Year 13 is coming to a close for me and I get a few months to rest, relax, reflect, and rejuvenate. This year I submitted my final components for National Board certification, I am currently solo-parenting a 4 and 6 year old in the middle of a 6 month deployment, and finally finished running around town for soccer and Girl Scouts. Needless to say, I am ready for a break. But I know in order for me to truly rest and relax, I have to reflect on this school year. Journaling allows me to free up brain space and stop the anxiety spiral that is inevitable and gives me closure.
I had an administrator one year give us a blank pie chart (like above) and ask us to color in how we felt about different aspects in our lives (work, family, friends, faith, etc.). He said, if our wheel is unbalanced, it will not roll very well. I’ve been thinking of this lately in terms of my classroom. My teaching wheel is certainly not balanced, but doing this activity helps me identify where I need to put in the work to improve.
There are two reflection questions that I think about at the end of every year that help me identify where I need to change direction, 1) How have I helped my students see themselves as capable doers and learners of math? and 2) How have my mathematical tasks promoted productive struggle, student discourse, reasoning, and problem solving? I have yet to feel satisfied with my answers to these questions year after year, and this one is no different.
How have I helped my students see themselves as capable doers and learners of math?
I am a huge believer in allowing students to have multiple attempts on assignments and completing test corrections. True learning does not have a time frame (even though the school system enforces one). Mistakes are the building blocks of learning and in some cases we have to make mistakes over and over until we finally learn the lesson. This is true in the math classroom and in life.
Many of my students will not go into STEM career fields where they would need to use the math concepts I teach them, however, they will need to be able to work collaboratively, engage in respectful discourse, take risks, build their metacognition skills, and write. The math classroom should contain opportunities to practice and receive feedback on all of these things.
If teaching is like show and tell, then I am a great teller, but not the best show-er. I love when my students ask me questions, but I am so quick to tell them how to do it instead of asking questions on what they already know and what they have already tried. This is an area I need to improve if I want my students to become better independent problem solvers.
How have my mathematical tasks promoted productive struggle, student discourse, reasoning, and problem solving?
When I think about the group tasks, activities, projects and assignments that help students make connections between math concepts and build on their prior knowledge, they are inconsistent in promoting struggle, discourse and problem solving. I have some tasks that are phenomenal while others that are again, me more telling rather than the students exploring and asking questions. By re-focusing my energy in the classroom on being curious, then I know that I can increase discourse and my students’ willingness to struggle and persevere in problem solving.
I hope you have the opportunity to find some space and reflect on the school year to gain the closure you need to begin again in August.
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