I was unable to get an artifact this week because on how my placement schedule is. I think that I have had a lot of development in this class. Before entering this class I had never taught a math lesson before and didn't really know how to analyze math work done by students. I think that many of the other TE classes put a lot more focus on how students are reading and writing rather than their math abilities. Although math is not my strongest subject I think that i have become more comfortable with teaching math throughout this course. I am paying a lot more attention to the work that students are doing rather than just correcting their mistakes like i used to do when checking papers for teachers. I have been more aware of what types of problems students make mistakes on. For instance if a large amount of students all need help with one problem I pay more attention to why this problem was so difficult for them. I think that I still need more practice with instructing the whole calss. Most of my experience has been with one student or with small groups. It becomes much harder when I have to help the entire class understand a concept. I need more practice with how to answer their questions in a way that they will understand. I think that most of these things will become more comfortable next year when I am able to see math everyday rather than only once a week.
Teaching in front of the whole class becomes more and more comfortable as you do it more and more. There is no question about that. You make a good point, though, about being concerned that you are able to respond to your students productively during whole class instruction. Here, the work you will do next semester in TE 801 which focuses on classroom discussions (along with a book solely about mathematical classroom discussions), will help you think about how to use the "talk moves" (which we have touched on) to help you navigate student ideas and link them together...the hint is that it's often more a matter of linking student ideas together more than it is your explaining things in a perfect way for all students to understand.
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