Week Five at UHS!

This has been an exciting, moving week for me. I have taken over both of the Honors Pre-Calculus classes. In addition, I have been mirroring my other mentor teacher as he teaches 1st and 7th. Then, I teach the 8th period class with notes I have taken from his lessons. By doing this, I am getting the opportunity to slowly begin taking over all of his courses. I am able to begin building relationships with my students, so we can create a strong, positive learning community within our classroom. Furthermore, I have begun to implement activities associated with my action research linked to cooperative learning and problem solving. I am conducting my research in both of my honors classes. Yesterday, I had each of them complete a questionnaire based on their attitudes and experiences of group work. Tomorrow, I will be implementing my first group work activity, which will consist of students in groups of three. They will be working on an activity about slope, equations of lines, and different types of lines. It will be interesting to listen to how they work together and come up with their conceptual understandings. In my opinion, cooperative can be very beneficial in a math classroom. So, I hope that my action research will help me learn what may enhance my students' learning experiences. Even though there is much work involved for completing my study, I truly believe it will be beneficial to both the students and me. It will help me understand what works and what may not, so that I can be a better teacher for my students. Altogether, over the past few weeks, I have been learning more about the classroom, my content, and myself. I am learning that not everything will go perfectly, yet it is important to remain positive and strive to create lessons that will help students learn best. So, that is what I will continue to do. (:


By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be. Put your future in good hands — your own.
–Mark Victor Hansen