The First Week

This week, Lily, Meredith, and I have been teaching Pre-Algebra at Oxford Middle School. (II must add that the three of us make a great team. We work very well together :) ) Although, we only have five students, they each need individual attention and help. This week, we have been studying the coordinate system and the slope of lines. They grapsed the concept fairly well, but they all needed some reenforcement and review. In addition, we discovered that many of the students could not add or subtract negative numbers. This is a concept that should have been mastered at an earlier point. Thus, it seemed as if we were paddling against the current of the river. So, we took two days for reinforcement and review.

The first day, we put a coordinate plane on the classroom floor with tape. We also drew a coordinate plan outside with sidewalk chalk. We went outisde and played a game (that Lily designed) using the coordinate system. After the game, we returned to the classroom where we used the tape coordinate plane. We used the coordiante plane to reenforce the game and their knowledge of the coordinate system. They seemed to have a good understanding of the coordiante system. Now, it was time to go back to adding and subtracting negative numbers. We used the number line to visually show them how the process worked. They began to grasp the concept; however, they still needed help with the concept. Today, I actually taught a review. I reviewed all the aspects of the coordinate system and negative numbers.

I realized that students learn in many different ways. The coordinate plane on the sidewalk and classroom floor are excellent ideas. They Work!! They are great tools for the classroom. The war for them to master negative numbers has begun. Many battles have been won, but there is still work to be done. As the days progress, I hope that they will win the war and master the concept of negative numbers.