Due to the holiday this past Friday, I was not able to go to my placement, therefore I will be giving a general reflection of my development as a mathematics instructor so far.
During my field instruction, I hardly see math, which is a shame, but seeing as Friday afternoons is the only time I am available to go, there isn't much I can do but talk to my mentor teacher about the math instruction that occurred throughout the week. During my down time on Fridays (while the students are in art), I usually help grade papers. During this time I am able to see what my students have been learning and how they are doing. It isn't as informational as actually seeing the instruction taking place before the worksheet, but it does help.
It is difficult, like I've mentioned in previous posts, to determine what the teacher's instructions were, because when I grade the papers, I hardly see the work that was done to solve the problem. I'm not sure if students are simply cheating off one another, or if they do their work on a separate sheet of paper that isn't turned in. I feel that seeing this evidence would also help me in my development.
The only math I see taking place is their multiplication time tables tests that take place each Friday afternoon. I have blogged about these in the past, and since then they are still the only math that I see taking place. My development based on my field instruction is minimal, and I think that being in the classroom for only 1 day a week doesn't offer much room to develop much because each day of the week usually sticks to the same schedule. The math tasks and readings from the CGI book in TE 402 however, have helped me develop into a better mathematics instructor because they have taught me to take things to a higher level, and to expand my expectations of students. I wish that I could however connect this more so to my field placement.
Although this has been frustrating (in the sense of not being able to see math instruction, and only seeing a limited range of student work), this experience, I think, can help you to anticipate the type of information / data that you want to see in the future. Next year, you will inundated with tons of information from students (what they write, what they say, what they do, etc.). This can be overwhelming unless one has a good sense of how they want to make use of the information. Starting now, think about the different questions you might want to ask yourself in terms of student work, as well as specific things you want to remind yourself to look for as you reflect at the end of each day and think about your students and their progress and their thinking.
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