Emily Lancaster

Education Final Paper

4/27/15
The class that I observed was a sixth grade math class. When I started the class
they were learning geometric equations and shapes and how to apply what they were
learning to things they see in real life. Throughout my time in the classroom, they also
learned about inequalities, probability, how to work with percentages, and measurements.
In order to learn this material, the teacher used a lot of different learning techniques and
had the students participate in a lot of different activities so that they could fully
understand the material.
One of the major things that the teacher did to facilitate learning was by using
fun books. These were just composition notebooks that the students took notes in, but
the teacher took notes as well while she lectured and she made it seem as though the
students werent even taking notes. This made it easier for the students to be more eager
about learning and taking notes that they could study later when they had a test or quiz.
Another thing that the teacher did a lot was divide the class into three groups and
does stations. Over the two months that I observed, she did stations four times and they
were never the same three activities. They also allowed the students to learn in several
different ways and allowed them to work in groups. By doing this, the students could get
up and move around in a very structured manner. It also means that they can get help
from a student who may understand the material better, and sometimes a student benefits
from that more than asking for help from the teacher.
A minor thing that the teacher did was a quick warm up at the beginning of class.
These would take no longer than seven minutes and they were always review questions.

Though it took a short amount of time, it still allowed students to go over things that they
may have learned a couple of weeks ago. It also showed the teacher what students still
needed help understanding and what material that they knew pretty well. Students can
also work together during this time in order to solve the problems from the warm up.
When it comes to test days, the teacher always allows her students to study for a
few minutes before the test and then will answer any questions that the students have.
The students take their tests on a computer using the SOL testing program, so before and
during the test the teacher makes sure to go over tools that are available to them on the
program. Two or three class periods after the test is taken, the teacher will review the test
with her students. She uses the test questions in order to have a review game during class,
which helps the students understand what theyre getting wrong and it also helps them
review for the SOL.
In the last couple of days that I was observing, the teacher was working on
starting to review for the SOL. To do this, she used previous techniques to bring up
material from the beginning of the year. She did a lot of stations and had three to five
questions on the warm up that would help her students remember how to do problems
that they may have forgotten from the beginning of the year.
Overall, the teacher that I observed had many ways to facilitate learning in the
classroom. The techniques that were used reached out to all types of learners and created
a fun classroom environment and the students seemed to enjoy being there. I think that
the teacher was very good at making all of the material fun to learn and was also good at
trying to make sure that all of her students understood what she was teaching.