Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Day 99: My Day With Max Ray




As I watched my geometry students taking the PSSA ELA: Writing Field Test this morning, I couldn't help but notice how my normally amazing, energetic, engaged, interested, curious students looked as if they had taken leave of their bodies and gone off wander the aether while their corporeal forms remained for the mundane task of "properly shading bubbles."

Now, more than ever, I am of the belief that assessments need to be active and valuable.  This is neither.  On top of that, these students won't know their scores for at least 6 months, if ever.  They will receive no feedback beyond a raw number (not even a percentage) and will have no idea WHAT they got wrong or how to improve it.

I could go off about my thoughts on standardized testing, but I think it would only make me sad.

And then the day went WAY up!

First, I decided that, while my students were finishing up their standardized tests, that I would draw one of them.



Then, the indomitable Max Ray came to observe my classes!
We had to take the picture in front of "the famous board" to prove that we "weren't just in some bar."

The geometry students welcomed him with open arms and then got right to work on their park projects.  I think that there are a few groups with such a high level of comfort in their own skills that they ran away with their ideas.

One group wants their "park" to be a 2-story fun zone which includes a paintball course and a laser tag arena.

When the Math 8 class came in (Pd. 4/5) I gave a brief introduction, reminded them of what they were supposed to be working on, and then let them go.  While this wasn't a disaster, there were several problems.

My goals for this project, while I don't think they were too lofty, clearly needed a bit more background.  I spent much of the period working with one or two groups trying to explain the concept of scale factors without saying "for every 10 feet in real life, use 1 block of grid paper."  I want students to discover these on their own, but they were getting frustrated and so was I.

In addition, there were several students who claimed to be finished with "their part" of the project, but a quick inspection proved that to be untrue.  I felt that I spent the period going back and forth, putting out fires and redirecting.

But I didn't get angry or sad.  Just having Max in the room, his small, warm smile as though enjoying a joke with himself, not unkindly, gave me the reassurance I needed to believe that this was actually part of the process.  Not just for them, but for me.  He never appeared to be disapproving or critical of my interactions or strategies and that helped me to remain positive and unflustered with the kids.

After class, we had lunch, I showed him around the school and we talked about the lesson.  We discussed various ways to help them understand not just how to make a scale drawing, but WHY you would want a scale drawing.  What happened in period 8/9 was entirely the brainchild of Max with slight tweakings by me based on the personalities, strengths and weaknesses of my students.


When the students entered the class, I told the students that I was thinking of rearranging the desks, but my inherent laziness meant that I didn't want to start moving desks around until I knew where I wanted them.  I asked what I should do and the students suggested that I draw a picture.

I asked one of my more active (disruptive) students to hold a desk up to the Promethean board while I traced it.  Then, since I have 31 desks in my room, I began copying the traced desk.  After 2 copies, I was out of room on the board.

I asked my students what I could do and, of course, they suggested that I shrink the outline.  I asked them how much to shrink it and a discussion began about how big the board was compared to the room and so, how big the desks should be.

"The board is square. Is the room square?  How big should I make the drawing of the room on the board?"

There was lots of "a little bigger, no longer, no wider."

"The room is basically in lines, right? What might be a good way to make sure out drawing is on lines?"
"You could put in on a grid."
"That seems like a good idea! Do we have a way of saying how many blocks wide and long the room should be? Should I just pick them randomly?"
"You should use the blocks on the wall."

At this point, I cheered loudly inside and shot a happy glance at Max.  During our pre-class discussion, I told him that I had confidence that someone would get us to exactly this point.

"I think that's a good idea. So, how many block wide and long will the classroom be?"

The students counted, told me and I changed slides to where I had already prepared a scale outline of the room.

"So, would you agree that this is the room drawn to the scale that you told me?  Then how do I know how big to make the desks in this picture?"

At this point, a student moved her desk to the wall and measured it using the tiles.
"The desks are 2 by 3, so you should shrink the trace down to that."

Once I did, they felt that the outlines were too small.  At Max's suggestion, we looked at the side of the room and, using the 2x3 desks in the picture, saw that we could fit exactly 7 desks in a line against the way.  We then verified the truth of this by moving 7 desks onto the wall.  The kids were astounded and finally agreed that, while they looked small in the picture, they were the right size.

We then started adding several items from around the room to our scale drawing including the iPad cart, the cabinet and the "heater thing against the wall."  I had the students tell me where those objects were in relation to the corners and they used the ceiling tiles to find the corresponding spots on walls that didn't have windows.

85% of the students were engaged and participating.

Did I mention that during this entire time, there were 3 students who never stopped talking and laughing loudly?  For the most part I ignored them, asking them quietly a few times to stop talking and changing the seat of one of the students.

After the class, Max and I had a talk about those students in relation to the others.  He told me that my engaged students, while perhaps distracted, were not derailed by the ones who were talking.  And interesting thought struck me that had not before today.

