Teaching Experiences
Teaching Abroad - Arusha, Tanzania (forms 1-4 math, chemistry, English)
In May 2012 I studied abroad in Tanzania. While abroad, I worked in a secondary school teaching students mathematics, chemistry, English, and biology. My primary focus was mathematics and I taught form 3 most of the time. Students range from the age of 16 to 23. The experience was unlike any others I have had in the past. Students there could barely afford food because they had to spend their money to be at school, yet they still went because they truly care about learning. I learned so much about teaching there, but I also learned a lot about how culture effects students' learning abilities, ways to teach with little to no materials, and some Kiswahili!
On the right is a Google map that shows where in Tanzania I taught. |
Meanwhile, in Tanzania provides some photos from my trip to Tanzania. Feel free to peruse.
|
Teacher Assisting - Grandville Middle School (7th grade mathematics)
Teaching Middle School Mathematics
Teaching 7th graders was an amazing experience. The students were going through a difficult transition from elementary school to high school and were discovering who they were as a person. |
Working with Special Education Students
I was lucky enough to work with students of all abilities, having two classes that had a population of half general education and half special education students. I learned how to differentiate lessons so all students were able to learn the material. Tutoring Before School
I chose to come in a half hour before school each day for tutoring. Students were able to work on homework, take quizzes/tests they had missed, and get caught up with material they were confused with. I hope to continue to help with tutoring when I enter into my first official teaching job. |
Student Teaching - Allendale High School
(9-12th grade mathematics: geometry, math essentials, calculus)
Teaching Math Essentials
Teaching Math Essentials was a great way to learn about lower achieving students. The population consisted of all 9th grade students who were tagged as students that would fail algebra after taking 8th grade math at the middle school. Students in this class were students who Teaching Geometry
Teaching Geometry was a very fun experience. Students were very respectful and hard working. There was a large spectrum of students ranging from high achieving 8th graders who were pulled up from the middle school to students at grade level working to keep up with the expected math standards. There were also students who struggled with math and were re-taking the course, or were taking it as seniors for credits. One of the students was a foreign exchange student from Germany, which was rewarding to work with since she had never learned math in English before. Teaching Calculus
Teaching Calculus was a very fun experience. Primarily seniors occupied this course. All were very capable, math minded individuals who wanted to learn the material. It was really nice to teach students so driven towards success. Creating Teaching Videos
My classroom was flipped since every student had a personal computer. For the unit on quadrilaterals I made a series of videos of myself teaching the students the various properties of each quadrilateral. Utilizing Electronic Resources
My classroom constantly involved external resources. The listed resources I found the most useful:
|
Visiting Allendale's Alternative High School
I was lucky enough to spend a day at the alternative high school. It was wonderful to see support provided to students who were struggling to learn the material Observing Chemistry Lessons
I had the opportunity to observe quite a few chemistry lessons while at AHS, which was very rewarding. Most of the observations I made were during labs, so I was able to rotate through the room and assist the students with the experiments. Tutoring Support
My cooperating teacher was the head of the success center at AHS so I was lucky enough to help with tutoring of students before and after school. Students of all math levels would come to the classroom for assistance on different problems and I would help them work through them. Bulletin Boards
Creating bulletin boards is something I have had a lot of experience doing since we had to have a new board each month as an Resident Assistant at Grand Valley State University. I brought these skills to AHS by creating boards for my teacher and the school. The boards I created included one in the classroom to indicate to students what the current topic they were working on and what jobs used the topics everyday. The other one was in the main hallway of the school and was titled "Math Makes Money." This board gave the different math subjects and correlating jobs that required students to know how to do them. Displaying Student Work
Students participated in two projects while I was teaching. At the end of each project I would display the students' work in the hallway. Doing so allowed them to show off their skills to their peers, encouraged them to work hard on them since they would be displayed, and showed the principal and other administration what was being learned in my classroom. Parental Correspondence
Keeping open communication between teachers and parents is crucial. At the start of each new unit I sent the parents an update on what their student would be learning and the approach I would be taking to teach it, (be it project or test based). I made sure to attach the students to the e-mails too so they were up to date with what was to come. A copy of the letter was placed on the classroom moodle page so students had access to the material. |