One thing I noticed when I was at another school visiting my colleague and friend Benjamin Walker was he would actually record what students were saying by typing it out. It let students keep record, letting them know that what they have to say is important, and it's easier for people to follow along. It also makes it easy for students to refer to each other's contributions.
I've been thinking about it a lot and I think it makes a good difference in the classroom. Luckily for me, I'm a pretty quick typist. Might be challenging to do otherwise.
0 Comments
So the longer I've been teaching, the biggest lesson I'm learning is that it takes a lot of time and prompting to form a classroom community and to establish a collaborative classroom culture. My first year of teaching, I learned it takes longer than 1 week. Last year, I learned it takes longer than a quarter. SO I think I get it now. Slow and steady ... finishes the race.
I've been looking for a good graphic to help explain my classroom philosophy and certainly Geni Consulting provides a few, but there weren't any that I felt like I could use directly for my class. So I made one with Geogebra based on the ones I saw already. The image on the left represents that everyone brings knowledge and we learn by sharing and listening to others. The image on the left is what happens when someone chooses to disengage. This is no good. It's an image I decided to share with the class and I think it helped explain why I was doing what I was doing. The first two weeks are flashing before my eyes but also feel very grueling. Especially in the first month, I am prowling the classroom. I am a lion. Hear me roar. Two of my classes are back to back for a 100 minutes with 8 minute passing periods. I did the arithmetic and I stand and prowl for 3 hr and 40 min straight. Coming from a previously sedentary summer, it's safe to say my body is in small states of confusion and weariness.
Yet somehow, this is still better ... infinitely better.. than my first year teaching. One of the biggest changes is that I'm addressing problems more directly. I've spent most of my life avoiding problems and hoping things will either resolve themselves or go away. I've found that as a teacher- problems only go in one direction: bigger. I've been interlacing math content with culture building activities. Today, I asked students to share a cultural practice or tradition so that we got a sense of who we are as people walking into the classroom. In one period, I could sense that students weren't buying in. "Why are we doing this? This is math class." I guess all that mumbo jumbo about learning together as a community wasn't cutting it. The problem is... that even if most of the class is cool with an idea quietly, a few vocal minority can turn the class around really quickly. It's one of those kind of remarks I might have stumbled through and proceeded on as if nothing happened. I gathered my thoughts and said, "I apologize that you don't find this a worthwhile activity. I want people here to know each other and know their backgrounds and histories better." I had responded for now, but made a note in the back of my mind to directly address it with her later. Then I gave my own example. I had crafted it beforehand. It was time to work the crowd. I sold my story. Students were nodding along as they journeyed through my early years without Thanksgivings. I saw a few faces that were grossed out when I mentioned kimchi- a spicy pickled cabbage. I had them hooked. They spent a few minutes crafting their own memories and I bee-lined to the disgruntled student. She had her eyes ready to roll. I said: I know you might not find this a valuable activity. And I can't force you to do it. She said: I'm not going to. I responded: Let me explain why I'm doing this. When I was a student in high school, I always felt like I had to leave some part of me at the door. Maybe it was because I'm from a Korean family with different values and maybe it was because I never felt very comfortable in a white-centric environment, but I felt like I had to be a different person to succeed. I'm doing this activity because I want people to know that whatever their background, history, or culture, they are welcome here. And I want you to know, whatever your background or history, who you are now, is welcome here. I don't usually say something so direct, and honestly- I'm not even sure that I knew would come out of my mouth. She didn't respond, but I observed a subtle yet noticeable shift in her attitude toward the class and the activity. We had a few people share their stories aloud- from New Years on a boat, to making Saturday deliveries with dad, to soccer Sundays, we listened and clapped as people shared. We'll definitely need a LOT more reinforcement before our class becomes a community but I'm hoping to take strides there. And mostly I'm hoping that responding to students and problems immediately is going to be way better than previous years. okay, I'm exhausted. next time I'll post a mistake making activity that students completed. I had the wonderful opportunity to think during winter break, think hard about what I wanted to do in the classroom differently. I've recently been meeting more regularly with a mentor (the resident principal at my school) who has given me a lot of helpful and thoughtful ideas for change. I also chatted with Kyle, a dear friend from my masters program, who gave me insight into his own classroom. With these people in my life combined, I made some interesting changes after winter break. 1. No paper. (kind of). Kyle told me he didn't give out worksheets. Instead he has kids continually working on white boards. So I tried it. I put up three questions to help students find distance between two points and a 30 minute timer. I never gave them the distance formula and instead asked them to apply the Pythagorean theorem. Students were generally engaged, able to show their work better to peers, and I was able to evaluate their work easier. I was able to pinpoint misconceptions quickly and some common errors. Afterward, I had students present the problems to the rest of the class. 2. BEFORE I just handed students boards and markers, I wrote on the board two sections: Questions I will answer & Questions I WONT answer. (This idea came through my mentor who came from another teacher Bill who may have gotten it somewhere else but that's as far as my trail leads). Questions I'll answer Questions I won't answer Does our reasoning make sense? Is this right? Here's what we've got so far, but we're not Where do I start? sure where to go next I don't understand why this is the answer I don't get it. Then we had a short (3 min) discussion about why I wouldn't answer the questions on the right. This helped them understand where I was coming from and gave them some rationale. Providing prompts also gave them tools to ask better questions and to see the kinds of thinking I valued. 3. Take-Aways. This was another suggestion by my mentor. I usually end class by letting the time run out. Oh okay! well, see you next time. This hasn't really been the best way to end class. Instead, at the last 10 minutes, we took out our notebooks and we wrote down the two main takeaways (about distance between two points and finding a midpoint). I was listening for students who had figured these out during class and asked them to share them at the end of class. I would write word for word what the student said. Afterward I would circle portions or add blanks to show that our takeaway wasn't complete. I asked students from the class to make our sentence more specific or more complete. Then I had them make a small drawing next to it that represented the sentence. It was a quick way for me to check student understanding (at least conceptually). A lot to learn, but it was... really an enjoyable class experience for me. Different ways students found the distance between two points. On the bottom right is an example of a common misconceptions students have. They see two points and automatically think they should plug it into the slope formula. On the top left, students use -18 and then square it (but keep it negative). This is a common mistake that they make.
|
ms. eugooglesmathematics teacher Archives
September 2016
Categories
All
|