Teach 180: Write About a Time... (Day 176 & 177)

Yesterday I proctored a chemistry exam, prepared sixteen different midterm and final exams for summer acceleration, wrote three letters to parents about summer acceleration, attended a faculty luncheon honoring about 15 people (of whom 8 were retiring) and took some time for a singing "jam" session with two colleagues.  At the end of the day, I left feeling like three or four days had elapsed.  In fact, I even forgot where I had parked my car.  It was parked safely down by the science labs, where my day had started!

Today we have a final meeting as an Upper School faculty and we have been asked to take ten minutes to journal about one of the following topics.  (We subsequently had to write for two additional seven minute bursts.) We are to write about at time this year when:

• you were empowered to make a choice.
• the power of choice was taken from you.
• you felt heard.
• you felt dismissed.

After this school year, I could write on each of these topics, but the two that I could write the most about are the power of choice being taken from me and feeling dismissed.  Based on many of my friends being in states where they have gone on strike, I feel like being dismissed and having choice taken away are happening way to often, especially in public education.  

This blog entry will focus on the feeling of being dismissed.  (It is partly because of this feeling that I chose to leave Moravian and took a job at Kent Place School.)  At the beginning of the year, I suggested two major curriculum changes, one was a re-ordering of courses.  Another was lengthening courses to accommodate the decreased instructional time that was happening relative to the schedule change this year.  Both of those ideas where shot down.  The middle school math department did not want to consider the change in the ordering of courses and the Headmaster (by way of the Upper School Director) told me that we could not lengthen courses.  In essence, we needed to work within the structure we were given.  The Headmaster suggested that new ways of teaching should be used, but in reality, the curriculum itself needed to be restructured first.  (In hindsight, we also should have been given two full days at the start of the school year to meet as a department to consider the impending changes.)  After my meeting with him to discuss the impact of the schedule on the math curriculum, I walked away feeling like I was dismissed and not heard.  

So, the math department worked with what we were given.  We had less review before tests and covered topics in less depth and we created a three page document to show what has been removed or reduced in the curriculum.  The "surfacy" treatment of topics led to decreased student understanding in many areas.  We didn't have time to look at more nuanced problems than we had in the past and students said that they wished they had more practice with math on a daily basis.  I am sad that there is a mess that is being left behind in mathematics and that the new department chair will have to figure out how to clean up the mess.  I am also sad to be leaving many wonderful colleagues.  Keep fighting the good fight, LC and LG!  (If you are reading this MR, don't worry.  I am a phone call away and will gladly help you in any way I can.)  

Teach 180: 26 Boxes and a Gem (Days 174 & 175)

Yesterday I finished organizing some files and I am down to my final "To Do" list as I prepare to move from my job at Moravian Academy to a job at Kent Place School.  This afternoon I counted the number of boxes and bins in my basement and there was a whopping 26!  As I sorted through one box today, I found this gem from an NCTM Math session from 2006.

I would say that if you asked my students that it means to do mathematics they would say things like find examples, look for patterns and solve problems.  I am not so sure they would say the ones I have highlighted - "take chances, make mistakes", "discover more elegant solutions" and "explain, validate, convince".  Why would they not say these?  Here are my thoughts.

Take Chances, Make Mistakes  - Although I try to have a culture where mistakes are seen as part of the learning process, students often don't want to make mistakes for fear of "losing face" in front of their peers.  However, taking chances and making mistakes are a huge part of learning.  Desmos has helped my students to take chances, try things out, make mistakes, revise their answers.  Desmos gives feedback in a non-judgemental way.  It says your wrong, but without using the word "wrong".  I don't use the word "wrong", but what do I say specifically?  I try to say things like "Why do you think that?" and "Can you explain your thinking?"  Do I really value mistakes?  I'll need to be more cognizant of this next year.

Discover More Elegant Solutions - Rarely do we take the time to have students discover more solutions, let alone more elegant solutions.  This is especially true in the public school system.  At times this has also been true in my classroom.  To have more elegant solutions, you need to have problems that are interesting and can be solved by multiple perspectives.  As I look to next year, can I make this part of my classroom culture?  As I plan for my classes for the fall, my goal will be to find one or two problems per unit that lend themselves to discovering more elegant solutions.

Explain, Validate, Convince - This is something that should be happening in every classroom (not just math classrooms) daily.  "Convince us." and "How can you tell if your answer is right/reasonable?" needs to also happen more frequently in my classroom.  In the name of "covering" content, we often rush past this part of a lesson to do more examples.  The answer is "right" and for many teachers that are pressured by state testing, a "right" answer is all that matters.  However, I believe that explain, validate and convince will have a stronger and more lasting impact on understanding than drill and kill in the name of "right" answers.

Teach 180: Celebrating the End (Day 173)

Friday was the beginning of the end.  Although we still have underclass exams for three more school days and two days of teacher meetings, we celebrated the graduation of this year's senior class on Friday evening with a baccalaureate service.  It is especially bittersweet this year, because my own daughter is in the graduating class.  After the service, we were milling on the lawn outside of the church with many pictures being taken.  This one was taken of me and my first period AP Stat students.  I will especially miss this group.  Teaching them was a joy.  They asked questions, made me laugh and hopefully, they will think more critically about any statistics headlines they see in the news.  Congratulations to the class of 2018!