My very late reflection

As I was teaching the very first lesson in my TWS, there were several things that went differently than I had planned. First, as I was teaching, I introduced the students to the term mass, and was surprised at the responses that I got from students. When I asked what they thought it meant, several students referred to a Bill Nye movie that they had seen, and gave a very close definition of mass. I had planned on doing a discussion of these terms, but the students' responses made me realize that I needed to move it in a different direction. I still discussed the same things, but I could see that the students did not need me to spend quite so much time on this since they already knew some things about it.

Also, as I was teaching, I left out several aspects of the lesson that I had planned to include. There was supposed to have been a discussion about why we weigh, and what it means when something is light and when it is heavy. These discussions would have been helpful to the students in understanding my essential question. Also, it would have helped those who didn't understand already to discover that heavy and light relate to each other. This would have helped the English Language Learners in my class. However, I, in looking at my lesson plan, missed that portion of the lesson, and forgot to have it.

Also, when I was having the student discuss the scales that they had looked at in their groups, I realized that we were starting to run out of time, and the final portion of the lesson was one that needed to happen. I ended up rushing through this section of my lesson. I think this was okay, because the students still got the information they needed, but I would have liked to have spent a little more time on it.

Overall, I felt good about this lesson. I would have liked to spend a little more time on it, but I only had an hour. In the future, I think I might give these concepts more time. Also, I should have included the conversations that would have supported my essential question. It would have helped the students understand why we were doing what we were doing. I did end up having it later in the unit, but it should have been in this first lesson. However, I do think I was clear in sharing my purpose for the activities that the students were doing, and what they were to be thinking about as they did them. I also feel that the students gained experience with the things that I wanted them to experience. Overall, I felt that this lesson was a large improvement from the previous math lessons I had taught.