My First Class Alone

Yesterday morning I taught at Marquette Senior High School. I developed my own lesson plan and used the text for supplemental materials. I got the students thinking as soon as my introduction was over. The students were asked to look at the 5 graphs on the overhead and determine which ones they thought were linear functions.
We started off by discussing the definition of a function -- the graphed equation passes the vertical line test. Next, we had to tackle the linear part of it. I wrote the word on the board which helped the visual learners to see the word "line" within linear. We did a few examples of T charts and I had the students help me find the y values by plugging in various values for x.
The students were put in groups and worked on some problems. I left some of the important concepts on the board for the students to refer to. They helped one another and I circulated the room to provide additional support.
With 15 minutes remaining, I pulled the class together again to do a few of the problems that a majority of the students struggled through. Some of the classes had enough time to get started on their homework assignment while others did not.
I found myself tweaking my lesson with each new class - I taught 3 periods of Algebra One. If I were to do it over again, I'd do a story problem on the board with the class. My observing teacher had some great suggestions to check for student understanding. My favorite one was: Draw a line that is not a function. Answer: Vertical line. Why? It doesn't pass the vertical line test!
My first class was a great experience!

Observations

In my observations at Gwinn Middle School, I've seen students excited about learning! A science class has been acting as Consumer Analysts. They have been chewing bubble gum, making observations, and rating different brands of gum. To avoid bias, the instructor has unwrapped the different brands of gum and placed them into baggies lettered A thru D. I was lucky enough to get the week-long lesson plan for this unit :) It's been a very effective way to get the kids excited and involved in their own learning. They look forward to Science class :)