Artifacts and Characteristics of the novice teacher #2

The artifact I chose today was my triangle concept cards that I have recently used in my geometry class to help my students derive the Pythagorean Theorem. The students started out with two congruent right triangles and cut one into two smaller triangles. The three triangles were all labeled and through communication with my students we could all find out that the three triangles are all similar and we could find geometric means to solve for the Pythagorean Theorem. Once we had completed the triangles we would label one side of the biggest triangle Pythagorean Theorem and the other side with its definition. This allows for students to use it as a concept card. You might wonder why I think this can fall under Characteristic #2, but I believe it does because I had to communicate with my students the whole time. This lesson required me to have them follow along with me when cutting the triangle in the right place. I also had to communicate well enough so they could see how the three triangles were congruent and remind them of what the definition of a geometric mean is. For this artifact to work effectively in my class I had to speak throughout the entire lesson and guide the students to correctly place the triangles. I also would leave open ended questions because I believe that is a good way to communicate and have my students come up with the answers on their own. I feel this can fall under other characteristics as well but feel that communication was a big part in getting this artifact to work in my classroom.