looking back to move *forward*

            A few short weeks ago, I started a class, which has totally changed my perspective of incorporating technology into my lessons.  I learned how to set up and use a wiki, blog (obviously), podcast and other resources.  A few of these things, I already knew how to use, but I had no idea how to incorporate the use of them into my lessons and classroom.   Now, I have so many new ideas for using these different technology skills with my students.  I have wanted to get my class headed towards a more student-centered, project-based learning atmosphere and these skills have really pushed me further in that direction.

            Most of the research I did for this class helped me understand the advantages to using these technological skills with my students.  Technology is a second language to most of my kids and it only makes sense that they would learn much better with the assistance of this language.  At my school, students have more access to technology at home than at school.  To me, this is a little disheartening but I want to rise to that challenge.  What good is a room full of students with smart phones if they only use those phones to text/tweet/post while they’re suppose to be paying attention to lectures?  Instead, I want to focus my classroom in on the benefits of educating WITH these devices, rather than fighting against them. 

            This past weekend, I attended a math conference (OCTM annual conference in Dayton) and was bombarded with the same ideas, over and over again.  The focus of our classrooms needs to move beyond the teacher and more to the learners.  An amazing statistic from one of the presenters gave me a glimpse into the reasoning behind learner-centered teaching; visual and audio help us retain somewhere between 15-30% of what we learn, but teaching helps us retain around 95% of the information.  This is HUGE!! I need to make my students the teachers so they can learn the material inside and out.

         

            So what do we do about it? Well… that’s the question I keep asking myself.  Over the next few years, I am hoping to change up the entire structure of my Algebra II class.  My first goal is to incorporate a “flipped classroom” at least once or twice a chapter.  The process of a flipped classroom starts with students reading/watching some kind of lesson on their own, as ‘homework’, then coming in to class to work in groups on the actual homework of the chapter.  I think this will significantly help infuse my class with student dialog and a higher conceptual process.  My second goal is to focus on at least one project per unit, with both my Algebra II classes AND my Calculus class. 

            In a small, rural district, it can be difficult to find the resources I would like to use in my classroom, but that’s no excuse to avoid the resources I CAN have… especially if it keeps my students more engaged and better prepared for life after high school. 

Isn’t that what it’s all about?

-Kate

“Don’t limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time.”

-Rabindranath Tagore

Mission #1

My very first year of teaching, I remember walking into my classroom and imagining everything that I wanted my room to be.  I rearranged the desks, put up my posters, and covered my own desk in pictures of family and friends to make me smile…

Then the first day happened.

Finally, after everyone left and I was sitting in my room, it hit me! I spent all this time making the room my own, but I didn’t prepare to make the class my own.  So I changed it up!  Hundreds of things have altered since my first year and I like to believe I’ve gotten a little (a very little) bit wiser.  That being said, I have a few things that make my class special and uniquely mine.  Out of all of these, my favorite is…

 HUMOR!! 

My students figure it out the very first day they walk into my room.  I start with a serious face and roll call.  About halfway through, I say something completely ridiculous and make a joke.  Then comes my favorite part: the kids have no idea whether they should laugh or not and my face gives nothing away, so there’s this awkward, smiling silence that fills the room and I finally crack a smile.

After breaking the ice, I let them in on a little secret… I absolutely love math and I want to share that love!  Nothing is fun to learn when you’re sitting in a boring classroom with a sober teacher.  I also have found that kids are a lot more willing to talk to you about the important things when you joke around with them and keep the atmosphere laid-back. 


Math is such an awesome art and I have a strong passion for sharing all the amazingness!  These high school kids come in with a lot of negative things to say about math.  My goal is to get them to acknowledge the wonders of mathematics and hopefully enjoy the whole ride through Algebra II and Calculus!  

"One of the most amazing things about mathematics is the people who do math aren't usually interested in application, because mathematics itself is truly a beautiful art form.  It's structures and patterns, and that's what we love, and that's what we get off on."

Danica McKellar

A Student Questionnaire

This week, in my technology course, I needed to conduct a survey of my students and compile a bit of data regarding their technological strengths and weaknesses.  Click on the following link to listen to my podcast:    

Kate's Podcast

Enjoy!
-Kate

don’t humiliate... heal

Today I reminisced about my days in Algebra II. No, not teaching Algebra II, taking Algebra II.  As a math teacher, I think it’s funny to see the looks on my students’ faces when I tell them I hated Algebra II in high school.  I did!  Couldn’t stand to be in the class.  I use to get an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach, an overwhelming dread, at the end third period because I knew what was next… Advanced Algebra II.

It wasn’t the content that I dreaded- it was the atmosphere. The math wing had been my favorite place for class.  It was down a side hallway, so it was generally quite, and math was the subject that came easily to me.   Those happy feelings quickly changed when I started Algebra II.  My teacher was incredibly smart and he knew the material inside and out, however, he lacked the compassion to teach.  He easily became exasperated when we didn’t understand and it was clear that we never asked scholarly questions, only ridiculous ones.  The tone he used with the class was condescending, and almost every day I walked out of his room feeling like an idiot. 

~~~~~~~~

I have reasons for just about everything I do in my classroom:

My high school Calculus teacher is the reason we have 12 days of bonus questions right before Christmas break and a huge celebration on Pi Day.  My history teacher inspired me to use historical dates for bonus questions and collect money for a good cause.  I credit my dry humor and overly enthusiastic attitude about my subject to my choir professor in college. 

So many people have influenced my life!

Every moment in my classroom reflects my relationship with a teacher and the lifelong lessons he or she taught me.  On the negative side of relationships, my Algebra II teacher taught me the importance of flexibility and spontaneity.  By refusing to upset his scheduled lesson, or slowing down to reevaluate a concept, he taught me exactly what NOT to do. 

So today, when my Algebra II students came in to my class with blank homework assignments and the utter look of defeat, I improvised.

We scratched the review that was planned for the day, and I re-taught the lesson from yesterday.  We went around the room and everyone helped me finish a problem on the board.  By the end of class, my students were not necessarily jumping for joy, but they weren’t looking sad and crushed either.  I may not have passed on my enthusiasm for solving 3-variable equations, but I gave them a second chance to learn something they didn’t understand the first time. 

While my own Algebra II teacher didn’t offer second chances, I know that if I found myself sitting in class, with a blank homework assignment in front of me and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, I would like to be given another chance… and maybe a reminder that a tough lesson is not the end of the world.

-Kate

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”

 ~Haim G. Ginott~