Miss Moon's Math Blog

      This blog post will be about grading practices and differentiation strategies! Grading is an important aspect of teaching that helps us learn a lot about our students. "G rading is a way to keep track of how well students are learning new material, how well they’re retaining material that’s already been taught, whether they’re meeting education goals and how well they compare to their peers" ( Student Treasures , 2023). A few grading practices my host teacher used were not grading everything, using grading rubrics, and allowing students to redo and retake assessments. My teacher only has to have a certain amount of grades for each subject in the grade book, so she won't take everything for a grade. If the students do a worksheet that the teacher doesn't need a grade for, she will just take a participation grade. For writing grades, my teacher has a specific rubric to avoid bias while grading. When students take a mid-unit assessment, she will allow the students ...

      Today we will be talking about productive struggle and how important it is for students. First of all, productive struggle is the process of students tackling a complex task that is slightly out of their current abilities, but is still achievable with a little support. I love the picture above, because it shows how easy learning only provides students with temporary comfort. In order for students to deepen their understanding and develop their skills in a certain content area, they need to be slightly challenged. It also helps students cultivate their problem-solving skills. In the article, " Thriving in the Zone of Productive Struggle " the author states, "Success with just the right level of challenge encourages a growth mindset as students learn to view challenges as opportunities for growth and to persist despite difficulties. Learners need to succeed in completing challenging learning tasks—and they need to attribute that success to their own cognition and eff...

      During my field placement experience, I got to observe my host teacher use a lot of classroom management techniques. One of the most important techniques she used, is getting to know her students. According to We Are Teachers , "Classroom management often boils down to getting to know, and build relationships with, many tiny humans". My host teacher knew all of her students' interests and would greet them every morning. A bunch of fifth graders come to visit my teacher before class, which shows how strong of a relationship she builds with her students.  When students have a good relationship with their teacher, they are more motivated to learn and want to do good. This definitely minimizes the amount of behaviors in the classroom. My host teacher also communicates positively with families, which is another great classroom management strategy. Telling parents positive news about their child is a good way to reinforce that positive behavior in the classroom. ...

                I was placed in a 4th-grade ELA/Social Studies classroom, and I learned a lot about the behind the scenes of teaching. Something very important I learned, was that teaching is a very fast-paced profession, and you need to be flexible and be prepared to adapt. On the very first day of field, our class went on a field trip. All of the teachers were concerned about their students getting their permission slips signed,  who was going on what bus, which students couldn't sit next to each other on the bus, etc. Sometimes when you plan an activity and the students are very chaotic that day, you might have to scrap it and come up with a whole new idea. If students aren't very engaged during an activity, you might have to find a lesson/activity that does.      This week, my field partner and I learned firsthand the importance of being flexible and adaptable. We had to teach a social studies lesson to the mornin...

    Why is your math identity important? How can a teacher's math identity impact their students? In class after reading the article, "Productive Math Struggle: A 6-Point Action Plan for Fostering Perseverance" by John Sangiovanni, Susie Katt, and Kevin Dykema, I've learned how essential it is for teachers to understand their own math identity in order to help students foster a positive math identity. "By understanding our early experiences as math students and how they shaped our definitions of what it means to do math, we can learn important lessons about the instructional choices we make" (Sangiovanni, Katt, Dykema, pg. 32).      Before reading this article, I had never heard of math identity. Math has always come easy to me, so this article really opened my eyes. Even though I have always loved math, that doesn't mean my students will. It will be important for me to consistently reflect on my instructional strategies and think about my students' ...