Dave Hewitt's Teaching Algebra

One thing that made me stop was the loudness of his classroom and encouragement for participation. I'm not sure if this behaviour is always encouraged in the classrooms I have been it. It seems much more acceptable for students to raise their hands and then speak. In fact, when I tried to have my entire class participate in my class during my observational practicum, by SA told me to have them raise their hands instead. I suppose it is just the predominant culture and what both students and teachers are used to.

During the demonstration that Susan did for us, I really liked the verbal and mental algebra we had to do. Especially the steps. Starting with a statement like: "I have a number and when I subtract six I get 98, what number did I start with?" Would be quite beneficial to students to then relate to the typical symbolic algebra.

The last thing I wanted to make note of is how the ruler slapping method really captured students attention and had them moving their heads around the classroom. I thought that was good because it gives the students a little bit of movement as well and livens up the material, while also learning a concept in a different way.