New New Approach

Got some feedback from the resource class on how I might make classes more effective.

They said:
1. Get rid of the 'warm up': I'd put a problem up on the overhead covering topics from the previous class, they would spend 5 min doing the problem and we'd spend another 5 min discussing. They don't like it.
2. More time to do work in class on their own. We were doing work in class (sample problems during presentation of new material plus a few sample homework problems) but largely it'd be talking thru the problem and asking kids to fill in different parts. No, they want to be left alone to try it completely on their own.
3. Let them sit in larger groups. Arrange the tables into little clusters with 3-5 students at each cluster. During the work-in-class time the clusters can talk to each other and teach each other.

Done, done, and done. I've done this the past week and I like it. Nixing the warmup gives me more time to teach new stuff. The kids teach learn better from each other as they work in groups than they do from me talking. And letting them work in groups gives me time to circulate and deal 1-1 with kids who may be having trouble.

Further refinement: no more question hats. I liked watching them in silly hats but one girl pointed out that sharing hats was "nasty" and that was the end of that.

Now I take a few playing cards, put 'em in a stack, and write a kid's name on the board for each card in the stack (random set of kids). Each time a named kid asks a question I flip a card and they get that many points. This is working pretty well: today the class was begging/pleading/commanding the last kid on the board to ask a question to get the last card (It was a king, 50 points... that's a lot of points!). So hooray for peer pressure.

Another teacher sat in and observed today. I am a bit apprehensive about this. I'd like to get useful feedback on how to do better but of course it's difficult to have someone say "you didn't do XYZ well". But I know I need help.

Results are in

Just graded the tests.

The good news is that the kids who were clustering around the board clamoring for more problems all did relatively well, better than they've done in the past.

The bad news is that a lot of other kids tanked hard. Some of those were kids who weren't really trying, but other were really working, and it's very sad to have to give them a bad grade.

Curse you, corresponding angles! Why must you be so confusing?

Small (?) Victory

I have a period of tutorial (study hall) with my sophomore geometry class. They are supposed to do homework, specifically math homework. In general some degree of talking is allowed during tutorial.

This particular class has generally driven me nuts. The girls like to talk and giggle, the boys like to talk and make the girls giggle, and I become this raging ogre after a while.

Side note: just like little birds that eat stuff out of alligators' teeth or bees pollinating flowers, there is something very primal and symbiotic about a teenage girl's desire to giggle and a teenage boy's desire to make her giggle. Trying to squelch that is like fighting the tides.

Anyway, yesterday there was this significant change. There's a test coming up, and the overall tone of the class was "let's prepare for the test." Kids were going over old homework, quizzing each other, drilling with flashcards. They started petitioning me to make up new problems, and there were literally scuffles at the whiteboard trying to get in there with the markers to solve the problems. And even cases of one student trying to "save" the problem for another one: like don't solve that problem, Joe; Mark needs to learn that, let him work on it.

What... was... that????

Air Quotes

On Monday I had lunch with the spouse-of-a-friend-of-a-friend who is doing something similar to me: he left a high tech firm earlier this year to work on a non-profit. I'd heard him speak at a fundraiser for his non-profit, and I'd asked if we could do lunch because I was interested in how the whole process played out for him.

It was helpful for me to talk with him. Over the past few weeks I'd been recasting my decision as "I failed in technology, so in shame I quit and ran away to teaching". This guy was good at calling me out on that, how that's a ridiculously negative view of things. At one point I was describing to him how I was feeling obligated to try to work on technical projects on the side while teaching. I described it as "doing projects while I'm not working". He immediately called me on that: what am I saying when I describe teaching, helping these kids, as "not working".

I said "At least I used air quotes when I said not working".

He said "But you didn't really mean it." And he was right. Busted.

Spirit Week

Last week was spirit week here at Eastside. Nerd Day, Pajama Day, Wacky Day, College Day, and Halloween. I didn't do anything special for any of the days. No spirit. I never consciously decided I wasn't going to do anything. I just wasn't paying attention when I dressed for the day and that was that.

Pretty fun to see all the kids in crazy getups though.

Why can't you do that on the first test?

A student who got an F on a test just retook the test and got like a 95. Aye caramba. Good news is that he understands the material. Bad news is that retest you can only get back a quarter of the points you lost, so he only picked up like 12 points.