| Starting to Use the Site
If You are a Teacher
If You are a Coordinator/teacher
Leader or Teacher Educator
If You are a Prospective Teacher
Becoming a Reflective Practitioner
Starting to
Use the Site
A good way to start using Reflections
is to select a lesson on the Home Page. This takes you to a Lesson
Page where you can
get a sense of the lesson by reviewing the Lesson Plan, get a sense
of the mathematics of the lesson by doing the Engaging in the
Math
activities, get a sense what the students accomplished by taking
a look at some of the student work, and get a sense of the teacher
and the school by viewing the set of video clips under About
the Teacher.
Now you have the necessary background on the lesson to begin
analyzing and reflecting on part of the mathematics, the teaching
and the
learning. To do this, select one of Reflective Topics – they
pop up when your cursor passes over the word – for example,
Questioning or Evidence that are abbreviations for the Critical
Teaching Questions. Clicking on the topic takes you to the Work
Page that contains a set of Reflective Tasks and Analyses that
can be responded to and discussed after viewing the various video
clips and other links that illuminate this topic.
An alternative approach is to select a reflective topic on the
Home Page, for example, Teaching Decisions. Clicking on a topic
takes you to a list of all the related Critical Teaching Questions
in each of the 6 lessons. You can proceed question by question
or grade by grade with the underlying Reflective Tasks and Analyses
that can be responded to and discussed after viewing the various
video clips and other links that illuminate this topic.
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The Reflections Web site provides you with the opportunity to:
-
Critically observe videos of a colleague teaching;
-
Observe pre- and post-lesson discussions and note agreements,
disagreements, and insights;
-
Engage in the reflective tasks and analyses and reflect on
your responses and those of others;
-
Summarize findings in terms of personal modifications.
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If You are
A Coordinator/Teacher Leader or Teacher Educator
The Reflections Web site provides you with the opportunity to:
- Construct classes, seminars or other professional
development experiences around the lessons and specific critical
teaching questions;
- Develop activities or assignments based on the reflective
tasks;
- Exemplify parts of the NCTM Standards (content, process,
teaching) using the site.
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If You are
a Prospective Teacher
The Reflections Web site provides you with the opportunity to:
- Critically observe videos a colleague teaching;
- Assess the complexities of teaching and the importance
of careful planning;
- Note and discuss the decisions being made and the
implications of these decisions;
- Summarize findings in terms of personal insights about
teaching and about mathematics.
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Becoming
a Reflections Practitioner
A primary goal of Reflections is to enhance your capacity to
critically reflect on your practice. You can become more reflective
about
your practice before and after teaching lessons by pausing and
asking questions like the following:
- What am I trying to accomplish mathematically with
this lesson?
- What tasks will I provide to meet my goals for student
learning?
- What are the key questions that I will pose to help
my students develop mathematical understanding, and why are these
questions
key?
- Why am I teaching this content, and why am I teaching
it in this way?
- How do I create a classroom environment that fosters
student engagement and learning?
- How will I know whether my goals have been accomplished
and whether my students have learned what I planned?
The array of analyses, reflective tasks based on others’ teaching,
and personal reflections based on your own teaching is an excellent
starting place for building the capacity to be a more reflective
practitioner.
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