Reflections on yesterday

For the past week I have been teaching mini lessons to the students in my math support class to prepare them for the next unit they will have in their regular math classes. I came in yesterday thinking I had some great questions lined up and the lesson did go well. However, it did not occur to me that the students might not understand what I meant by the dimensions of a rectangle. We have been looking at a unit on quadratic relationships and we started out by examining the area of rectangles with a fixed perimeter. My mentor teacher chipped in at that point and asked some questions to help me get them to explain and understand what dimensions of a figure are. I forget the exact line of questioning but it was something to the effect of asking for the length and width of a specific rectangle and then explaining that all that was meant by the dimensions of a figure was the length and width. I feel like there are these little things that I miss, like words that students might not understand. Admittedly it can be hard to notice them because the students often won't pipe up and say, "Umm, Mr. Allen I don't know what dimensions means." My mentor teacher told me that it's just something you notice after you have been teaching for a while. I hope I start noticing these things sooner rather than later, because these things can be the difference between being a good teacher and a great teacher. Plus, if the students are struggling with a word or words they will be distracted from understanding the main concepts of the lesson. That's my reflection on yesterday.