Repairing Culture

I had a tough day with my toughest class yesterday.  I feel a little guilty saying that they are a "tough" class, as the kids that I work with are truly amazing.  They are respectful, kind, and work relatively hard. Still, our job is never that easy.

The dynamics of this particular block just drives me crazy, and I don't do a very good job of hiding it.  Simply put, they know they drive me crazy, and that makes everything that much worse.  I struggle implementing changes, giving direct instruction, facilitating discussion, or doing just about anything.  

So, tomorrow I'm going about fixing my classroom culture.  The question is "how?"  

Step 1:  Apologize

Step 2:  Eliminate sarcasm and disrespect

Step 3: Feedback (google form)

Step 4: Discuss feedback

Step 5: Listen to all suggestion

Step 6: Make suggested changes

Let's see how it goes!

Equation, Graph, Table Displays

I just finished a display activity with my 7th graders, and I loved it.  I've used this activity in the past, but not with the success of this go around.  I stole this activity from my days in Oregon and thanks to Shannon McCaw for sharing this and many more activities.

The activity:

• Break up the class into groups of 2 or 3 people
• Distribute a card to each group - the card contains one of the following: graph, equation, table or story
• Students divide a poster into four section and create the other 3 missing parts, depending on what they receive

After the creation of the posters, I did a carousel activity wherein each person wrote a comment(s) on a sticky note complimenting or critiquing other groups work.  Some questions I had them consider:

     1)  Do all representations match or represent the same situation?

     2)  Are all variables defined?  In each section.  (No one had this done)

     3)  Is the presentation easy to read and understand?

     4)  Can you tell what the situation is looking at any given section           (graph, equation, table)

Then, I gave the students 10 minutes to adjust their displays based on the feedback they received.  Every group went back to their displays and changed something.  Most simply labeled their variables, but some groups made more significant adjustments.

The power of this activity is in the critiquing of others work.  Student were able to see how explicit they had to be in their representations, because what is obvious to one person is not to another.  Also, the students had a very difficult time creating a story to match their tables, graphs and equations.  Many groups left the story to the end, and then realized that their representations did match their story.  

This activity lends itself to learning on so many different levels.  I can't wait to do it again!

Learning2Asia

My first time attending a Learning2 conference and I was inspired, energized, and too be honest, a bit overwhelmed.  The theme of the conference was "disrupt" and we heard from people around the world whom are doing some impressive things to disrupt their lives, classrooms, and schools.  

With each new presentation, I felt a bit like a child being scolded for doing something wrong, or in this case, not doing enough right.  Everything was about how our system is broken, and we aren't doing enough to change it. I walked away with an action plan and some solid ideas, but mainly I walked away feeling like a loser.

Now that a few days have passed, I'm able to reflect on the conference with a little more objectivity.  Being back in my comfortable environment, where there's anything but disruption around me, I realize that not everything we do is broken.  Some of our students are thriving, and getting exactly what they need to be successful in the future.  However, it is clear that some are not.  It is my job to figure out how to reach all learners, how to inspires, how to prepare students for jobs not yet created, how to collaborate with their peers, how to apply knowledge, how to create new things, how to identify and then solve problems.  In short it is my task, to educate the whole child for a beautifully complex and unpredictable future. A task, a job, a privilege that I approach with unabated enthusiasm.  

Here's to a controlled disruption, where everyone can be successful!

Driven to Learn: All Children?

We had a professional development day last week, led by our amazing student services coordinator.  She presented on the physiology of ADHD and the strategies that can be applied to negate some of the executive functioning deficits that are often associated with the diagnosis.  Towards the end of her presentation she referred to a common catch-phrase question the many educators use when talking about student motivation, "Have you ever encountered a young child (2 or 3 year old) unmotivated to learn?"  The thought goes that children are born with an intrinsic motivation to learn, and we, as an educational institution, tend to squash that "love" of learning.  In the past, I've taken this point as fact and believed in a child's love of learning and curiosity, but for the first time, I had my doubts.

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that children are curious and eager to learn.  They will continually explore their world to increase their understanding of it.  However, this learning is strictly relegated to an exploratory and self-driven act.  When a child is asked to learn something, i.e. washing their hands, using the toilet, brushing their teeth, they might not be as eager.  Why?  Are we presenting the material incorrectly?  Maybe?  But maybe it's just that the subject matter doesn't interest them.  Maybe, just maybe, they would rather be doing something else, learning about something else, than the thing which we want.

That's where school comes in to play.  It's our job, our privilege, as educators, to provide students with a wealth of knowledge and skills that will allow unlimited opportunity in the future.  Some of those skills, and some of that knowledge, may not be what a student wants to think about, explore, and learn about.  Therefore, it's not us, it's not the institution, that kills the desire to learn, it's simply human individuality.

We must continue to make learning fun, engaging, and relevant to students, but we must not beat ourselves up because we've killed a child's motivation to learn.  We have exposed a person to a new topic or area of study, that may, one day open up a door to their future.

Solving Equations

As I've mentioned before, I'm teaching the same group of kids that I had last year.  This is good and bad.  Good because I have established relationships, know what they can do, and know what we covered and how we covered it last year.  It's bad because, let's face it, sometimes a student (and a teacher) needs a fresh face.

Knowing that we solved one-step equations last year in our 6th grade class, when I approached this topic this year, I thought that I'd have the kids teach each other.  Therefore, I broke the class into groups of 3, and assigned each group a different equation to solve.  They all came to the white board and began solving the equation.  After 1 minute, I had the groups rotate and continue the work of another group.  This continued until all groups had worked or reviewed each equation.  Next, I had the groups return to their original equations and see if the workings made sense, and if they agreed with the final outcome.

My hope in doing this was that each student would see the various types of one-step equations, they would improve on their ability to critique the work of others, and it would get them out of their seats.  These goals, for the most part, were accomplished.  I also made a rule that the same person could not write on the white board twice in a row, forcing everyone to participate.

After we had solved all of the equations, I had the whole class look at a few choice ones and do a bit of critiquing.  My idea was to create a whole class dialogue about the different methods to solving equations, how we communicate our thinking clearly, and how we can check each other's work.  Unfortunately, the whole class discussion didn't progress as I had hoped, and we just reviewed equation and tried to clarify any misconceptions.

Although the lesson wasn't perfect, I enjoyed the different approach to presenting the topic.  It did get all students out of their seats, and most of them were working on and talking about math which was great.