I spent today with a friend looking around in outlet stores and imagining I had the money to buy everything I wanted. One place we tried was a Daddy's Junky Music shop. My friend and I both like to think of ourselves as musicians, so we looked around and eventually found ourselves in the acoustic guitar section.
My friend plays a very small amount of acoustic guitar, and I play even less. Still, given the opportunity to play a nice guitar, we each picked up the one that looked the most appealing and began strumming.
At one point, we tried to play together. This meant a great deal of time tuning our guitars to each other. My friend began playing a chord progression, which I tried to follow. But he continued to change up the progression as he went. Also, I couldn't quite get the strumming pattern to work. In the end I became more and more frustrated, and eventually put my guitar back and listened to him.
As I think about this experience, I'm struck by the implications I can pull out for my own classroom. I became frustrated trying to keep up with my friend. Although I knew all the chords he was using, and although I understand the basics of strumming patterns, I couldn't keep up with him during our visit. It was still going too fast, and there was still too much involved. The obvious implication on teaching is to remember that even when my students know the individual parts of what to do, putting everything together can be difficult and needs practice. I need to build up to more difficult problems rather than assuming they can simply put everything they know together to solve whatever problem they have in front of them.
The other piece of this scenario is that I was afraid to look foolish in front of my friend. So, rather than try his pattern and risk failing, I would strum once or twice and give up. It's so important to have a context for learning in which the student feels comfortable failing. Courage is easier to attain when the student already feels comfortable.
It surprises me when I find little reminders of what it takes to learn. This situation makes me realize just how important it is for a teacher to continue to learn new information, and especially to try things that are outside of her comfort zone. Without continuing to be a learner, a teacher forgets how difficult learning can be for her students.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Let's Go Fly a Kite
Yesterday was the last day before April vacation, and I was at a loss as to what to do with my students. I knew there would be a critical mass missing from classes, and given the power my students have at retaining information over long stretches of time, I certainly couldn't begin new material. As with most other teachers at my high school, I had given an assessment on Thursday in order to close out the unit before break while still reaching as many students as possible.
When we return from break we'll be beginning work with "Special Quadrilaterals" (e.g. parallelograms, trapezoids, kites). So I had a stroke of brilliance on Wednesday night. I decided to have my students build kites to fly on Friday. This project would take up a 90 minute block of time well, as we could use an hour to build and a half hour to fly. And since it's a hands-on, artistic project. My students wouldn't be bored and itching to get out of their seats. Also, since we'll be talking about kites after break, and specifically about the diagonals in a kite, it's really good for my students to understand the diagonals as the frames of their kites.
So, during class on Thursday, I told my students what their project for the next day would be. I had them create lists of materials that they would need. I went to the dollar store that afternoon and got the supplies. And when class started on Friday, my students were ready to go.
My students impressed me yesterday. They were focused on their task. They used problem solving skills to think of the best way to create their kites. And when they finished, they looked around the room for other students to assist. Our time was both productive and fun.
When we brought our kites outside to fly, we were all disappointed that there was absolutely no wind. The students worked hard at trying to fly their kites. And when they wouldn't work, they tried to analyze the situation to see how they could improve their kite in order to get it up in the air. We had a couple semi-successful attempts, but overall, the flying didn't work out. The day was far from a failure, however.
The best part of the class was that the students were so excited about the project. In particular, I have one student, T., who doesn't do well with book work. Though he's brilliant, he has a difficult time seeing the point of working through problems in a book. (In a way I can understand that.) This student did an incredible job with this project. His kite would probably have been a great flier if we'd had any wind. And I truly understood that he appreciated this opportunity to showcase his talents when he said, "Ms. K, Thank you." At the risk of making a truly horrible pun, T. soared during this project.
Overall, this turned out to be a great day. The students got more math out of the day than they realize (they'll realize soon enough, though), and they had a great time. Today truly inspired me to do more hands-on projects leading into the material. I already try to do this, but having something more applicable-something that they can actually use, like a kite-is a great way to introduce mathematics as a part of their everyday lives.
