The Journey Continues

As the title states, we, the Summer 2007 cohorts, have set forth on journey to become change agents. I am excited to be a participant and am looking forward to learning with the students I will meet.

The teaching experience at Sandtown demonstrated the students can construct new knowledge. During my lesson plan, the students were recording the data and they noticed the levels between the 15 second intervals were changing. As they graphed the data they noticed a curve. When I asked why the graph was not a straight line, they responded the shape of the glass was the reason. I was blown away and I have realized the importance of planning a lesson and being able to adapt to the learning activity. What I am trying to say, I was focused on the importance lesson plan but when the students discovered something I had not planned, I did not identify the this discovery and expand on it. I realize now my awareness of the students' learning needs to increase and let go of the plan when appropriate. This will be hard for the engineer but as I reflect on the journey I am visualizing where I need to go.

The dynamics of teaching will require astute observation on my part so I can be a better teacher of the students. The journey for this engineer continues.

Reflection and Refining

When we were told to develop a lesson for 6th grade students using an 8th grade standard and I ran out of time engineering of the lesson. I was nervous and uncomfortable because I had not completely planned the activity. The importance of engineering the lesson has a greater meaning.

Teaching Middle School for the first time

I will be teaching middle school for the first time today. I am looking forward to the experience. We have a simple yet sophisticated lesson that will let the students discover the concept of change with respect to change of something else.
I expect the students will learn how to gather data and create a graph. The sharing activity will let the groups see a different slope because there are several variables.
The journey continues.

Reflection on the Lesson

The big idea: Develop a problematic task that engages the students to use their prior knowledge and understanding to do the following:

• invent multiple strategies
  
• interact with each other and the teacher
• reveal their strategies
  
• having discourse with each other or the teacher to reflect on the strategies
• refining the strategies
• improve their understanding and knowledge

The purpose of the big idea for me is to remember the journey we began four weeks ago and where we are going.

My lessons have to reflect my big idea so my students will always be engaged in learning.

And the journey continues!

Letting Go?

"Letting Go" so our students can learn may sound strange or does it? After many sleepless nights working on the lesson plan and then having to refine it and reflect on it, I have started to understand what task lies ahead. It is all about how we engineer the lesson so "letting go" will be a planned activity. This activity is what the students need so they can develop the understanding they need and we want them to have so we all can move on. I also think "letting go" refers to us letting go of the algorithms and prior knowledge we are so attached to. I see this as a method for me to attain a new understanding of this new math. I am trying to put myself in the students role in class so I can begin this journey.

And the journey continues!

Math in the Media

When asked to look in the media for mathematics, one does not have to look far. Everyday the weather man tells us the average temperature, the historical highs and lows, the average rainfall. The business news tells us about the Dow Jones Industrial Average. They will plot the Dow on a graph and they do the same for the other businesses. The price of gas and the price of crude oil are mentioned almost daily. The taxes we pay everyday and on the 15th of April. The sports dept talks in terms of averages routinely. It would be interesting if the media could not use math on a given day. What would they have to talk about? I think the point of the question is to make us aware that Mathematics is an integral part of our daily lives. Your Thoughts?

Constructivism and Implications

Prior to the course, I did not know how to teach mathematics and I did not know how a student learned mathematics. I know I was taught to solve mathematics problems using algorithms and there has to be a better way. I am in the process of constructing new theories of constructivism and how it works. I am learning, the constructivist’s method nurturers the student’s developmental understanding by building from his or her previous knowledge. I see the role of the teacher as a facilitator of understanding through contextual tasks, group shared problem solving, and sharing the students invented strategies and refining the student’s understanding. This is a journey I am excited about.

The contextual tasks are engineered to connect the student with his or her past knowledge and letting a new understanding be constructed. If engineered correctly, the student will develop the understanding and be able to answer the how and why questions.

The implications I currently see are:

Letting go so the student can develop his or her understanding

Letting go of using algorithmic methods

The teacher’s new role as a facilitator of understanding

Engineering the lessons

Let the students invent new strategies

Creating a flexible classroom environment

In closing this blog, I know there will be more implications and I will add to the above list.

The New Math

According to the author, constructivist theory of learning suggests new knowledge is constructed by the student integrating new information with existing knowledge. That learning takes place as the students discuss and interact among themselves and the teacher assesses the students while they work in groups. The teacher uses the student’s work to demonstrate different problem solving strategies.

I think by engineering the lesson plan is an essential part of this technique. "Letting go" is another component.

The students and teacher relationship would be different because mutual respect would be apparent. The students would be enthusiastic about math. The learning experience would also be mutual.

Just a note: I assign tasks daily to my team. I have noticed my team members will solve the tasks in different ways. Sometimes, they will work in groups sharing ideas and then work on the task. At the end of the day the result is the task is completed; however, I sometimes question the efficiency. I also enlist the ideas of other team members collaborating on a solution to a problem. Sound familiar? Why can’t we apply this technique to a new mathematics teaching?

June 13th 2007

Reflection- I just realized today is a special day.