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Sunday, October 28, 2012

What are you learning?

Some former students have up their Saturday yesterday to join our school in hosting a volleyball tournament. These awesome 8th and 9th graders came back to ref. score keep and time keep for us. So of course I took this opportunity to chat with them about how things were going at the junior high school.

A few of them are in a class where a colleague of mine has taken on a largely inquiry based learning approach this year. I've been following his classes on twitter and talking with him through this journey. Everything I've seen so far makes me want to go back in time to retake science 8 and 9.

These kids are tackling big issues. And most of them are doing it well. They are spending their class time working meaningfully with their teacher, and making deep connections to the subject matter.

But when I asked one of our refs what he thought of the process he was quick to say he felt like he wasn't being taught anything. That he wasn't learning just researching. And that a PowerPoint he made wasn't as good a study tool as notes he copied from a teacher. He feels his teacher isn't teaching him.

He then ran off to ref again and I didn't get the chance to ask him all the burning questions in my mind. To have the conversation with him about what real learning is.

But another teacher overheard the conversation. And said "well that's interesting. No one really thinks about asking kids if these initiatives are effective."

And that's when I realized how far we have to go. My colleague and I chatted then for a while about why hat student may have responded that way. What is he motivated by? What us the purpose of schooling? And is producing intellectually capable students who don't trust their own learnings as valuable going to move us forward as a society.

I worry about the kids who want the teacher to tell them what is right. I worry about the citizens they will become if they go through their whole lives assuming authority figures are telling them the "right" answers. That the people they work for, vote for, and watch always have their best interests at heart. I want to know we are unleashing a generation of passionate questioners who trust their own abilities to research and answer their own questions.

So I started yesterday by planting a little seed in the student I talked with. I ended the day asking him if he thought a teacher always had the right answers. He said no, but they usually know where to look. I said and don't you know where to look too?

Monday, October 1, 2012

Calendar Math... Not Just For Kindergarten

 


Okay so I teach math.  I teach math to 4th graders.  I love them, and I love the little bit of time i get in the classroom each day.  It keeps me current, it keeps me learning, and it keeps me connected with the kids in my school in the best way I know how. 

But yeah math.  Not exactly my first choice to teach, and definitely not my strength as a teacher.  But I like a challenge, and I like the chance to really streach my thinking and learning. 

I am a firm believer that if something works really well in kindergarten, it can be adapted to work in upper grades, and will also work well (maybe better... sorry kindergarten teachers & thank for being awesome i love stealing things from you!).

So here is where my idea for Calendar Math 4.0 was concieved. 
click here to see this full size
 
 
I've run this by a few people, one recommended I add in a way for kids to represent the number pictorally.  (can you see where I could put this?)  Any thoughts? Ideas?