All Hands On Deck

The Texas Educational Agency (TEA) visited our school this week.  They met with the administration and teachers.   We needed substitutes to cover classes while teachers met with the TEA team.

But we didn't have any subs pick up any of the jobs posted.

So it was all hands on deck kind of day.  My principal asked me to cover a class for two hours.  Our secretary asked if I minded I said "Yes I mind but of course I'm going to do it."  That got a laugh.

So at 9:00 I headed down to 3rd grade math.

It's been four years since I taught math.  I taught 2nd, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade Deaf Ed math for four years.  So this lesson took me back a few years.

It was kind of nice to teach a math lesson again. But it also reminded me why I moved to the library. Ha!

The teacher had taped shapes on the floor for students to find the area of eight different shapes. Students worked in pairs.  They drew the shape on graph paper (it surprised me how hard that was for some students), counted the units, and label the length and width.  On a different sheet they wrote out the formula.  If they new their multiplications they found the area that way.  If they didn't then they used equal grouping or made arrays to find the area.

I loved how this lesson included so many different learning styles, included partner work and reached the high level students as well as the low level students.  The lesson encompassed every aspect they teach us in teacher school.

I'm so blessed to work with awesome teachers!