In Pursuit

 I think over the course of this semester and my time observing and helping out in the classroom, one of the biggest things I've learned is how much more complicated teaching is than I thought. It isn't just teachers reading a lesson plan and grading. It's so much more intricate than that. Teacher's have to cater those lesson plans to state standards. They have to make sure their lessons plans line up with other teachers. They may have to adjust those lessons plans to meet the needs of their students. They have to IDENTIFY the needs of their students. They have to uphold standards, but be flexible. Teaching is so much more fluid than I thought. The process of blogging throughout the semester has been... frustrating. I'm pretty bad at articulating things I've experiences. But it has helped me stay mindful, especially regarding my own learning. Even in my other college classes, I've caught myself observing my professors more than the actual class content! I...

 While mathematics may have been a... difficult subject thus far to observe a lot of what we've learned, it DOES happen to be a rather good opportunity to observe standards at work. Math is all about rules of course! One of the main things I noticed is that math teachers all seem to take great care to teach things simultaneously. Even when one teacher had a sub, they didn't just goof off or watch a video. The substitute had to TEACH math and when I asked it was because they don't want the student to fall behind the other teacher's classes. On the same note, no teachers were allowed to move faster with their classes than the others. They had regular meetings to make sure everyone was on the same track. I don't think scheduling is a part of UEN standards, but because they adhere to such a schedule it allows them to make sure they can get to ALL the standards set for secondary math. A... weird thing I noticed regarding standards is that after going through a lot of the...