Week of Feb. 24

Once again, the weather never fails to intervene with lessons and learning. During this week, I had planned to begin the 8th grade student on algebraic expressions, and continue with simplifying fractions with the sixth grade students. The mini breaks the students keeps having is making the consistent development difficult because with a weekend break, it feels like I have to review heavily. With the long weekends and/or mini mid-week breaks, I have to work harder to review concepts learned previously. Most of the time, I don't even get to all the activities I plan. While this is frustrating, what am I going to do? Mother Nature does not seem to want to cooperate well.

On Thursday, Dr. ONeil observed me, and typically, I warn my students before hand that the person is watching me- not them. However, I was so concerned about making up the time we lost, I completely forgot to give them the heads up. I noticed half-way through the lesson that all of the students were more focused on seeing what he was doing, which obviously meant they were not listening to me. I addressed this by having the students introduce themselves, ask who he was, and to inform them he was watching me (not them). After this was addressed, the lesson moved forward. Even with missed time, I felt as if I was able to accomplish what I needed. I thought my lesson with the eighth grader went well because he then followed up with a puzzle placed around them room trying to simplify algebraic expressions. He worked hard, and it was nice to see him work and move around the room instead of the average day of taking notes at his seat. The sixth graders worked hard on simplifying fractions and creating equivalent fractions using the iPad, and other activities that seemed to go well.

I would love to incorporate more of the iPad, and I try to do so as often as I can. I hope to find more apps that would become engaging for the students. They seem so motivated to work when using the iPad.