Today, I spent three hours with two different classes at the middle school. Both classes were going over the small concept about functions that would be on the Smarter Balance test that they would be taking all Wednesday. Mr. Ricke went over the pretest for the function portion with the whole class while all 15 problems were projected on the board. In the first class with only nine students, they caught on pretty quickly to the concept. But the second group had a little hard time because this class was the inclusion class with 15 students. Mr. Ricke had different teaching strategies for each class. for the first he let the students think about the problem then explain what they should so to solve it. For the second, he taught the students how to do it with very detailed examples but went though how to solve it with the students. It goes to show that not all classes are the same to teach and not all students learn the same. Mr. Ricke did a very well job of teaching to the students needs in both classes. After he went through the whole pretest with the first class, the students got into pairs and worked on another function pretest. At the last ten minutes of class, since it was a nice day, he let the students go outside since they were working hard. After going through the pretest with the second class which took most of the class except 20 minutes, he let those kids go outside.
I learned a lot from observing these classes because both had different dynamics and as teachers we need to teach to those dynamics.
I learned a lot from observing these classes because both had different dynamics and as teachers we need to teach to those dynamics.