I am writing to remind myself that telling time must be the hardest concept to teach to a group of second grade students, or any student for that matter! It is amazing to think that, at the age of eight, students are now required to be able to tell time to the neart half hour, hour and quarter hour before Christmas! Surprisingly, my students are doing fairly well making progress with this skill, but it is certainly not easy! In addition to telling time to the hour, half hour and quarter hour, they must write the time using words as well as numbers! For example, I had to teach that 3:15 is also considered "quarter after 3" and 4:45 is quarter to five. 

        Overall, the mistakes that the students make usually have to do with the hour hand. For example, many students are under the impression that 4:45 is quarter to 4 rather than quarter to 5. Through the semester, I found that a virtual cock works best to show students this concept. If you start at 4:00 and move the minute hand to the nine, the students also notice that while the minute hand is moving, the hour hand is also moving. The hour hand is no longer at the four, but closer to the five since the clock is approaching 5 o'clock. In addition to using the virtual clock, I also took one or two math periods to teach telling-time using direction instruction. I am not a huge fan of direct-instruction all the time. However, I did find the one or two math periods of direct instruction to be somewhat useful. During these 20-minute increments of direct instruction, I had my students split their clock into quarters so that they were able to visualize half-past, quarter past and quarter to a certain hour. I also reinforced this lesson through small quick-checks in the morning before math-class. Quick checks are the greatest way to reinforce lessons or check to see how a particular student is doing with a particular math skill! The time quick-checks were quite useful in targeting students who needed extra help with this skill!