Great Start (So Far)

We have just completed the second day of the semester and I'm having a blast.
I've changed my routine a little(see my previous post) and I have managed to make some changes that are hopefully for the better.

My students are sitting in groups and we've started to develop a collaborative environment that will hopefully continue to grow. Students are not only sharing their work with their groups but with the entire class.

We've looked at some low floor/high ceiling problems and we've spent much longer on those problems than I had anticipated. Longer because students were generally interested in the work they were doing and I felt bad pressing one. My students seem to enjoy the work we've been doing and they seem curious about the problems we've looked at.

I haven't covered any curriculum yet but I'm hoping the time we've spent on developing a good classroom environment will pay dividends in the long run. I know that it has only been two days but I'm hoping for more great classes.

Here are some highlights from today:

•  Had five student stay at lunch to share how they solved a problem I gave towards the end of the period
  
• Heard "I feel so smart"
  
• Heard "I love finding patterns"
  
• Heard "Can't we just take notes and memorize them?"

The Value of Team Teaching

Teaching is generally a solitary process. We work on our own and develop strategies that work for us but we rarely get to see what other teachers do in their classrooms. After the experience I had with team teaching this fall, I would highly recommend taking some time to watch another teacher in action or if you can to find a way to teach, even if it's just one lesson, with another teacher.

This fall I had a large grade 9 applied level class. The administration decided to split the class. In the time between the decision to split the class and the actual split a number of students decided that the course was too difficult and they switched out. By the time the second teacher was assigned to the class there were only 26 students left on the list. We decided that we would try team teaching the course. In the past when I have heard talk about team teaching it was always two or more teachers who were teaching the same course. The team teaching meant that the they would plan together and do the same work in their respective classes. That's not what we had in mind. We had a small number of students so we decided that we would keep them in one room and teach them as one class with two teachers. We essentially created a math class with two teachers. What more could a math student ask for?

Throughout our time together I was often amazed at how much I was learning just by watching my teaching partner. He has a wide variety of classroom management techniques. It was great to see those techniques in action. I wouldn't say that my classroom management is weak but like most things in life I think I have room for improvement. Throughout the semester I was able to observe a bunch of techniques that I was familiar with, but for whatever reason wasn't using. I think in some cases I had heard about the techniques but had never seen them in action. Seeing how they actually work in practice made a huge difference. I'm hoping that some of those techniques become part of my regular routine.

As a side note, since midterm we've had a number of students who have not been performing well in the class. They don't have the work habits to be successful and aren't putting forth a solid effort.  We tried working with these students for a few weeks to help put them in a situation where they could pass the course. Many of them chose not put forth the effort. We decided a short time ago to offer the students who were failing an opportunity to get a credit at a lower level (a locally developed credit). We have now split the class in two and we could possibly have every one of those students getting a grade 9 math credit. This could potentially be an interesting model for student success.

If you get a chance, give true team teaching a try.