Brand New Day

I thought about starting off this post with some lyrics of the song "Brand New Day", the one from Dr. Horrible.  But I figured that might be a bit off-putting.

It's the start of a new year.  I still wish to maintain my regular posts on this blog during the school year, so here I am.  Typing.  New classroom, everything seems very...empty.  On the plus side, I have windows!  Can't complain about that, my old room was a dungeon.

Opening up is supposed to be about my attempts to reform my teaching, to make me a better teacher.  I think I will set one major goal this year:

I want to be less boring.

I think I mentioned it before, but I had an epiphany over the summer.  The way that I see math being taught is boring.  Frankly, I totally understand why so many students hate math.  We start off math lessons with explanations and terminology and instructions which are completely irrelevant and not meaningful.

I personally think that we need to start off a lesson with context.  A context in which this is actually applied (and not purchasing 60 watermelons).  Then we need to let students explore, play, ask questions, discuss, make mistakes.  They need to draw their own conclusions, right or wrong.  When they discover things that don't work, they need to figure out why.

Then, we can have the instructions and the explanation.  To me, this is a more authentic model for real learning.  A student can add fractions together easily, but completely lose the process when it's applied to rational expressions.  Why?  Because they learned a method, a set of steps, but never really understood the concept of WHY we have a common denominator, or how to get one.

Furthermore, I think that by giving context first and letting students explore, they are more engaged in the lesson and are much less likely to tune out.  And isn't that the first step to learning?

Those are my thoughts for today.

Math and the Real World

Upon reading some of the old lessons that I had done near the beginning of the year, it is amazing to me how much I have already changed.  Mostly, I glance at my old materials and recoil in horror.  I'm coming to the realization now that I have a fundamentally flawed understanding of math education.

I think it's because I enjoy math for the purpose of math.  I like rigor, I like notation, I like working through a problem where I really have to think and I gain satisfaction from finding solutions.

I'm not sure students are the same.

I don't think that students can appreciate math without a context.  For me the context is mathematics, but they don't see it that way.  Anything without a context is irrelevant and they haven't gained the maturity to slog through stuff that they find totally boring.  I found, looking back, that I was often punishing students for talking, not doing work, being off-task etc. when really...

...I was boring.

It's hard to stay on track and focused when you're not interested in the material.  I find that a hard pill to swallow.  Why can't they just listen and learn because they're supposed to?  Why don't they care?  Duh, because they're teenagers and their lives are preoccupied with other things.  I am the classroom management problem when I'm boring.  I cause the problems, it's not them; it's me.  So ultimately the problem/solution lies with me.

So there's the problem: context.  Meaningful context.  Not "Jeremy walks into the store and buys 46 watermelons while the cashier stares at him dumbfounded because who the hell buys 46 watermelons".

Working on 30-2 materials for the Set Theory unit.  Trying to make it meaningful.  Struggling, but the struggle makes it worth it.

Resolution: Make all lessons <30 minutes.  Less me talking, more them doing.

The opening

So my math 20-1 class is writing their final exam today, so I thought it would be a good time to start my blog.  I wanted to start a blog so I could document my reflections on my math classes as I make my way through the tumultuous life of a first year teacher.  


I'm the type of person who couldn't motivate herself to write in a diary regularly, so I hope that my attempts at keeping myself up to date with this blog are more successful.  I can see the value in keeping a blog, my hope is that it helps me grow and improve as a teacher/human being.


I suppose I should start off with a few goals.


1. To reflect deeply on my own teaching practices.  Ask myself the difficult questions in order to make meaningful, well though out decisions about what happens in my classroom.


2. Connect with other people and learn from their experiences.


3. Share my experiences/resources with others.


4. Provide a record of my teaching practices so I can look back on this and laugh at myself.


5. Be a better teacher/human being.


Too lofty?  Probably.