Overall Reflection

My co-teachers and I decided to teach geometry to our group of students because we thought it
would be a fun topic to teach. I have previous experience teaching a geometry lesson to
elementary students so I thought I would use the ideas from my teaching experience to help teach
our group of students about geometry. We also looked up the geometry standards for 1st grade
and then we looked up the geometry standards for 2nd grade to see what they would be learning
when they start 2nd grade next month. These standards guided our decision to teach about certain
shapes, how to partition those shapes and how to describe shapes after they had been partitioned
into halves, thirds, and fourths. We created a pre-assessment that incorporated each of the lesson
content we were planning on teaching which was based off the standards for 2nd grade. During
the first lesson we went over how to draw familiar shapes including, square, rectangle, triangle,
circle, and unfamiliar shapes including, cube, pentagon, hexagon, kite. During the second lesson
we taught the students how they can partition a square or rectangle into smaller and equal pieces
by folding a piece of paper multiple times. This was a good introduction to the third lesson which
introduced ½, 1/3, and ¼ fractions and what a shape looks like when ½, 1/3, or ¼ is shaded.
Then a post-assessment was given to the student to show their progress and growth over the
course of the math camp.
We designed two forms of assessment for our student. Our first assessment was the pre/post-
assessment that we gave at the beginning and at the end of the math camp. These assessments
measured the student’s geometry abilities regarding identifying and draw specific shapes,
correctly dividing each shape into a given number of equal pieces, and knowing what ½, 1/3, and
¼ of a shape looks like. The second form of assessment was given to each student at the end of
each day. The students were given a piece of paper that had a smiley face, a confused face, and a
sad face. The students were instructed to circle or color one of the smiley faces to show their
level of understanding about the lesson content they had just learned. This helped us, as teachers,
to know what we would need to improve on for the next lesson or what areas we would need to
reteach at the beginning of the next lesson. I believe that these measures of assessment helped us
to see each day and overall how each student was growing. Every student who took the post-
assessment showed an increase in their score and knowledge compared to how well they did on
the pre-assessment.
Before the start of the math camp, I designed my lesson plan to fit the general needs of the
students. After the first few days of teaching and observing, I went back and changed my original
lesson plan to accommodate and differentiate for the students. Changing my lesson plan to meet
the needs of the students helped me to see how observations and assessment drive instruction.
My co-teachers also had to change their lesson to meet and fit the varying needs of the students
we had in our group. Each lesson was based off one standard for 2nd grade geometry. All three
lessons went as planned and they were taught and presented in a way that the students could
understand and learn. The only thing that we did not plan for in our lessons was how to handle
the different behaviors of each student. We had a few experiences with one student and their
behavior that we did not plan or foresee when creating our lesson plans. Through these
experiences I have learned that I can create an overview unit of instruction with the general
needs of my students, but it will need to be changed after getting to know the needs and interests
of the students.
If I was going to be teaching this unit of instruction in the future, I would change some of the
questions on the pre/post-assessment to get the students to think deeply and critically instead of
just doing or following the simple instructions to answer the questions. There were a few
questions that had the students drawing different shapes, some they know and some they don’t
know. Other questions asked the students to divide a specific shape into a certain number of
equal pieces. I would have liked to have questions that had the students draw a shape and then
divide that shape into a certain number of equal pieces. I think this multiple step question would
have gotten the students to think more. Another aspect I would change would be to have the
students draw more complex shapes like a trapezoid, rhombus or octagon. These are not very
familiar shapes so I think it would have challenged the students to use their imagination to draw
these different shapes.
I would also introduce the specific characteristics of each shape that we taught and discussed
with the students. I think this would have increased their knowledge on a deeper and wider level.
I also think this would have expanded their knowledge of common shapes and give them a small
advantage to help their peers learn about these shapes.
We experienced a few challenges, but they helped me to realize that not every day will be
perfect. There will be hard days. There will be frustrating days. But those days help me to see
what I could have done better as a teacher and how I could have handled the situation better. For
example, one of our students was having a hard time during the lesson. She didn’t wait for
instruction so when she was told to correct her mistakes, she put her head down and stopped
working. The support teacher was helping another student, so I stepped in and took the student
for a walk around the building to help her calm down. This seemed to help her so after a few
minutes we rejoined the group and with assistance from me, she was able to catch up to the other
students before leaving. From this experience, I want to have at least one other adult or aid
helping me in my classroom. I think it would be very difficult to try and help a student who is
struggling while leaving the rest of the class unsupervised. I also learned that I need to be better
at making sure the students know what the class expectations are and what is expected of them,
their work and their behavior.
Another challenge we had with the same student was because she was the most vocal student, the
teachers choose her to answer the questions to keep her engaged and focused during the lesson.
This was not necessarily a bad thing but because we did this, the other students were not engaged
in the lesson and the student who was being easily distracted was getting all the attention from
the teachers and the other students were not. Near the end of the lesson the student who had been
receiving the attention stated to one of the teachers that she was bored. I think she was bored
because when the other students were creating shapes using straws, she did not have anything to
do because she had already made shapes using straws. This is something that I want to change
for my future classroom. I want to make sure that all students are receiving equal attention and
are being given equal opportunities to participate during the lesson.
Along with the challenges, we also experienced some success. We were able to keep all students
engaged during the lessons through hands on activities. For one lesson we had students create
shapes using straws and tape. During another lesson we had the students fold pieces of paper into
smaller squares and rectangles and then cut them out and glue them on another piece of paper to
make a different shape. The students then colored or decorated their newly created shapes. They
added details and artwork to change their shapes into people or flowers. Through this experience
I learned that the students are better behaved and easier to engage in the lesson when they can
create and work with their hands.
Another success occurred at the end of the lesson while doing a brain break. Each student and
teacher had their own action to do during the brain break when it was there turn. One students’
action was to think. While we were doing his action, he said that he was thinking about math.
From this comment we started to share what we had learned that day as we were doing the
thinking action. This made me very happy because I had been worried that he would struggle
with the concepts we have taught. But his comment reassured me that he was learning and that
he was enjoying learning about math.
Through this experience of preparing and teaching at math camp I have learned that you will
need to adjust and change any lesson plans or unit of instruction that you create. You must
change because you cannot accurately predict what each student is going to be like and how they
will react to certain situations. There was no way that my co-teachers and I could predict that one
of our students would exhibit behavioral problems. From this I learned that it is hard to keep
your reactions calm toward the student when they are misbehaving. It was very hard to keep my
emotions under control in this situation because I really wanted to react differently and make
sure that the student understand that she was not behaving appropriately.
I have also learned that I enjoy teaching elementary aged students. When I first started down the
career of becoming a special education teacher, I had originally thought that I would want to
teach older students. But after having a year of experience working in an elementary school and
teaching at the math camp, I realize that I really enjoy and love working with younger students.
Along with enjoying working with younger students, I have realized that I like working with a
small group of students. I find that having a small group of students was easy to manage, teach,
and assess. I also enjoyed co-teaching this small group of students. It was very helpful to have
more than one teacher so each teacher could take a few students and work with them or take one
student away from the whole group to work with them individually. This is something that I
would like to implement in my future classroom.
Through this experience I have learned how to give assessments, how to create lesson plans and
then use the assessment data to change my lesson plan to meet the individual needs of the
students. I have been able to take state academic standards and implement them into a lesson
plan. Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. I never thought that I would want to become a
teacher but here I am working on a teaching degree. My hope is that I will be able to take the
things that I have learned and gained from this experience and incorporate and implement them
into future teaching experiences.