Project #4 C4T #1

This project is one I love. We are assigned a teacher who blogs and we comment on them. The teacher I was assigned is Mrs. Sara Allen, a 5th grade math teacher. I was supposed to have commented on her blog twice now, but I have had some complications with my pregnancy and was very sick, so I missed my first comment. I am sad that I did, because after reading her posts I find her very insightful and passionate about teaching. You can view her blog at this link.

Sara's post that I did comment on is pending approval at this moment, but it was about determination and not expecting each new class to learn the same as the others. She described this technique called Math Workshop that she uses to help students learn independently and together as groups. She said her first class using this took some time to tweek the process and a lot of feedback from the students, but the results were phenomenal. However, her class the next year seemed to be more frustrated with the way workshop was going that Sara admits the first half of the year was not spent focused on math. Her revelation is that no two classes will ever learn the same and she tweeked her process again and saw results in the end.

When I commented on her post, I commended her for her reflections on her year. I also let her know that I have been told before about the classes, but to hear it from someone who was going through it now (or 2013 when the post was made) makes it feel like a confirmation. She helped me learn to reflect on my teaching methods to construct them to each class and their way of learning. It is a learning process, even for the teacher. I wish her luck in her future teaching endeavours.