Intern Rubric Reflecting in My Classroom

At the end of last week, my algebra class was learning about solving problems using the order of operations (P.E.M.D.A.S). To get the students motivated about this topic, I put the letters P.E.M.D.A.S really big on the front board. I began by asking the students if they had ever heard of this before. Immediately, the hands went up because their minds had reverted them to their “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally” days otherwise known as P.E.M.D.A.S (otherwise, otherwise known as the order of operations). I chose to motivate the students to get excited about the order of operations by allowing them to think of their own mnemonic device other than Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. The students had a lot of fun with it and came up with really creative sayings! This was an example of element 5.3: uses an understanding of motivation and group motivation. This activity allowed the students to become intrinsically motivated because they enjoyed saying their self created mnemonic device while solving the problems.

For the next few days in my algebra class, we are learning about basic graphing and functions. Due to the fact that this is the first time the students are being introduced to functions, the students had to participate in note taking. Due to the fact that most of the students in the classroom rely heavily on their notes, I decided that I would make a flap book graphic organizer to highlight some of the important vocabulary and concepts. Also keeping in mind my students, I filled in the titles of each flap so that the students could easily navigate through while taking notes. I feel that this was a good example of element 4.2: creates appropriate instructional opportunities for diverse learners because I considered each of my students’ learning styles and strengths when planning this lesson.

Of course to effectively teach these lessons, I had to come up with thought out lesson plans prior to teaching. This represents 5.5: develops and implements well defined lessons. In my opinion, I feel that both writing out the lesson plans and also writing a list of bulleted points to use when actually teaching is very helpful for me. This allows me to remember the big events that I wanted to touch in my lessons without skipping over anything.