Professional Development Meeting

I had a professional development meeting today with other new-to-district teachers. It was very low-key; something I was thankful for. And I left feeling as though I was in a similar place with my students as the other new teachers were. Even those teachers who were new-to-district but not new-to-teaching were having their own difficulties. It was nice to be reminded that just because I don't have perfect classes each day, that doesn't mean I'm not doing an O.K. job.

I had a great day with my fourth block class today, which is a strange occurrence. Aside from the moment when half the class was called down to the gym for an announcement, I felt as though I was actually getting through to them. Everyone seemed to understand the material. They seemed to be interested. Perhaps this is due to the nature of this new material. Perhaps it's the full moon tomorrow. But I was very excited when I left that class.

The leader of our professional development, D, left me thinking about the idea of perfect teachable moments: those moments in time when dispositions are perfectly aligned so as to be receptive to new knowledge. Today's class was one giant teachable moment.

Thinking back on it now, though, I feel as though I was more excited about today's material. I was definitely bouncing around at the front of the room. Not that that's out of place for me, but generally by fourth block I'm running low on energy. I think maybe I was so excited about the material that my students couldn't help but watch and listen.

I left my professional development meeting today thinking about an idea that I've heard many times before. "Whoever is working the hardest in a classroom is doing the most learning." It's always nice to be reminded of this, and I've always believed it to be true. But I think that I need to reassess my understanding of how to implement the idea. I generally have my students lead themselves through investigations in order to discover important postulates and conjectures. The same is true for block 4. But I've always assumed that once my students have gone through the investigation, there's no need for me to repeat what they've already learned. This is certainly not the case with block 4. While I don't want to be the "mathematical authority" in the room, I've realized that my students won't believe a concept is true without my say-so.

I need to investigate ways to lead my students into trusting their own discoveries in the classroom.