When we return from break we'll be beginning work with "Special Quadrilaterals" (e.g. parallelograms, trapezoids, kites). So I had a stroke of brilliance on Wednesday night. I decided to have my students build kites to fly on Friday. This project would take up a 90 minute block of time well, as we could use an hour to build and a half hour to fly. And since it's a hands-on, artistic project. My students wouldn't be bored and itching to get out of their seats. Also, since we'll be talking about kites after break, and specifically about the diagonals in a kite, it's really good for my students to understand the diagonals as the frames of their kites.
So, during class on Thursday, I told my students what their project for the next day would be. I had them create lists of materials that they would need. I went to the dollar store that afternoon and got the supplies. And when class started on Friday, my students were ready to go.
My students impressed me yesterday. They were focused on their task. They used problem solving skills to think of the best way to create their kites. And when they finished, they looked around the room for other students to assist. Our time was both productive and fun.
When we brought our kites outside to fly, we were all disappointed that there was absolutely no wind. The students worked hard at trying to fly their kites. And when they wouldn't work, they tried to analyze the situation to see how they could improve their kite in order to get it up in the air. We had a couple semi-successful attempts, but overall, the flying didn't work out. The day was far from a failure, however.
The best part of the class was that the students were so excited about the project. In particular, I have one student, T., who doesn't do well with book work. Though he's brilliant, he has a difficult time seeing the point of working through problems in a book. (In a way I can understand that.) This student did an incredible job with this project. His kite would probably have been a great flier if we'd had any wind. And I truly understood that he appreciated this opportunity to showcase his talents when he said, "Ms. K, Thank you." At the risk of making a truly horrible pun, T. soared during this project.
Overall, this turned out to be a great day. The students got more math out of the day than they realize (they'll realize soon enough, though), and they had a great time. Today truly inspired me to do more hands-on projects leading into the material. I already try to do this, but having something more applicable-something that they can actually use, like a kite-is a great way to introduce mathematics as a part of their everyday lives.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Update
Maybe it's a little early to say this, but I think I made it through the long stretch between the February and April breaks. Only three days to go. And, to be honest, it wasn't as bad as I expected. There are a couple things that have come up for me during this semester, though.
I feel as though I'm not doing as good a job at teaching my honors-level class as I did last semester. As I photocopied their midterm, I felt much less certain that they would succeed at it than I did with my last class. Of course, that could be my own disillusionment. My students last semester did far worse than I expected as well. So, we'll see.
I'm happy about the relationship I seem to have with my extensions-level students. They seem to be comfortable with me, and I certainly feel comfortable with them. It's definitely time for a break, though. It's also time for me to pull out the "applicable" portion of the class. I'm glad the unit on area is coming up soon. The students seem to be getting impatient about math that "they'll never use."
Foundations is going far better this quarter than last. I've instituted two new policies that are helping. First, I'm copying all their "notes" pages on colored paper and all their classwork and homework on white paper. By doing this, they know exactly what they need to turn in, and what they need to keep. Also, I've stopped allowing students who have missing work to leave the classroom. This has yielded two positive results. First, it means the amount of missing work (and thus failing students) has drastically decreased. Second, it forces me to keep up with my grading, which means I can give more accurate IEP reports, more frequent class-progress-reports, and more up-to-date missing-work reports.
I'm still looking for ways to introduce more technology into my classroom, but I find that when I come up with a plan I'm too nervous about using the technology (and having it not work for me in my time of need) to try it. (That's kind of pathetic for a computer science major to say...) I'm thinking that I might work on some lessons over break and try to implement them the week after.
Overall, things are going well. But an April vacation is definitely needed.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
12 * 10? Where's my calculator...
It's come to my attention that my non-honors students don't understand some of the fundamental mathematics procedures. It's these "math basics", and not the geometry, that are holding my students back from becoming the best math students that they can be. The basics that I'm talking about are adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing negative numbers; adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions; taking percents; and quick math tricks (like multiplying by 10 means just moving the decimal point or you know you can divide by 2 when a number is even).
