Changing

I have decided that I need to change.  This is rather interesting as my style of teaching is rather different anyway.  I love to say that I don't teach my students, and I don't.  I really try to lead them to learning, to involve them in attaching new knowledge to their old knowledge.  Last week, when I attempted to have them teach themselves, successfully in the end, I rethought what I do again. 

We are starting a new unit called From the Ground Up that involves area, perimeter and I'm including volume.  So I started by having them search the internet to find out what these words mean and how they relate.  It went very well even with my reluctant to lead themselves class.  They are finally getting the hang of it and that's when it hit me that the biggest change that needs to occur in the curriculum is what is taught. 

We need to teach our students to learn for themselves.  We don't need to teach that area is length times height; we need them to know how to find what they don't know, and how to know what they need to know.  Lots of knows here, but they don't need to know what year the War of 1812 was fought; they need to think about why it was fought.  They already turn to the internet for information on what interests them; they need to learn to look there when they don't know answers as well.  One game a substitute came up with one year was to challenge students to find the answers to Trivial Pursuit card the fastest on their laptops.  What a great way to learn to search. 

Independence

When ever I take a really effective class, it makes me think about how to be a better teacher and make my kids better learners.  So on the way to work the other day, I had a idea I thought I'd try.  It was an idea I had tried ineffectively a few years ago.  but what the heck, if at first you don't succeed, try try again.  So I did, and it worked well for 66% of my students. That was on Thursday.  The reactions from my students were interesting.  The first two classes, the 66%, kept asking, hopefully, if we could do it again.  The last class, the 34% that didn't do well, asked, "Do we have to do that again?"  I said yes to both groups and we continued on Friday.  The first two groups continued to do well and I loved seeing them work so well together.  We had a minor glitch in one class with a student feeling like she had been talked down to by a classmate but it got resolved.  The last class finally got it and were much happier.  It had taken them 45 minutes to correct their homework the day before and only 30 minutes on Friday.  One aspect I really liked was the decision about homework.  I generally don't give any on Fridays for two reasons.  One, the won't do it and two, weekends should be for relaxation, not work. But we have a test coming up, a writing prompt, and vacation.  So in order to get their review corrected, it needed to be done on Monday. They understood the time constraints and opted to have it due on Monday and work on it over the weekend.  I was so  proud of them! 

I am really enjoying seeing all the classes work together and take ownership of their learning.  I think it fits in well with what Daniel Pink is writing about in the DRIVE book.  I am not offering a carrot or a stick, and they are working harder.  When I observe the class, they are all more focused in paying attention to each other and helping.  In the class that was having the harder time, I had a student who had missed a few days and wasn't sure of what to do.  I asked him part way through the class how he was doing.  I had helped him some earlier and was checking back.  The student sitting beside him told me he was fine as she was helping him.  They will learn so much more with 2o teachers in the room as opposed to just one.  This is an idea I am really liking.

Building excitement

I am getting excited.  I move into a new building next year and it is exciting.  There will be a lot of changes and I love change.  I got really excited as I read Curriculum 21's Chapter 4.  It's all about redesigning the reinventing the school.  We are going to have to opportunity to do things differently and I think it is important not to try and make everything the same.  Instead of having the science classroom 1/4 mile away, it will be across the hall.  My whole team will be more centralized and hopefully that will make for more collaboration.  While I have seen the building under construction, I am anxious to see how all the spaces will look and work when finished.

I've really enjoyed this week on Middle Level Education as that is what I do.  Even though I already do some of what we read about, I love the revitalization I feel every time I read about what is happening in middle schools.  We lost our Team Time this year with budget cuts and we are feeling it.  It is harder to find the time to figure out how to best help our students.  On a brighter note, since I have to "do" two different study halls, it has given me the opportunity to help students learn about the laptops at the beginning of the year and explore Lego Robotics now.  It is so cool to see what the kids can do.  I have one student who has programed a robot to break dance.  He went from design to programming to design to programming.  I talked to our guidance councilor, who schedules, today as I would love to have Lego classes instead of study halls next year.  I had never worked with Legos before and had to learn the programming form one of the students.  It was so much fun!  And so I am letting my excitement for next year continue to build!

Learning never stops

As we get deeper into this course, EDC 533, I realize how much I don't know and never thought of.  There is so much to education and the curriculum.  I love how it all, should, interweave and connect together.  I can so see the usefulness and necessity of curriculum mapping, both for each year and the whole education.  Knowing where you have been and where you want to go can make such a difference.  But I think it can be really hard to get everyone on the same map. I wonder if some countries that have national curricula do better than we do because they are all on the same map. 

We all have some things that we are better at than others and having said that, it doesn't mean we can't get better at what we aren't good at.  After studying the Japanese educational system, having very qualified teachers seems really important.  Qualification costs and is our government ready to put its money where its mouth is?  Given all the cuts to education recently, I don't think so.  I do realize that money doesn't fix everything but education can fix a lot.  Here in the states we have the saying that "those who can, do: those who can't teach.  What a put down to teaching!  And not true either so why is it said? I sometimes think that our country doesn't value education as much as they should and while I don't really know why this is so, I wonder if it is because it is free.  It isn't really free but it seems like it as no one pays the school to go to public school.  It is a right and not a privilege. 
These are just some thought I am having as think about what I am learning. 

What works

 I think there are many good things going on in schools today and I know I would have had a much easier time learning in today's classroom. I was a fast learner, so often tuned the teacher out when they did too much repetition.

Clear procedures make it much easier to work with learners as they then know exactly what they should do. Good behavior makes it much easier for everyone to learn and for the teacher to teach. Harry Wong wrote a book about “ The First Days of School” and that was one of the things he advocated for doing. It may sound harsh but doesn't have to be. I work with someone who is astonished that my learners are as happy as they are with my style of teaching. I have very clear expectations and my students meet them. I am perceived as fair and that seems to really matter to the kids.

I also don't really teach. I facilitate learning by trying to only ask questions and lead my learners to what I want them to figure out. Since, in math, we always build on prior knowledge it is possible. I don't say easy because the “learners” want to be told but I want them to figure it out. When they ask me a question, I very rarely actually answer it but they do get the help they want. I ask them a variety of questions to get them to use the knowledge they already have. Sometimes just asking what they think the answer is and confirming their choice is all they need. I want them to know they have what they need they just need to trust themselves. I think that's a part of the “constructed math” type program and I really like it. I want to know why it works and I think it makes it easier for students to discover how to do things rather than just be told.

I also like to have them work together and share their brains. I think it is good for them and much easier for me than trying to address every problem in the classroom. It also gives them the social time that is so necessary for children of all ages. Children learn better and retain more, I think, when they get to talk about it. And when one of them figures it out, it makes the knowledge seem more attainable than if I just tell them.

Having watched this week's Tedtalk I also think that the enthusiasm for trying different ways of teaching adds to the students learning. We ALL have to be having fun in the classroom. If I am having a good time doing what I do then the learners will catch that enthusiasm and play along with me. Because that is what I try to do in my classroom. I want to play, have fun, and learn.