Jordan Watson

4/22/15
William J. Clark Middle School
919 Bennett Avenue
Orangeburg, SC 29115
6th Math Class
Mrs. James
25 students, 15 girls, 10 boys
All African American students
Clark is at an average absolute school rating and a good growth rating for 2014. It is still to be
determined for Clark to be awarded for a Silver or Gold Award for 2014 as well. The offer a program
called Accelerated Math that is set up like Accelerator Reader. This program allows students to work
on math that the teacher has assigned. She could use this program for test, for extra assistance in
teaching the class on a standard, or for extra credit points. When talking to the Librarian she told me
that this program was design to give students the necessary help that they may need to succeed in
math, but could also be used for classroom instruction.

Reflection Log
Date
2/5/15

Time
9:30-10:30

Description of Visit
The class brought in
news articles to
represent composite
shapes for a lesson on
finding the area and
perimeter of composite
shapes.

4/12/15

10:15- 12:15

4/14/15

10:00- 12:15

4/16/15

10:30-1:30

Today the students

work on some words
problems Mrs. James
had pulled up on the
smart board. They
were broken into pairs
and they had to work
out the problems
together. Mrs. James
and I walked around
the room monitoring
the students and
assisting them in
finding the answers.
The students worked on
ratios. Mrs. James
went over some
problems with them,
and then I taught my
lesson on ratios.
Mrs. James introduced
Order of Operations to
the class. They went
over the rules and she
demonstrated some
problems to them.

Reflection
I found this lesson
interesting because it
reached across the
curriculum for English.
The groups discussed
the articles as well as
found the area and
perimeter of the shapes.
The class had fun with
this lesson as well.
I enjoyed assisting the
students with their
work. It allowed me to
see how they worked in
pairs.

I had fun teaching

lesson. I showed them
another way of finding
the Greatest Common
Factor using ratios.
I saw how Mrs. James
did her direct
instruction, guided
practice, and
independent activities.
I liked how she flowed
from one thing to the
other and the students

4/17/15

9:00 12:00

The students had a

discussion about Order
of Operations. Mrs.
James gave some
problems for the
students to work on.
She also assigned for
them to do a foldable
on the Order of
Operations. After time
was given to them to
finish their foldable,
the students presented
what they created.

were able to move

along with her.
I was able to see how
the students express
themselves during a
presentation. I enjoyed
to see how creative
they were with their
foldable.

Dear Parent or Guardian,

My name is Jordan Watson, and I am a Middle Level Education Major at Claflin University. I
will be in your child's Math classroom at William J. Clark Middle School, with Mrs. James as my
Mentor Teacher. I am from Columbia, SC, and will be receiving my degree in Middle Level
Education.
I will be in your childs classroom for a period of time and plan to learn and grow from them as
each visit go by. I will start off by observing the students, along with getting to know Mrs. James. This
will give all of the students a chance to become comfortable with me; so that when the time comes to
start working together everything will run smoothly. As time goes by on my visits, I will gradually
assist the students and Mrs. James by following her duties of teaching a lesson.
During this experience at William J. Clark Middle School, I plan to make sure that your child
is learning effectively, as well as enhance my skills in the teaching profession. I am really excited to
work with these intellectual young scholars and want to make sure that I leave a positive impact on
their lives. If you wish to contact me, I can be reached at (803) 531-2200 or in Mrs. James room at the
school. Once again, I look forward to working with you and your child during this experience!
Sincerely,
Jordan Watson,
Mrs. James, Mentor Teacher
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please complete the following information and have your child return the bottom part of this letter to
me, Monday, Feb. 9. Thank you.
____________________________
__________________
Parent/ Guardian Signature
Date
____________________________
Student Signature

__________________
Date

Observation Field Notes

For homework, Mrs. James assigned the class to bring in newspaper articles for a class activity.
She told them that she would prefer a math article or something dealing with number or a
mathematical aspect. Once I got in the class the students were discussing their articles. She asked to
volunteers to read their chosen article to the class. After the discussion she placed them in groups.
Once she assigned groups she had them discuss one more article as a group.
I noticed that she went over to a particular group and she read along with them. She then told
me that that group had very slow readers and she wanted to give them some assistance and asked if I
would walk around and listen to the other discussions. I can see where her extra assistance gave those
students a since of confidence because she wasnt talking at them, nor looking down on them. They
were not embarrassed because the other students were so engaged in their own groups. This also
allows the students who do not have problems with reading to move forward and not be held back with
the other students who were having trouble. To me this was an example of differentiated instruction in
another creative form.
After about ten minutes she started the activity. She asked the students to notice the shape of
their article that they cut out for homework. She said to the students to look at the one that looks like a
composite figure. Once the group chose the one that they would look at. She said, Now give a
number to some sides of the figure but leave some sides blank. She suggested using some words that
appeared more than five times in the article for the numbers. Once the students did that, she told them
to find the area of that composite shape.
They had so much found with this activity and I would have never thought about assigning an
article for math homework not dealing with math at that for a figure lesson. The students assigned

different roles in the group so they move to another shape. They were so excited in figuring out the
outcome of the other sides. This is a fun activity that I can see myself using in my class. It shows that
you can teach across the curriculum to make sure that students are well rounded and ready to take on
the world.

Overall Reflection
My overall experience at W.J. Clark was a phenomenal journey this semester. I enjoyed my
mentor teacher, Mrs. James and the classroom techniques and experiences that she showed me during
my time spent with her. The students are always warming and welcoming when I enter the classroom
to assist them in completing their work or helping them master their mathematics skills. Clark along
with Mrs. James and the students that I worked with this semester has helped mold and shape me into
the teacher that I am destined to be. I will forever appreciate them for this experience.
Being under the tutelage of Mrs. James I have learned that just by teaching one subject
does not mean that the other subjects cannot be included in your lesson. She showed me some creative
ways of incorporating English into her classroom curriculum. Mrs. James also uses another method
to teach across the curriculum called the Cube Effect while teaching word problems. She said that the
kids enjoy this strategy because they get to draw in different colors to answer the question. She
introduces the word problem by having the students read it together. Then with one color the students
highlight the vocabulary words. With other colors they highlight the different important parts of what
the question is asking of them. Then they form a cube with what is being asked from the question.
Even though I didnt get to observe one of her other classes, Mrs. James told me that she has a
couple of ESOL and some other unidentified IEP students that she makes accommodations or
modifications for. She said that she uses a lot of visual aids for these students with. On assessments
she eliminates two of the distracters per question along with illustrations. Another strategy that she
uses is peer share with the ESOL students or same group instruction so those students can get more
assistance with the lesson. When Mrs. James teaches a new standard she teachers the class as a whole,
then she models for the students who need extra assistance. Once she models for the students using

verbal cues to help them have a better understanding, they model the task together. When she sees
that they have a better understanding, thats when she releases them to try it on their own.
I can tell that the students that are in Mrs. James class are very eager to learn individuals. They
dont mind asking for assistance when something does not make sense to them. Mrs. James is also
very energetic and creative with her teaching. I can see that she captures the students attention when
she starts teaching and because they are captivated with the lesson they begin to have fun while
learning. Her job of teaching the material made it easy for me to go around and observe the students
and assist them when they needed extra help. Her creativity is wonderful because I never would have
thought of newspaper articles being used as composite shapes. The students learned from that activity
as well as created their own composite shapes, and they had fun. This field experience has been the
best so far and I enjoyed every bit of it.