The Power of Understanding Math Concepts in Middle school

I am more than happy to share this with you all! This year, I am teaching 6th and 7th grade math!!! I love teaching something concrete such as MATH!!! LOVE it! With this in mind, I have to say I love it when students feel proud of their work and understand the skill when it is given to them in steps or  in detail.  The two students I am showing work from are two kids who DISLIKE math! They are always insecure and tend to have a hard time working independently, however, during this class, they were the ones that wanted to explain their work and even labeled how they worked throughout their independent work! During their sharing time, they came up to the front and explain what this data means!! I ALMOST cried because they made me so proud! They feel comfortable with my explanation, but most important, they feel comfortable with math! Now, its time for them to feel this comfortable throughout the year! I have to keep on fighting the hate against math!. 

The pictures below shows their way of setting up the problem given to them. Love the organization from each one of these individuals! I truly had a #proud # teacher moment! 

What does ICT mean for a Special Educator? Positives and Negatives

This is my fourth year teaching in in NYC, second year teaching in the Bronx and the more I learn about my profession, the more I fall in love with it, but it also becomes more challenging! 

This is also my second year teaching in an ICT (Integrated Co-teaching) environment but this time, all my classes have an ICT setting.  Although this is my second year teaching in such setting, I have put together some personal positives and negatives about being a Special education teacher working along with a general education teacher. 

Positives:
- Co-planning can be great when both personalities respect and show each other a level of professionalism. 
- If material is given to the special educator before the actual lesson, then it is easier to modify it. 
- Students have double the help when it understanding the content becomes a problem.
- There are multiple ways of gathering data in which the responsibility is shared.
- Students and teachers feel comfortable and enjoy the class.
- Projects can be directed differently depending on the students' needs and preferences.

Although all of these points seem logical, sometimes it does not work that way leading to the following negative points:

- When teachers don't communicate, students can see it and may take advantage of it.
- Lessons are not planned carefully.
- Mediation between the two parties is needed.
- Everyone becomes miserable. 
- Students show negative behaviors. 
- Personalities may clash and it will not create a good professional environment. 

The reason I am only labeling these four negative points of ICT is because these are the points I can see causes direct effect on our students and our teaching methods. 

ICT is supposed to help the students and it works wonderfully when the two teachers have great ways of working together and treating each other equally.  My experience so far has been both positive and negative. 


Note: I will write another blog in the middle of the year to see if something has changed or not. Thank you for reading.