Intern Year Post #3 9/3-9/6

This week I began to take over teaching math everyday. Throughout the past 2 years, I have found teaching this subject has always been difficult for me. I also have worried that I am not explaining the content properly, which results in no student learning. Luckily for me, my mentor teaching specializes in math and science. For math instruction I use the standard manual given to every grade level teacher that lays out each lessons from beginning to end. Sometimes I find this useful because it sequences how the students should learn properly. Other times I feel as though some of the teaching requires certain skills the students may not have already. Something I find very interesting about my second graders is their love for math. On the first day of school my mentor teacher simply asked the class who liked math. To my surprise the entire classroom raised their hands. At first I believed the students just wanted to impress the teacher on the first day, but after teaching this subject I can tell it was not a lie. For the majority of the 90 minute period, the students are activity engaged and always eager to share an answer. I have noticed that almost every student struggles with counting coins but can easily count dollar bills. We use many hands on materials on my classroom such as paper money and plastic coins. It will be interesting to see the students progress while I teach.