In this warm-up, students are being introduced to the counting principle, permutations, and combinations through a word problem. This problem asks the students to find the number of possible outfits that could be made from a certain number of shirts, pants, and sock choices on a given morning while getting ready for school. Students were given about five minutes to complete the problem either individually or collaboratively with their table groups. A senior student assistant teacher circulated the room to check in with some students and to also check the homework from the previous day, while I also took the work time to check in with individuals to make sure they were on track. After I few minutes, I asked for a student volunteer to show their process and explain how they arrived at their final solution. It took a few minutes for the class to fully quiet down and turn their attention to their classmate who was showing her solution. She did a great job of explaining her process through a tree diagram that other students could use to visualize the problem. As the lesson began, we reviewed the generic idea of the counting principle and proceeded into another example of how it can be applied to word problems (i.e., pizza toppings).
If I were to conduct this lesson again, there would be a few management changes I would like to implement. Firstly, I would like to utilize a visual timer for students to complete their warm-up activity. It is very easy for students to lose track of time while completing problems, as it is for me; having a visual reminder of timing for all of the class to see would be a very helpful tool to frequently use for timed activities. Another aspect I would improve upon is my monitoring of all students in the classroom. As I watched the video of myself, I noticed that I spent most of my time checking in with only two or three tables out of all six that are in the classroom. This could leave several students’ questions unanswered but also students could be completely off task and need a reminder to focus on the problem given for the warm-up. There were also some more terminology and board improvements that I will be concentrating on during future lessons. As I constantly remind my students to utilize the raised dot as opposed to an “x” to show multiplication, I was inconsistent with this in my own board work. In my demonstration of the counting principle, I projected their notes with “m x n” instead of m times n with a raised dot; I also used an “x” when writing on the board, and this can be easily confused as a variable. As I continue to improve my practice over the remainder of the year, I aim to be more consistent in my usage of terminology and also my written work. It is extremely important for me to demonstrate the quality of work that I expect from the students.
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Author20 something year old. Pittsburgh native. Pennsylvania explorer. Graduate student. Aspiring teacher. Archives
March 2016
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