St. Helen's Blog November 13th

On November 13th, I was in Mrs. Bartholomew's second grade class again. The subject that was covered was math. To start off math class, Mrs. Bartholomew started off with a time math test(something I remembered vividly). The students were very excited to do this and enjoyed the challenge that was presented to them. The students were able to practice their speed with this math drill and almost all of the students were able to complete it, and correctly. The way the teacher had the students grade their assignment is rather than telling the students the answer, she had the students take turns at telling the answers. This helped Mrs. Bartholomew gage the students understanding of the math that they were completing and by the students grading, it helped save her time. 

When the time tests were done, Mrs. Bartholomew incorporated the dry erase boards into her lesson to help with math problems. Mrs. Bartholomew before she started her lesson did something very smart and that was...letting the students free draw!!!! How perfect was this! She allowed the students about five minutes to free draw and this was perfect because the students got the urge to draw on the dry erase boards out of their system and they were able to fully concentrate on their math problems. 

The lesson then moved to learning about adding multiple digits. She had the students look for any numbers that add up to ten then add onto that. I thought this method was confusing and would try and find a different way to help the students 

I had the opportunity to look at the math teacher's handbook. I never had looked into a teachers handbook so I thought it was very interesting. At the beginning of the lesson, the book told the teacher what the students should be understanding before the new lesson was started and also what the students should know by the end of the chapter. I thought this was helpful because it can help the teacher decide whether or not he or she can move on or what they still need to work on.