Students like doing work on the board! Who Knew?!

I just taught an Algebra I class and used some of the same strategies that my cooperating teacher used. One strategy in particular is having students do homework assignments on the board. My cooperating teacher usually picks the students for certain problems, but I chose to ask for 7 volunteers and I was able to get volunteers better than I thought. There was less grumbling and the whole class was willing to go up and show there work on the board. They did very well and I then went over what went well and if there were mistakes I showed the class what the mistake was. The students did very well with this strategy, and I plan on using this type of instruction to help me see where the students understanding of the content is. Oh, and this was sort of the warm-up that started the class, very effective!

Strategies That Work

Just a heads up to all teachers out there. I know not all schools have technology to take advantage of, but when the opportunity presents itself, get on the bandwagon. Technology such as clickers and interactive white boards can be very effective in a classroom. I used the clickers to informally assess the students and I was able to get a much better understanding of where the students were. Also, the students were much more involved in the lesson. This is a great supplement to any curriculum. The uses are numberless and can be used across all content areas and grade levels. I have been very fortunate to have learned and used this technology in my classroom.