Week 10

One of the aspects of this week which I have found to be most valuable has been, with the class of tenth graders. After Monday's class and discovering that the students were having difficulty with this chapter, my co op and I decided to just take the lesson each day very slowly. This is a small class of 14 students and a quarter of the students are learning support. The class is very easy to work with and the students are eager to learn. On Friday, at the end of class I asked the students to write down on their Post It one thing that they had learned today regarding the lesson. While making notes regarding the lesson, I pulled out the Post It notes and started reading them. All week long I had been going over the same concept with them. Today on the Post It's each student in their own way said that they had gotten what I had been teaching all week long. Tears came to my eyes.

The other aspect which I have found to be of value this week has been on taking into account that the students had been taking their PSSA testing this week. When the students would arrive in the afternoon, I made sure that I had taken the testing into account when working with them. I was glad to see Friday arrive and return to a normal schedule. I know that the students were glad to be back on a normal schedule,too.

As I look back on this past week, the one thing that I would change if I had the chance would be planning more time for the students to complete an assignment. The assignment was a team activity and I should have planned more than two days to complete it. Planning the length of time that a class has to complete an assignment is very important. Not only do you have to take into consideration the amount of time that an assignment would take, you must also take into consideration the learning level of each student within the class. This has been a learning experience for me and I know that if I use this assignment in the future, I will make sure to plan more time for the students to complete it.