The biggest thing I learned from this work sample experience is how important it is to be flexible with your lesson plans. At the beginning of my experience I thought I was going to write a lesson plan for each day and that would be that. What I found out however is that I spent less time on some concepts than I thought I would, and much more on others. Because of this, I actually ended up teaching for 14 days instead of the 10 that I had originally planned for because I wanted to make sure that my students were prepared to take a test.

That is another thing that I learned. A big part of teaching is inspiring the students to have enough confidence in themselves to complete the work, and attempt math problems even if they are not sure they can solve them. There were many times when students would not turn in their work because they said they did not know how to to it. Just saying something as simple as, "I know you know how to do this," seemed to give them enough confidence to try, and more often than not they did in fact know how to do the things they claimed they did not. This was not something I was expecting. I thought that students could pretty easily determine whether or not they understand. Some students can definitely do this, but others need more encouragement. More often than not, I found that students know how to solve the problems, but do not possess the confidence to do so without help from the teacher.

I also gained confidence from my students. I know that if I am organized and thoughtful, my students will also be organized and thoughtful. I know that this will not always be the case, but I truly believe that being a great teacher means putting in the time and effort. You cannot expect it from your students if your are not willing to put it in yourself. I put in time and effort and my students gave back to me with all of the learning gains they made and all of the objectives they met.