Today I had my second observation and it was with my period 5 class again. They have totally turned things around from the beginning of the year! Today we were working on writing rules from word problems and we were continuing to solve systems of equations to find the point of intersection.
I thought things went well and I used a new tool when doing today's lesson called dragon tail. I felt that doing the dragon tail activity let students see where they were at and where they were suppose to get. It also gave them a chance to see if their team was working effectively based on where other groups were. I also think that walking around and checking in with groups held them accountable to keep focused on the problems. It also gave me a chance to check in with those who were struggling.
When I had my post observation meeting, things seemed to go well. We spent maybe 15 minutes in this meeting, which is schedule for 30 minutes. My principal liked by activity but thinks I need to work on appropriate activities for all learners and differentiation for all learners. I agree those are important but I felt that the dragon tail activity was appropriate for my class because it gave me an idea of who knew it and could keep pushing and who was struggling and need to check in with more.
As far as differentiation goes, I do it some times but that is one area I need to work on. I tend to always have things for those who struggle or are on the bubble but not those who are exceeding. So I do need to work on that some more but overall it went well.
