Summary and Synthesis

Teaching Lesson Study 1 was a really good experience for me. One thing I learned from this experience is how important it is to motivate students. During the lesson about 1/3 of the class were not very interested in the lesson and spent a lot of time talking. I've realized that some students need a lot of motivation in mathematics, even when doing a technology based activity, which I would think would be something different and fun. Another thing I learned from teaching the lesson study is that sometimes you will ask a question and students will not answer. After teaching this lesson I now know what it feels like to stand at the front of a classroom and hear nothing coming back at you. There was a lot of talking going on during the activity, but when it came time to reflect on what they had learned, the students were all of a sudden very quiet. It was difficult to get the students to share their answers to the activity and to answer my questions. I think that had I known the students it might have been more comfortable for them to answer my questions and I also could have called on specific students. I think the most important thing I learned from this experience is that some things you can only learn from experience. This makes me look forward to student teaching next semester when I will definitely be learning a lot more from teaching experiences.