My own educational philosophy is that there are three purposes of teaching mathematics in high school. One of those purposes is to prepare students for the mathematics that they will need in everyday life. Certainly, these basics of mathematics listed above are the mathematics that all my students will need in their everyday lives. Thus, by allowing my students to leave my classroom without understanding these basic mathematical procedures, I feel that I am failing them and failing myself. So many educational gurus have said that we shouldn't teach the child what we want, we should teach them what they need. So, while my main goal for the semester is to teach my students about geometry, they need information about fractions and percents. I should be helping them with this information.
With this in mind, I believe I'm going to institute a new policy for next semester where my students will need to learn these basics of mathematics. I'm thinking they'll need to take individual competencies/skills tests on each topic. And, although I fear parents will balk at me, I'm thinking I'll require them to score 100% on the test or they'll need to retake it with me after school until they achieve that 100%.
My own educational philosophy is that there are three purposes of teaching mathematics in high school. One of those purposes is to prepare students for the mathematics that they will need in everyday life. Certainly, these basics of mathematics listed above are the mathematics that all my students will need in their everyday lives. Thus, by allowing my students to leave my classroom without understanding these basic mathematical procedures, I feel that I am failing them and failing myself. So many educational gurus have said that we shouldn't teach the child what we want, we should teach them what they need. So, while my main goal for the semester is to teach my students about geometry, they need information about fractions and percents. I should be helping them with this information.
With this in mind, I believe I'm going to institute a new policy for next semester where my students will need to learn these basics of mathematics. I'm thinking they'll need to take individual competencies/skills tests on each topic. And, although I fear parents will balk at me, I'm thinking I'll require them to score 100% on the test or they'll need to retake it with me after school until they achieve that 100%.
Friday, February 22, 2008
What the F#$%?!?!?!
The swearing in my classes has gotten out of control. Even in my honors class, I had to stop students from swearing today. I don't like giving detentions for this, because it really does just sort-of "slip out" sometimes. And I understand that. But now that my students know I don't give detentions for this type of language, they don't really care whether they use appropriate language in my classes.
So, I've got a plan. The first day after break, my plan is to give one extra homework problem for each swear I hear in class. This means that I will need to change up my homework and maybe give problems out of the book rather than problems on worksheets. But I was thinking about saving paper that way anyway.
I'm also thinking about including cell phones and iPods in that mix. So, if I see a cell phone or iPod from the moment class starts to the moment class ends, then I will give extra homework problems. I think this is a good way to get students to stop each other from swearing and using their cell phones in class. And it means I still don't have to give detentions.
So, I've got a plan. The first day after break, my plan is to give one extra homework problem for each swear I hear in class. This means that I will need to change up my homework and maybe give problems out of the book rather than problems on worksheets. But I was thinking about saving paper that way anyway.
I'm also thinking about including cell phones and iPods in that mix. So, if I see a cell phone or iPod from the moment class starts to the moment class ends, then I will give extra homework problems. I think this is a good way to get students to stop each other from swearing and using their cell phones in class. And it means I still don't have to give detentions.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Coloring Cubes
I think snow days are Mother Nature's way of helping teachers catch up on work. I'm spending my day on the couch, correcting student work. And, to be honest it's pretty encouraging. From their homework, it seems that they actually understand the majority of the material. I can also tell when my students made the turn around in class.
At the beginning of the semester, my block 2 class seemed very apprehensive about geometry. This was especially the case when I began talking about planes. Talking about intersecting planes is like a lesson in the alphabet. You have to name so many letters at a time, that it gets to feeling as though you're just rattling off random syllables. In order to combat this problem, I created a coloring activity. The students were given several cubes on a worksheet, and the idea was to color in the planes with different colored crayons and markers in order to see if they were parallel or intersecting.
