Adventures in Ms. Lee's Classroom

This week in the classroom, I had to take notice what Ms. Resourceful does as well as what the students do in the 50 minutes of class time. As class time goes on, I notice how much time is spent on reviewing homework or answering questions during a lecture. You can find the schedule in this link: Use of Class Time The day before this particular day, Ms. Resourceful had a substitute teacher take over the class while she had some things to do. So, this particular day was mainly for review before the test just to see where the students struggled and where they excelled in this topic. Before the class starts, Ms. Resourceful set up the available technology per her students' needs while students are entering the classroom and taking their seats. When class starts, Ms. Resourceful starts class by asking if there are any problems on the homework that the students have. I think going over a problem or two would help some students understand what is going on, but it hinders other student...

I am currently working on my practicum in a 9th grade differential geometry course. The curriculum used currently is the Common Core, but will be switching to CPM within the next year. This is a sample classroom that I am working with this semester, since there are multiple classrooms that Ms. Resourceful is in. As you can see, the students are put into pods that contain individual desks, where they are all able to collaborate with one another and do group work together. There are two teacher desks in this room. One teacher desk is located at the back of the room in the right corner and the other is located in the front right corner of the room in order to have the lecture part of the class period/block. In the front of the classroom, there is a whiteboard that is extended almost to either end of the wall, posters on the sides of the whiteboard, an overhead screen in front of the whiteboard, a filing system to turn in homework or have handouts available, and an outlet for techno...