So, I find that time is flying by this semester - both inside and outside Ypsilanti High School.
By far, my favorite part of this experience is connecting with the students. In Mr. Lancaster's class, there is one student who clearly does not like math but loves reading. Since I am actually looking for some books to read, I asked her if she could recommend some. Her face lit up, we talked for a couple minutes, and then she worked much better than I am used to seeing for the rest of the hour. In Mr. Lancaster's class, we are still working on solving equations of the form ax+b=c. Now we have added problems of the for -ax+b=c and ax-b=c. At first, I didn't even notice we had changed topics, but the (slightly) different form of the equations seems to matter a lot to the students.
In Ms. Porter's class today we worked on rates and ratios. I was helping one student with his problem and realized (after several minutes) that I was doing it the completely wrong way. While I have made mistakes before helping students, this was the most aggregious - and I felt bad, as if I had violated the student's trust in me.
Finally, today students got their grades for this term. There seemed to be a lot of dissapointment, but Ms. Porter noted that the students don't transfer that dissapointment into a different appraoch to school. I try to draw this connection to them sometimes - the connection between action and consequences. Last week, they didn't want to do their homework in class, so I asked them if they were going out for Halloween. They said "yes" - and I told them they would be better off working on their homework in class so that they had enough time for Halloween...they still didn't understand the connection though. Same with these new grades - many of them had low class participation grades, but rather than participate today and start fixing the problem, they sat angry and trying to argue their old grades. I wish I could make them see the connection between their actions and the consequences.
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1 comment:
Megan,
In Mr. Lancaster's class, does the class ever talk about how these two types of equations are similar and how they are different? Sometimes this type of discussion will help students see the big ideas and think through the variances.
You obviously showed genuine interest in the student in Mr. Lancaster's class; she rewarded you by making an effort to understand things of interest to you. Ms. Porter's students don't feel ownership. Many times students think teachers give them grades and that there is nothing they can do to improve. It takes a great deal of coaching and pointing out that their effort is making a difference. Sometimes asking one student who understands a concept to explain it to you or another student and then praising him/her for a clear explanation helps.
If you make a mistake, admit it and explain where you made the mistake and what led you to realize it was wrong. That is a good example to students to see that you can make a mistake, correct it and learn from the experience. Our students are afraid to take a risk in class for fear of being "wrong". Students should be playing with numbers/equations and challenging each other to explain why something is correct or incorrect.
Carol Cramer
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