What's nice about coloring is that the answer just pops out at you. It becomes very clear. The other nice thing about coloring is that students LOVE to do it. (Don't we all, really? It makes you feel 5 yrs old again.) Even though they knew they could talk with each other during this activity, my students were silent: they were concentrating so hard on coloring.
That day was the day when my students began understanding planes and intersection. It felt as though they began speaking my language.
(I'd love to post my worksheet on this page, but I'm not sure how to (or if I can) do that. If anyone reading does know how, let me know!!)
Friday, February 8, 2008
Lessons Learned in My First Semester Teaching
(In no particular order)
1. Students have a hard time sharing materials. Make sure there's enough for everyone.
2. Have a routine, and stick to it; especially in the first couple weeks. Students will come to expect that you teach until the end of the period, expect that they reflect on each lesson each day, expect that they take out a pencil and a piece of paper for the beginning of each class, etc.
3. Have rules, and stick to them, especially in the first couple weeks.
4. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. "Make friends" with the most troublesome student in the class at the beginning of the semester.
5. Keep up with grading.
6. Don't give out more than 3 handouts in one class period.
7. Keep at least two fresh board markers in the classroom at all times. Also, make sure there's always at least one black and one red board marker in the classroom at all times.
8. Never expect students to use a separate paper when given a worksheet... even if there's not enough space to write an answer. Give enough space on a worksheet for students to show their work and answer the question.
9. Make at least 5 extra copies of every handout and keep them in the classroom.
10. Keep tissues in the classroom at all times.
11. Keep a hand-held pencil sharpener in the classroom.
12. Keep band-aids in the classroom.
13. Keep extra library, academic support, and nurse passes in the classroom.
14. Don't rush through material just because you "have to cover this today." You'll spend less time on it in the long-run if you take your time the first time through.
15. Not all students want to pass. Never assume a student wants to succeed.
16. Never assume a student does not want to succeed.
17. Concrete, tangible objects capture everyone's attention.
18. Keep up with organization. It gets out of control quickly.
19. Keep a hobby outside of school, and read books that have nothing to do with education.
20. Tell students when it's been a good class. Don't tell students when it's been a bad class, they already know.
21. There's always something to do in a spare 5 minutes.
22. A full 3 course meal can be prepared and consumed in 15 minutes.
23. Forgetting students' names is only acceptable for the first 2 weeks of the semester.
24. Students understand the school rules. Don't explain them, just enforce them.
25. Never try to make manipulatives during class that should be made ahead of time. If materials are not made in time, wait until the next day to do the activity.
26. If you don't get at least 6 hours of sleep one night, then get coffee before school the next morning.
27. Ask other teachers if they have ideas / materials they've used for a topic. They do.
28. Never give up on a student. Every student can surprise you.
More to follow...
1. Students have a hard time sharing materials. Make sure there's enough for everyone.
2. Have a routine, and stick to it; especially in the first couple weeks. Students will come to expect that you teach until the end of the period, expect that they reflect on each lesson each day, expect that they take out a pencil and a piece of paper for the beginning of each class, etc.
3. Have rules, and stick to them, especially in the first couple weeks.
4. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. "Make friends" with the most troublesome student in the class at the beginning of the semester.
5. Keep up with grading.
6. Don't give out more than 3 handouts in one class period.
7. Keep at least two fresh board markers in the classroom at all times. Also, make sure there's always at least one black and one red board marker in the classroom at all times.
8. Never expect students to use a separate paper when given a worksheet... even if there's not enough space to write an answer. Give enough space on a worksheet for students to show their work and answer the question.
9. Make at least 5 extra copies of every handout and keep them in the classroom.
10. Keep tissues in the classroom at all times.
11. Keep a hand-held pencil sharpener in the classroom.
12. Keep band-aids in the classroom.
13. Keep extra library, academic support, and nurse passes in the classroom.
14. Don't rush through material just because you "have to cover this today." You'll spend less time on it in the long-run if you take your time the first time through.
