Poor man's student white board.

As I was considering assessment options for my students with my clinical faculty she mentioned the idea of having each student write on a small whiteboard at their desk and thus be able to hold up their answers in such a way that I can quickly assess the class’ learning of a given objective.  She thought I might ask if there was a set in the school.  There was no set in the school but my cooperating teacher said that once upon a time he would but a sheet of shower panel (intended to create fiberglass like walls in a walk in shower) and use that as a white board.  He said you can get them cheap at Home Depot.  I am now the proud owner of one such sheet ($12.00) which I quickly cut with a saw into 32 one square “tablets”.  Both my cooperating teacher and I are excited about putting them to work to assess our teacher check points.  I am sure complications will arise.  Dare I hope that I can turn the use of the white boards into my lesson hook?

Use the freeze on the doc cam.

Often on a worksheet I will work through an entire problem on the doc cam, very slowly and carefully, step by step with the students.  Typically I will then ask them to work together on the next problem.  I try to work my way around the class to give help and implement some teacher check points to see if they are picking up my objectives.  I move back to the doc cam to set up the finished problem, but now I either rush through it (prone to simple mistakes) or I continue slowly which is what I did on the first problem but I probably, but not necessarily, don’t need to do now.  My cooperating teacher pointed out how awkward my doc cam teaching was and the simple solution was the freeze button.  As the students work the problems I can freeze the unanswered problem on the doc cam and work it out carefully until it is ready to project, and not give away the answer.  I started to incorporate this into my lessons but I prepared the worked out problems before class so I did not loose any time circulating, helping, and assessing.  It seems obvious in retrospect but I have so much on my mind during lessons I often mangle these small details.

What about public records for teacher candidates?

I have some weaknesses in my lessons that my cooperating teacher has to repeatedly point out to me and I think we both think I am a little dense not to address my weaknesses and improve them.  This week I took action.  I was thinking about how hard it has been to get my students to remember the definition of domain and range, even though the definitions are up in front of the room in the form of public records.  I thought that if I could offer my students public records to help them with concepts they find difficult why I can’t have my own public records to address concepts I seem to struggle with.  So now in the back of our class room, in my field of view are three public records to help me through my lessons.  The specific weaknesses the public records address are: 1- My weakness for not explicitly stating the learning objective of the lesson (though I do include it in my lesson plan and print it on the board.) 2- My weakness for not explicitly stating the anticipatory set, I don’t verbally tie the learning objective back to the previous material we have been covering. 3- I often ask questions when I should be making statements like when I have two single students in a class who I want sitting together so they can take part in a pairs activity I will tend to ask “if” they could sit together rather than simply stating that I want them to sit together, "please do it now".  Here are my public records: