Content Differentiation in Science

My decision about going into the education field has not altered at all since I was in middle school. Being more than halfway through this semester, I just realized how much I’ve learned about the teaching profession in such little time. As a teacher, there are so many things you need to know, and it feels so overwhelming to me as I hear about these new strategies or ideas to implement every time I read a new article. After getting through the video, I felt a little less overwhelmed just hearing her conclude that no matter how many years you’ve been teaching there will always be something you can improve. I didn’t realize how many things Mrs. Maronbot could’ve improved until after she actually improved them which just shows how important it is for teachers to bounce ideas off of each other when creating lesson plans. One thing that stood out to me in this video was when one of the suggestions was for her to ask more application questions. As a teacher, I think I’ll struggle with this more than other things. When I was watching her ask the questions during her first observation, I noticed that she was really trying to engage and ask her students enough questions to guide the lesson. I learned how essential it is for teachers to be challenging students to get their brains to work just a little harder than normal. This video helped me see a different side of teaching, and I continue to learn something new about this profession and how we can improve things everyday.

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Introduction to Text Set

After getting halfway through this semester, I realized how much I have learned in such little time. I have learned so much about how to teach or go about certain things to acquire the most out of it. Things that I thought I had mastered, I had to think about in a completely different way. It was my Arithmetic class for Middle Grades Teachers that made me question so many ideas I thought I already knew. There was one unit that particularly confused me, and when I came across it in the standards I knew it would be helpful to make a text set on. The standard MGSE6.NS1, under the category number systems, states that students should be able to apply and extend their previous understanding of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions. Just hearing that phrase first without understanding it sounds sort of confusing. It took me a lot of practice to fully be able to grasp this concept, so it surprised me that it was under the 6^th grade standards. Just by learning this all over again, I have seen so many different perspectives and ways to solve these problems. It gives me an advantage seeing others techniques so I have multiple means of representation when teaching my students. A text set on this standard would be very beneficial to a lot of math teachers in my opinion. Having a good basis, and understanding of an intricate concept like this as a 6^th grader will allow students to get ahead of their learning. As teachers, we should be prepared to give students different examples until they are able to really understand and apply the material.

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