as fifteen thousand, six hundred, ninety-two. This activity went extremely well and I was able to see that the students all understood the locations of the different place values as well as the names of English numbers. In addition, the students really enjoyed this activity and were excited to participate. I also like how it got the students involved and out of their seats. The lesson I observed of the Korean teachers usually had the students stay at their desks and just listen to the teacher lecture and watch him/her write on the board.

The second picture is from the same lesson on place value, but is a different activity. In this activity I wrote a number on the board such as “25,678”. I would then have two students sit in front of the board where there were several different numbers written. Each student would be given a flyswatter to use to identify the value I call. I would then say a phrase such as, “What is the value of the 6?” The students with the flyswatters would then find the “600” written on the board and hit it with their flyswatter. This activity allowed me to assess the students’ understanding of the place value and the worth of the number in each place value position. I like this activity because every student was given the opportunity to show their understanding two times because we went in order of the rows. Unlike the first activity where only the students who were quickest to get up to the board to display their numbers were able to show their understanding, this activity required every student to participate at least two times.

The third picture shows a group of students playing a memory game that I used in my lesson on Multiplication Properties. In this activity the students worked in groups of four and played a game of memory where they had to match multiplication equations to one of the four types of multiplication properties. During this activity I walked around the classroom and observed the students. In addition after the students matched all of the cards, they had to call me over and I would check their matched to make sure they were correct. This was a good way of informally assessing the students abilities to identify the properties when look at an equation. I think this activity was very successful. However, since the words were completely new to the students I left the notes on the board for them to use as reference, so I was able to assess if the students could remember the different types without having other equations from each property to use as a reference.

The fourth picture is a photo of a student’s creation of the three types of triangles from my triangle lesson plan. With this activity the students used straws and/or toothpicks to create the three types of triangles and write the names of the triangles. I collected all of these from each of my classes and graded them individually. I was impressed with the students’ work. Many of the students even wrote the names of the types of triangles in both English and Korean on their papers. This helped me to see that they truly understood what I had taught them because they could show their understanding by using what they had previously learned from their Korean teachers. The one issue with this assessment that I noticed was that sometimes it was difficult to tell if the students had created a scalene triangle or an isosceles because the lengths of the sides were not exact and hard to distinguish if the sides were equal. I think this assessment could have been improved by having the students measure and write the measurements of the sides or create larger representations which would show the difference in the lengths much more clearly.

I also have a variety of worksheets and quizzes that I have given the students and have student samples of. However, currently I don't have access to a scanner and when I take a picture of the page it is really blurry. I also don't know if it is possible to upload the original document from microsoft word so you can at least see a blank copy, but I will try to find out and add more of my assessments soon. I will also see if I can find a scanner to scan actual student samples to add to this blog as well.

Multiplication Properties Lesson Plan

Lesson Name: Multiplication Properties

Grade Level/Subject: 4th Grade/Math
Type of Lesson: Direct Instruction
Materials: Multiplication Properties PowerPoint, Multiplication Properties Memory Cards (1 set per group), “What’s the Property” worksheets


Objectives:
1. Students will be able to identify and describe the four multiplication properties.
2. Students will be able to match an equation to one of the four multiplication properties.


Anticipatory Set:

Have many multiplication equations with the answers written on the board (be sure to include ones that follow the identity and zero properties). Ask the students if they notice any kind of patterns in these multiplication problems.

Encourage the students to realize that anything multiplied by 1 equals itself and anything multiplied by 0 equals 0. Explain that these are actually two properties of multiplication and that today we are going to learn four multiplication properties.


Actual Lesson:

Using a PowerPoint presentation explain the four properties of multiplication
o Identity 2 x 1 = 2 and 1 x 98 = 98
o Commutative 3 x 4 = 4 x 3
o Associative 4 x (5 x 8 ) = (4 x 8 ) x 5
o Zero 34 x 0 = 0 and 2 x 0 = 0

While explaining each of the properties via the PowerPoint, create a table on the chalkboard with four columns (one for each property) and have the students provide examples to be written in each column. Leave this table up for the students to use as a reference for the activity.

Students will then play a game of memory/matching.

Students will be put into groups of 3 or 4 and each group will be given a set of multiplication memory cards. Half of the cards have multiplication problems on them and the other half have one of the four multiplication properties.

The students will lay all of their cards face down on their desk(s) in even rows.

The object of the game is to get two cards that match: one will be a multiplication equation and the other will be the multiplication property that is shown in that equation. The students will take turns turning over two cards at a time. If the two cards they chose were correct, they get to keep those two cards and take another turn. If the two cards chosen do not match, they must put the cards face down where they were and it is the next person’s turn to pick two cards.

Once all of the cards have been drawn and matched, the group should raise their hands and the teacher will check to see if their answers are correct. The player with the largest number of correctly matched cards wins.

Students will play the game until ten minutes remain in class. Some students may play more than one game within that timeframe.


Guided Practice:

The teacher helps the students to develop sample equations for each of the multiplication properties.

The teacher walks around the classroom to check for correctly matched cards during the memory game.


Independent Practice:

The students determine if the cards match during the memory game.

The students complete the “What’s the Property?” worksheet..



Closing:

Students will work on the “What’s the Property?” worksheet. The first 3 questions will be answered as a class.


Extended Practice:

Have the students create their own equations to use in the memory game and play the game with other students.

Informal Math Lesson Plan on Place Value

Lesson Plan

Date: March 24-25
Period: 1~2/9
Unit: 1. Large Numbers
Topic: Place Value up to 10 Thousand

Lesson Objectives:
To understand the different place value positions up to ten thousands.
To identify the value of numbers as determined by their place value position.

Warm-up
PowerPoint presentation (see attached handout) Will review the place value positions, value of numbers, and three forms of writing numbers.

Actvities:

A. Building a Number Activity

1. students will each be given one number. The students will be racing to create a given large number.

2. I will tell the class that I need a specific digit in a specific place value position. The student who has that digit will race other students who have that digit to be the first to fill the place value position. One student will also be the comma that follows the thousands place.

3. After the number is created, the class will recite the number together and return to their seats to build another number.


B. Place Value Worksheet

Students will work individually while I set up for the next activity.
These worksheets will be collected at the end of class.

Place Value Flyswatter Activity:
1. Several values will be written on the board prior to the activity and the class will be divided into two teams.

2. Each team will send one member of their group to sit in a chair that has been positioned towards the chalkboard. Each team representative will be given a flyswatter.

3. I will write a number on the board such as 92,468. Then I will ask a value from that number, such as the value of the 4. The team representatives must find that value from the several written on the board and smack it with his/her flyswatter. The first person to smack the correct number wins a point for their team.


Wrap-up
Students will finish and hand in their completed worksheets.