What's happening in 6th grade?
First of all, thanks to the #4ocfpln for establishing the "Blogging Challenge!" In an effort to record and reflect on our own learning and practices, the goal is to blog at least once ever two weeks. I'm going to try to keep up my end of the bargain, but life is about to get pretty crazy as I move to Philly in about three weeks! Perhaps this is actually the best time to reflect? Nevertheless, thanks to the #4ocfpln for encouraging my continued stretching and learning beyond what I thought was possible. This year, my #OneWord2018 has been "adventure" and this summer has been no exception. (1) I just returned less than two weeks ago from a cross-country road trip to Chicago for the ISTE Conference (I still intend to blog about these experiences!). (2) I'm moving to a new city for a new job in the leg leg of my career. (3) Finally, my intellectual adventure this summer has comprised of much reading! 5 books! I've literally never read so much in my life. Not even hyperbole here. I've finished Bold School and Explore Like a Pirate! I'm currently working on Genius Hour, Shake Up Learning, and Mathematical Mindsets, the subject of this blog. A couple years ago, my first-year mentor had mentioned reading the book, Mathematical Mindsets, and it really challenging her thinking. I love when inherently bright people are always pushing their thinking! First of all, I am so fortunate to have had the mentor I had because she is always willing to push the envelope in doing what is right for students, even when others don't quite understand the why. She understands the why. She is always ahead of the curve when it comes to best practices. She had read Mathematical Mindsets long before I knew of its status of being a contemporary must-read. Recently, my #PLF also studied the book on Voxer as well and shared glowing reviews. I'm not going to lie. I wish I had joined and experienced #FOMO, but there was just too much happening in my life at the time! Nevertheless, I have jumped in this summer and it has already changed my mindset when it comes to math instruction which is perfect because I am gearing up to teach 5th grade inclusively this year, including Math. I'm going to reflect on the two biggest "Aha!" moments for me thusfar in the reading. First of all, there is no such truth to there being "math brains" and "non-math brains." People are not inherently good or bad at math. Also, the delivery methods for math must be shifted from the spoon-feeding variety to a more inquiry based model. I had been led to believe that some students were just never going to "get math." I definitely never gave up on students and their ability to conquer a skill as I would continue to work beyond class hours, oftentimes, but I don't think I truly believed all students have the innate capacity to conquer math. Thankfully, I have only taught math three of my first five years, but at the same time I have taught math three years!! Oh boy! This means there is much room to change my approach going forward. How can students succeed in a difficult subject if they do not believe they can "do" math, let alone believe the teacher believes that they can "do" math? Going forward, it is my goal to start with mindsets at the beginning of the year. We need to shift from believing that struggles and mistakes are a barrier to "doing math" and realize that they are actually the threshold to understanding. When students do not make mistakes, they are not learning, nor making new synapse connections. It is my hope that students frame the year as a process oriented toward learning and struggling(!). Too often, we, as a society, want to shield students from hardship or tough times, but it is through "fire" that we are refined. Students must struggle in order to learn! While reading Mathematical Mindsets, there have been many moments where I have had to take a hard swallow and recognize the error in my ways. While this is not entirely my fault, math instruction had been modeled in only one way throughout my life as a student, and then teacher. The teacher gave examples, the students copied, then the students would complete sample problems exactly like the problems done by the teacher. While this works for some including myself (until Calculus), it does exactly THAT! Works for some. This oft-done teaching strategy results in many students passively sitting in class while not understanding the math at hand because they are not given a chance to grapple with the concept. In Mathematical Mindsets, Jo Boaler talks about an open approach to math where students are not given the answers to all problems and there is not even always one clearly defined answer. Students need to wrestle and reason through tough processes in math. If is given to them, there are very few mistakes made, synapses are not being fired, and learning is not happening. One simple (but massive) paradigm shift struck me. Let's toss out examples and practice problems... Before introducing a concept, give the students a problem that they can reason through... to the point they need the new mathematical principle. Once they get to the part of the problem that requires the new skill or mathematical principle, this is the teacher's opportunity to strike gold. Teach the missing concept or principle! Students are much more engaged and are looking for this lesson from the teacher without it being spoon-fed without context. I can't say I have mastered this or even tried it, but it has definitely changed my mindset in teaching math. In the end, they can do it and let them wrestle it. I am so excited to finish reading this book. Not going to lie, when I have other things going on, I experience major #FOMO because I am not diving deeper, but alas, I have some time to dive a little more in today. p.s. No idea why I included cat memes. I am not a cat person, but they seemed to fit. ;)
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About MeLouie here! 5th Grade Teacher. Level 2 Google Educator. Love all things Google. 1:1 Chromebooks. Archives
June 2020
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