Professional_log

Some suggestions for your narrative might be as follows: • highly effective lessons or highly ineffective lessons and why • classroom innovations and assessment of their impact in the classroom • classroom management practices and their impact in the classroom • content growth and knowledge Likewise, as you reflect upon your narrative at the end of this year, note any goals or objectives that will improve your performance in the coming year. =__Solving the Education World's Problems, One Thought At a Time.__=

In the past few years I have been teaching, I have noticed a huge disconnect between what students ought to be able to do and what students are actually able to do. Many students have serious problems with simple arithmetic they should have mastered //years// ago. In my honors classes I do not allow calculators until we start chapter 7, but they are not the students with major misgivings. I have always let my regular-level students continue to use their calculators even though they cannot do simple math without it. This year I would like to start giving quizzes every week--something short (10 minutes max) that forces them to learn and use the basic math skills without a calculator. Just a couple of things: fraction operations, multiplication, and division. This is something that can be implemented with little to no change in my current instructional practices while building the __basic__ skills students lack. How it will impact the classroom and morale of students is yet to be seen.
 * 1 September 2010**

Today I had a moment during my Honors Geometry class that made me wish I was able to stop time. In the midst of a demonstration regarding the Midsegment Theorem, I realized that my lesson could be adapted from a presentation into an interactive activity for use on the laptops. And what's more, is that I realized that it would not take me long to make this an effective lesson for my students. If I had the ability to stop time, and not even for very long, the presentation would have been transformed from a class-discussion into a fully student-centered lesson.
 * 2 November 2010**

As it was, I had to continue with things they way they were planned. However, the next time I am going to teach this, the students will lead themselves through the mid-segment formula with help from me, instead of having me lead the way. All it will take it a step-by-step worksheet to accompany a GSP file with a few practice problems at the end.

After thinking about my entry from 2 days ago, I am a bit torn about the results that may occur from moving towards a totally student-centered approach. This is a very easy topic that students are able to understand in less than a full period. Part of me wants to take more time to complete the activity, while the other part of me realizes that there is a lot of material that we are required to get through in order to meet all of the standards for our Geometry curriculum. Thus I am left with a debate: if the students are going to understand it just as well regardless of how the material is presented (for this particular topic--this isn't for everything in the course), is the shortest way possible also the best way possible?
 * 4 November 2010**

I think the only way to answer that question is to try it with the interactive methods during the spring semester and then compare results with how things have gone this week.

Yesterday I received an email from my father-in-law from the JHU magazine. I won't summarize it in this entry, as I already know what it says. But it has me seriously considering the use of calculators in my classroom. The gist of the article is that new math curricula in place in elementary schools is crippling students abilities in high school and post-secondary institutions because they are using calculators for everything. One argument for this is that, as adults, students will be able to use calculators, so why not let them start young? However, it has been my experience that the use of calculators has __completely__ undermined their ability to think about the operations they are performing. Fractions are now just numbers surrounding a line, not quantities and operations.
 * 22 December 2010**

Thus I have started the internal debate for the next semester: should I allow calculators in my classroom? I have been doing this for the past 2 years in my honors classes, but they really aren't the students who need the practice. I have witnessed students use calculators to multiply by 0 and 1, who don't know simple multiplication tables (i.e. 4x6=24), not to mention horrendous mental math skills. I think the only way to combat this is not to coddle, but rather to drop the hammer on them. I realize this appears callous, but holding the students to high standards (some may argue impossibly high) is the only way to make sure they go beyond their comfort levels.


 * 4 January 2011**

Today at lunch, a colleague had a good comment regarding the JHU article--I had sent it to the math staff. He said that he agrees more emphasis needs to be placed on teaching the basics, but that will result in us spending a disproportionate amount of time teaching things that students should //already// know when entering our classroom. I tend to agree with him. This brings back memories of my earlier post about the midsegment theorem. However, I think it is something that both the students and I are going to have to suck up and do: more work and a faster pace. I have a feeling (this is totally unsupported by research or evidence) that because the students have seen multiplication and fractions, etc. for so long, that it is rote practice that they need. Fitting this into the curriculum will be easier than teaching whole lessons around those subjects, so it may simply come down to having the students do extra practice as a warm-up or exit-ticket, or even a question or two at the end of every test. This way the operation are not a surprise and become familiar, which will (hopefully) in turn lead to mastery by the students.