I'm addicted ...
... to giving homework! I can't help it. It's a compulsion! I give it to the kids in case they want to do it. They don't want to do it! They're not sitting at home and thinking, "Gee, I wish I had some extra homework. Wait a minute! I do!"
The kids worked really well today, which is surprising because it's Friday and they're usually crazy. Well, they were crazy, but they worked well. I finally got the students to understand scale in math 10. It was a great break through. I did it with flash cards. Old methods seem to triumph sometimes. We spent the whole class working on this and the kids were excited that they finally understood. I wanted them to practice so they wouldn't forget over the weekend. So I gave them "optional" homework. As if they will do it! And I know they won't. But for some crazy reason I gave it to them anyway. I'm hoping they may do it?!? But then I'm setting myself up for disappointment.
I just read an article saying that the "new wave" of math teaching is not getting results on standardized test compared to Asia. In North America, the trend over the last 10 or so years is for discovery math. This is great for understanding concepts, but basic skills seem to be suffering. For example, half of my student rely heavily on their calculators for simple math. This is apparent when some of my kids have no idea what 8 X 1/2 is. It's half of 8 people!
My math 10 class is applications of math 10. There are a lot of cool optional projects for the kids to do. In fact, the textbook is practically designed around the projects. But I'm spending so much time drilling the basics into them, we don't have time to do the cool projects. I scheduled time to do them in my year plan, but I'm thinking I should scrap them until we get the basic concepts down. It seems the textbook skims over the basics and relies on the projects to reinforce the concepts. Theoretically, this is a good idea, but these kids are so teacher dependent on their learning.
My goals for this course have changed drastically. Not only do I have to teach the government prescribed curriculum, I also have to wean the kids off their teacher dependence, build their basic skills and build their math confidence. It's an uphill battle. It doesn't help that I'm new to this teaching thing either. The one thing that is saving my ass is that I'm awesome at math and I can think on my feet. I can always think of at least two ways to teach something. My big mission is that I want to be consistent and form meticulous patterns so the students can emulate what I'm doing. Math is all about patterns. I think that's the key.
The kids worked really well today, which is surprising because it's Friday and they're usually crazy. Well, they were crazy, but they worked well. I finally got the students to understand scale in math 10. It was a great break through. I did it with flash cards. Old methods seem to triumph sometimes. We spent the whole class working on this and the kids were excited that they finally understood. I wanted them to practice so they wouldn't forget over the weekend. So I gave them "optional" homework. As if they will do it! And I know they won't. But for some crazy reason I gave it to them anyway. I'm hoping they may do it?!? But then I'm setting myself up for disappointment.
I just read an article saying that the "new wave" of math teaching is not getting results on standardized test compared to Asia. In North America, the trend over the last 10 or so years is for discovery math. This is great for understanding concepts, but basic skills seem to be suffering. For example, half of my student rely heavily on their calculators for simple math. This is apparent when some of my kids have no idea what 8 X 1/2 is. It's half of 8 people!
My math 10 class is applications of math 10. There are a lot of cool optional projects for the kids to do. In fact, the textbook is practically designed around the projects. But I'm spending so much time drilling the basics into them, we don't have time to do the cool projects. I scheduled time to do them in my year plan, but I'm thinking I should scrap them until we get the basic concepts down. It seems the textbook skims over the basics and relies on the projects to reinforce the concepts. Theoretically, this is a good idea, but these kids are so teacher dependent on their learning.
My goals for this course have changed drastically. Not only do I have to teach the government prescribed curriculum, I also have to wean the kids off their teacher dependence, build their basic skills and build their math confidence. It's an uphill battle. It doesn't help that I'm new to this teaching thing either. The one thing that is saving my ass is that I'm awesome at math and I can think on my feet. I can always think of at least two ways to teach something. My big mission is that I want to be consistent and form meticulous patterns so the students can emulate what I'm doing. Math is all about patterns. I think that's the key.
posted by Small Town Teacher @ 9:35 PM
1 Comments:
At October 14, 2006 10:14 AM,
Vancouver Island Mommy said…
Wow, your students probably don't realize it yet, but they are damn lucky to have you for a teacher. I remember teachers in junior high and high school who stuck to the same 20 year-old lesson plan come hell or high water, and god forbid if we didn't keep up. I also remember to few teachers who really cared and wanted us to learn, even if we spent spent a whole class on two questions. You are flexible and care about your students, so I think you will be a teacher these kids remember.
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