A Day in the Life of a Southwest Virginia Math Teacher 2/6/2014

           Yelling children, panicking adults, and corny elementary inside jokes with your co-workers might not seem like the type of thing most people would want to look for in a job, but not for a few talented people in South Western Virginia. They would not trade what they do for anything. I observed in an elementary school today, under a magnificent women named Mrs. S. The only subject that she teaches during the day is Math. She will go around to different class rooms all day long teaching and helping children understand math better. Mrs. S uses a lot of great visuals to help the children understand better. Every child has an interactive note book (a composition book). The children take notes in these books as well so do little activities that they glue into their notebooks. I think this is a unique way for the children to keep up with all of the hands on things they have done through out the year. While I was observing under Mrs.S, I went with her to two third grade class rooms, and two fifth grade class rooms. Let me tell you about my experiences. 

THIRD GRADE
In third grade Mrs.S was teaching the children about lines, Line segments, rays, and angles. The way she taught them was very cool, but simple. She used the children's arms. For example a line is on going so if you point your arms out straight with your hands pointed out than you have a line. A line segment your arms are out straight, but your hands are in fists because a line segment has points in it. The same thing for a ray your arms are out straight, yet one hand is pointed while the other is in a fist. Than with angles about hands are open with one arm straight up and the other straight out. This is a neat little way to show this stuff. 

This is a line.

This is a line segment.

This is a ray.

This is an angle.

This is a line.

This is a line segment.

This is a ray.

This is an angle.

I also went to another third grade class. In this class the children were quizzed on fractions. They took notes in their interactive note books on how whole numbers work. They also worked on how you can tell the fraction of the "shaded shape". They also worked on greater than, less than, and equal to things with the fractions. Mrs.S used what I call the alligator method, with explaining to the students the concept of greater than, less than, or equal too. 

For example on of the questions was...
What is the fraction of the shaded area?
The children would answer 3/8. Than they would be given another shape and they would have to determine wither the shapes were <,>, or =. 

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Fifth Grade
In the fifth grade class Mrs.S was reviewing with the students for a test for the next day. She used this cool game website to make it a competition between the boys and the girls. They were working on adding and subtracting fractions, and picking out with operation needs to be done within a word problem. Although the first class that we went into was struggling with regrouping with fractions just a little bit. Mrs. S being the ingenious person she is came up with this great idea to take sentence strip and cut them to fit the problem. 

This is what a sentence strip is.

This is how the sentence strip should look.

For example if the problem is 3-1 1/4. What you would need to do is take the three sentence strips and cut the third one into four equal pieces. That way it is easier for the student to subtract. So what you need to do is take a whole sentence strip away, and a fourth of one. What you are left with is one and three fourths of a sentence strip. 
  3-1 1/4=n            Same problem just made simpler. Just like the sentence strips make it easier as well. 
  2 4/4-1 1/4=1 3/4

Children Will Be Children

         Anytime you work with children there are always funny things that happen. In my first third grade class I went to one little boy had nothing but a to go box of cereal in his pencil box. He had taken everything out of it and left it at home just so he could sneak his cereal into class. Also in the same class there was third grade drama. Just because one little girl changed tables. They eventually got over it and were all friends by the time we changed classes.
         When there is snow you can always be ready for children to be excited looking out the windows, being restless. Although you do not always see adults excited to have a window. In one of the class rooms I was in, the teacher was excited he could look out the window. He was moved to a different class room because his room was being re-floored. His normal class room does not have a window, so when he had a window in his temporary class room it was the best thing he could have ever asked for. 
       You also always have the children who just hate school. You can tell which students these are as soon as you walk in the door. They are the students that do not look you in the eye. The students who never do their work. These students are the ones who struggle who should not be struggling in school they just do not put forth the effort. These children tug at any teachers heart. These are the students that keep me motivated to keep going towards my degree. These students are the reason I pursue a career in education. I think that Mrs. S will agree with me. The way she teaches is very hands on, and you can tell she cares about the children. She want to make a difference. School should be a fun place where every child feels loved and happy, not sad and depressed. Mrs. S does an amazing job with this. The students always have fun when she is in the class room, but she still has the students respect. So the students have fun actives, yet stay in control. Mrs.S is a teacher that makes children want to fake being well, when they are actually sick, just so they can come to school to learn. 

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