15. Not all students want to pass. Never assume a student wants to succeed.
16. Never assume a student does not want to succeed.
17. Concrete, tangible objects capture everyone's attention.
18. Keep up with organization. It gets out of control quickly.
19. Keep a hobby outside of school, and read books that have nothing to do with education.
20. Tell students when it's been a good class. Don't tell students when it's been a bad class, they already know.
21. There's always something to do in a spare 5 minutes.
22. A full 3 course meal can be prepared and consumed in 15 minutes.
23. Forgetting students' names is only acceptable for the first 2 weeks of the semester.
24. Students understand the school rules. Don't explain them, just enforce them.
25. Never try to make manipulatives during class that should be made ahead of time. If materials are not made in time, wait until the next day to do the activity.
26. If you don't get at least 6 hours of sleep one night, then get coffee before school the next morning.
27. Ask other teachers if they have ideas / materials they've used for a topic. They do.
28. Never give up on a student. Every student can surprise you.
More to follow...
Motivation & Organization
I'm on an upswing right now. I'm very motivated to do work: I want to correct papers, create lessons, organize my teaching spaces. And I'm willing to stay very late at school to do all of these things. It's funny how motivation comes in waves. I suppose all I can do is ride this wave and get caught up or (dare I say it) ahead before I lose this impulse.
My desk is finally cleared of all the student work and left-over photocopies from last semester. My entire semester's work is collected and organized into 19 binders and two notebooks. In terms of organization, I started this semester well. (Knock on wood...) I've been keeping up with the cool downs... for the most part. And I've been putting my absent students' missing work and notes into their absent files, so that I don't need to scramble when they show up the next day asking "if they missed anything yesterday." (Boy that drives me nuts! Of course you missed something!!! Do you think we just sat here doing nothing because you were absent?? Ok, I'm done...)
The aide who's working in my fourth block class has been taking notes while I lecture so that I can photocopy and hand out this information to the missing students as well. That has been extremely helpful. Overall, having the aide in the class has been great! She really knows her stuff. Though I'm always a little shocked when she asks me how she should handle different situations. It always catches me off guard. Especially since, from my internship last year, I'm so used to a co-teaching atmosphere where I'm the one asking questions.
My desk is finally cleared of all the student work and left-over photocopies from last semester. My entire semester's work is collected and organized into 19 binders and two notebooks. In terms of organization, I started this semester well. (Knock on wood...) I've been keeping up with the cool downs... for the most part. And I've been putting my absent students' missing work and notes into their absent files, so that I don't need to scramble when they show up the next day asking "if they missed anything yesterday." (Boy that drives me nuts! Of course you missed something!!! Do you think we just sat here doing nothing because you were absent?? Ok, I'm done...)
The aide who's working in my fourth block class has been taking notes while I lecture so that I can photocopy and hand out this information to the missing students as well. That has been extremely helpful. Overall, having the aide in the class has been great! She really knows her stuff. Though I'm always a little shocked when she asks me how she should handle different situations. It always catches me off guard. Especially since, from my internship last year, I'm so used to a co-teaching atmosphere where I'm the one asking questions.
Saturday, February 2, 2008
Beginning Again
The new semester began this past Monday. Maybe it's because I didn't get last semester's grades finished and entered until Thursday, but I just don't feel as though this semester is beginning as smoothly. I feel disconnected from the students and the material. In particular, I feel as though I'm not really sure how to fill the time in Foundations. I have several students who finish their work in half the time I expect. I also have several students who take double the amount of time. Differentiation is going to be key. I'm very happy that I have an aide in the class with me.
My honors class is going to be great. I'm pretty excited about them. I haven't decided about the other two just yet. They may go either way. My hope is that Foundations will remain the nice, hard-working class they currently seem to be, and that Extensions will stay as energetic as they are, but become more able to concentrate during lectures and discussions.
