Returning back to internship to see all my students’ smiling faces is always a lovely experience. Returning also means that I am one step closer to becoming a teacher and advancing into level 2 internship.

My first lesson being back was on February 5 and it was dedicated to be a lesson review to prepare the students for their math test. As I was planning, I was trying to keep in mind various differentiation strategies that I could also implement into this lesson that would be applicable to my inquiry. I determined that doing centers would be the most suitable and engaging math review for my students. I was keeping in mind that my focus students were visual and tactile learners, but still trying to accommodate auditory learners as well. Therefore, I determined that focusing my lesson towards some of the common core strategies for math would actually be really beneficial. One of my centers was based upon the visual representation of fractions multiplying. I think that my CT doesn’t really go over these types of lessons that are included in the common core standards because many of us didn’t learn this way; therefore, algorithms are often emphasized more. I felt like since many students are visual learners, they could really benefit from reviewing this strategy to problem solving. Additionally, I wanted to accommodate each students learning preference while still trying to get them to branch out in some of the centers by differentiating the amount of people to work with at each station (individual, pairs, group).

Before doing my lesson, I reviewed with my CT what I was going to be doing and she suggested that I should actually model and review each station before the students actually broke out to attempt them. I didn’t think about doing this while planning, because I figured that printed out instructions would be suffice. However, I felt like this was a good strategy because it limit the questions and confusion that the students may have when arriving to each center. After instruction of each center, there was only one question and the students didn’t seem confused during the lesson. After reviewing each lesson, I thought it would be essential to activate the students prior knowledge by asking what the had been studying over the course of time. After doing this and reviewing my lesson, I think that I should have asked more detailed questions like what specific strategies could be used and applied to solve the various topics they had learned about.

As I dispersed the students to each center, I had previously planned out with my CT how the students would be grouped. I decided to collaborate with her because I figured she would be the best at managing student personalities. However, as she placed the students I was slightly skeptical and should have said something. As the groups worked, two students (that never work well together) were bickering. My CT “handled” it from behind a teachers desk, but I didn’t feel as though the problem was really solved. Therefore, I intervened and talked to one of the students and asked if they would work better and more efficiently in another group, to my surprise he chose a group with my ELLs in it. I believe that previously in the first group he may have felt intimated and unconfident based on his self-efficacy; whereas, in the other group he would be more of a peer assister. For the majority of the time, I circulated from center to center to take notes on what each student was doing, and if anyone was having difficulty. I had planned on asking the students some high order reflective questions that would enable me to visualize their thoughts, however, as I walked around my brain went blank. At this point, I know I should have written these questions out and not have relied on my memory.

Even though I did have a management plan with music playing in the background, I still felt uncomfortable with having the students transition. I think this might be because my CT doesn’t really have one specific way to get student attention, so it’s difficult for me to use my own technique when they aren’t accustomed to it. I know that as a teacher, I will establish clear expectations and behavior management with my students at the beginning of the year. I feel as though not having a consistent plan causes the students to get out of hand and out of control really easily. While in this internship classroom, I have to understand that in order to get student attention I need to develop an easy and simple attention grabber that would intrude on my CT.

Since this was my first time attempting centers as a facilitator, I think that overall it went well. The students didn’t seem confused, and I think that the time supplied for each station was sufficient for the students to carryout each task without getting bored, unengaged, and free time. Additionally, I liked the idea of having music as a way to moderate noise level because the students actually want to listen to the music, so their are going to self-regulate themselves. Throughout my journey as a teacher, I know that in every lesson, I can learn something.