MAED 3224 Clinical

Requirements
UNCC Student Name: Nathan Sherrill
Placement School: Rocky River Elementary
Placement Teacher: Paige Norris

My placement for student teaching is at Rocky River Elementary in Cabarrus County,

NC. I was placed in a kindergarten classroom to complete my student teaching through
December. Overall, my experience was another great learning opportunity. For MAED 3224
specifically I had some difficulties. I decided to teach a lesson early before fully
understanding the assignment. I did not realize that the assignment was for task 4 so my
original assignment only covered procedural fluency. My lesson for task 4 was based on the
standard CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.K.OA.A.2: Solve addition and subtraction word problems,
and add and subtract within 10, e.g., by using objects or drawings to represent the problem.
I wanted to the students to successfully solve math problems within 10 using
manipulatives, number lines, or ten frames. Specifically, I wanted to use change unknown
problems while I focused on subtraction in this lesson. Later I realized this actually
addressed 1st grade math standards. This was not a problem, but I could of differentiated
for my students that were not quite ready for subtraction problems. I introduced this
lesson by using our problem of the day to reintroduce the previous days problems where
the students solved a story problem for result unknown subtraction problems. Students
were engaged by getting to come to the smartboard and use the story pointer to point and
accurately read the story problem to the class before choosing another student to come up
an pick a strategy to solve the story problem. The most popular strategy used by the
students was to draw a picture to represent the story problem. Students were able to
explore different strategies as our problem of the day uses 3 different strategies allowing
the students to solve all, but to start they set up and complete the problem using their
favorite strategy. When solving story problems my CE and I like to use this formatting to
allow the students to master all strategies to solving story problems. This hits all 3 of the
major points of procedural fluency, conceptual understanding, and problem
solving/reasoning.
Math instruction in my classroom does not happen as much as I would like. My CE
focuses on ELA and writing which in younger grades are essential tasks and I believe are
covered more than other subjects. Students are all reading on or above grade level and this
is essential to student’s overall development. The students love ELA, math, science, and
social studies. Anchor charts are displayed throughout the class for math and ELA subjects.
This classroom has a great environment and community aspect to it. It is a great stress free,
forgiving, and welcoming for all students to be open to learning. My teacher uses a
workshop method to address students. This begins with a whole group mini lesson usually
before breaking into small group to assess a particular group or to facilitate instruction
from a far while walking from group to group. Then transitioning back to the carpet to
close the lesson to hear from students before moving on to the next topic.