In my junior high experience, I had all my core classes every single day and every day had a different elective. I remember the classes being really short and just when we started getting into an activity, we had to move to the next class. Then in high school, the eighty-minute periods seemed to drag because all we did was listen to teachers talk. Junior high was the place for the longer class periods in my schooling. If middle school teachers were trained to plan block classes effectively, they could be super beneficial to students and their success in the classroom.
This chapter was a great basic instruction for the planning process. However, it all seemed very familiar to me. I have been working with this type of planning and lesson setup since sophomore year. Formative and summative assessments, activities, multiple intelligences, and making it applicable to students all comes naturally to me now. So even though this chapter did not teach me anything new, it did show me that all the hard work and preparation that I have been through will be exactly what my students need. I did really like the ideas presented for the percentage and sales tax activities in the lesson. I will definitely keep them in mind because they would be perfect for middle school students. It was engaging, applicable to their lives, and fun!
There was one interesting idea that this chapter mentioned. During a team teaching lesson, have one teacher lecture or what not and the other teacher is in control of a remote. Saying pause and rewind throughout the period is a fun way to make sure the students know what’s going on. I really wish there was a way for this to be done by students themselves. This way you know exactly when a student needs a rewind or a pause to catch up.
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