My honors class is going to be great. I'm pretty excited about them. I haven't decided about the other two just yet. They may go either way. My hope is that Foundations will remain the nice, hard-working class they currently seem to be, and that Extensions will stay as energetic as they are, but become more able to concentrate during lectures and discussions.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Eat Your Vegetables
One of my honors students announced in class today that if school subjects were food, then mathematics would be vegetables. I can't think of a more appropriate analogy.
Aaaaand I'm spent.
I stayed at school way too late today. Until 6:30pm or so, which means I was in the building for twelve hours. That's far too long of a time to spend in a high school.
The purpose of my extended day was organization. I spent 11 hours correcting work this weekend. (11... just count them, I know you won't.) Which, again, is far too long to be working when not required. Usually I get through a couple hours of correcting work on the weekends and I give up. This weekend, however, I was motivated (some might say "inspired") to work and become more organized. And this inspiration extended into today.
I suppose the main cause of my motivation comes from the frightening fact that the semester ends next Friday. And since next semester I'm scheduled to teach two of the same courses as I am teaching currently, a little organization will most certainly help me through. So tonight I stayed at school, organizing all of the original handouts I've created over the semester into binders. Each class has a set of binders, and each binder has all the handouts, overheads, and answer keys for 1 of 9 units.
I'd like to enter into next semester with a little self assurance, knowing that I'll be able to simply open up a binder and re-use much of what I've created thus far. It's exciting to know that that point is coming up soon.
The purpose of my extended day was organization. I spent 11 hours correcting work this weekend. (11... just count them, I know you won't.) Which, again, is far too long to be working when not required. Usually I get through a couple hours of correcting work on the weekends and I give up. This weekend, however, I was motivated (some might say "inspired") to work and become more organized. And this inspiration extended into today.
I suppose the main cause of my motivation comes from the frightening fact that the semester ends next Friday. And since next semester I'm scheduled to teach two of the same courses as I am teaching currently, a little organization will most certainly help me through. So tonight I stayed at school, organizing all of the original handouts I've created over the semester into binders. Each class has a set of binders, and each binder has all the handouts, overheads, and answer keys for 1 of 9 units.
I'd like to enter into next semester with a little self assurance, knowing that I'll be able to simply open up a binder and re-use much of what I've created thus far. It's exciting to know that that point is coming up soon.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Pop Quiz
What do you do when your best students are having a difficult time with a simple topic? What if you only have three more days to cover material (and three days worth of material to cover) in your class before you need to begin review for the final exam?
I've been teaching area and perimeter in my honors geometry class. This is not a difficult topic, in my opinion. So when I gave my students a pop-quiz on the subject, I was surprised to see how many of them believed the problems were tough. At the end of my quizzes, I like to ask questions about how students felt they performed on the quiz, or how difficult they thought the problems were. I haven't done this very much lately. I should be doing it more because it gives me so much information about how to pace my class.
The students, in general, did very well. But I expected them to do better, since I allowed them to use their notes. But the most surprising part was when students couldn't answer questions even with their notes. This confused me a great deal. These students had the formulas. They had example problems. And the problems I gave were not particularly challenging. Furthermore, this is not a class that needs a lot of hand-holding. Yet, several students weren't able to answer the questions.
I wonder what they'll say when I pass back the quizzes tomorrow.
I've been teaching area and perimeter in my honors geometry class. This is not a difficult topic, in my opinion. So when I gave my students a pop-quiz on the subject, I was surprised to see how many of them believed the problems were tough. At the end of my quizzes, I like to ask questions about how students felt they performed on the quiz, or how difficult they thought the problems were. I haven't done this very much lately. I should be doing it more because it gives me so much information about how to pace my class.
The students, in general, did very well. But I expected them to do better, since I allowed them to use their notes. But the most surprising part was when students couldn't answer questions even with their notes. This confused me a great deal. These students had the formulas. They had example problems. And the problems I gave were not particularly challenging. Furthermore, this is not a class that needs a lot of hand-holding. Yet, several students weren't able to answer the questions.
I wonder what they'll say when I pass back the quizzes tomorrow.
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