Just because I am distracted in my teaching does not mean that my students are distracted in their learning.  They were able to tune out the annoying kids and I had never noticed that.  I assumed that because someone was distracting me, that it detracted from the educational environment.  This was clearly not the case today.

I wonder how much learning time has been wasted by my wanting to squash distracting behavior for the benefit of others rather than simply teaching.


In any event, it turned out to be an amazing lesson and I'll be doing it with Pd 4/5 tomorrow.

I cannot express how happy I was to have Max come and observe me and my classes today.  We had several talks about how students are the same everywhere.  That conversation made me think that sharing success is important, but sharing failure is vital.

We (teachers) need to know that others are having the same struggles.  We need to know that others are dealing with the same difficulties, so that we can talk about them and find a solution.

More!!  I WANT MORE PEOPLE TO OBSERVE!!!  COME TO MY CLASSROOM, INTERNETS!!!

15 comments:

  1. Yeah!! Sounds like a great lesson. The kids learned without even knowing they were learning. Thanks for the comments about being distracted and thinking that the students must be distracted also. I often do that, and I think I annoy the students who are paying attention by spending too much energy on the ones who aren't.

    How wonderful that Max was available to be a part of your learning today. We all need that input at times.

    Keep up the good work.
    Teri

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was wonderful to get some outside perspective that came in the form of "Let's try this" rather than "maybe don't try this."

      If you can get a Max Ray into your class, I would highly recommend it!

      Delete
  2. "After the class, Max and I had a talk about those students in relation to the others. He told me that my engaged students, while perhaps distracted, were not derailed by the ones who were talking. And interesting thought struck me that had not before today.

    Just because I am distracted in my teaching does not mean that my students are distracted in their learning. They were able to tune out the annoying kids and I had never noticed that. I assumed that because someone was distracting me, that it detracted from the educational environment. This was clearly not the case today.

    I wonder how much learning time has been wasted by my wanting to squash distracting behavior for the benefit of others rather than simply teaching."


    This is epiphanic!! Just because I am hyper-sensitive to distraction, doesn't mean my students are! Put on the blinders and charge ahead! Thanks, Max and Justin.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think it's important to know if I'm being distracted, or if I find a certain behavior annoying and it should be addressed, but I realize that it may only be taking away from the learning environment if I let it.

      This is shocking to me and I don't know how to reconcile it. Maybe I should be polling my students.

      "Can you learn while she's singing? Yes? Then I'll ignore her too."

      Delete
  3. <3 If I was going to have a single day off for the rest of the year, I would totally come to your classroom. Maybe I will have to take a mental health day when IEP season has me drowning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome to come any time you can make it. You could ask your boss if you could take a "professional day" to come and observe!

      Delete
  4. "I assumed that because someone was distracting me, that it detracted from the educational environment. This was clearly not the case today."

    What a thought-provoking statement. Definitely something to consider when addressing student behavior.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In my classes with more disruptive students, this will be at the forefront of my mind. I wonder how long it will take students' behavior to improve when they realize that I and the other students are ignoring them.

      Delete
  5. What an awesome day!! That lesson you had after lunch sounds f@*!king life-changing! I love how you refused to race through any of it, and made them come up with the whole CONCEPT of using a miniature model and why to do it. That's great! And the epiphany about distraction is also great--and something I can totally relate to. Yay Tuesday!

    Alright. Time for you to wake up and for me to go to sleep. Any celebration planned for Day 100?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm really interested to see how the lesson works today with the other pre-algebra group. I won't have Max here to reassure me, but I'll imagine him sitting on the desk, smiling enigmatically.

      You go to bed too late! And I wake up too early...

      Delete
  6. Wow! I know that blogging more would help me to deal with my frustrations, but I'm yet to learn how to share the struggles that way. Thank you for paving the way!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not always easy, and I worry that I'm not as honest as I would like to be, but having it be public tempers my words. It doesn't really censor, but makes me aware of what I write.

      I find it very cathartic.

      Delete
  7. Here are my top ten things about the day:
    10. The way you talk my sketchy idea for a lesson and turned it into a real lesson, that matched your kids.
    9. The way you had them continue to practice the scale model concept on the iPad cart, bookshelf, and heater thingy was really useful because it helped the idea sink in more. I always move on way too fast and don't give enough time to repeat, rehearse, and practice.
    8. The way, when we switched gears to thinking about the appropriate scale for the park, you let the kids throw out possible scales and played each one out until the *kids* figured out that the park wouldn't fit on the graph paper using that scale. To me, that's what's meant by "it's okay to be wrong, it's okay to make mistakes, we can learn from them." The kids didn't even have that "oh, I might be wrong," idea because it was so clear you were in testing ideas mode. I love that!
    7. The banter you had with the students. It was hilarious and seemed to work for them as well as you. And you were so clearly yourself with all three classes.
    6. How super engaged the kids were at Estimation 180. And good at it to. I'd say I was below the median in estimation in your class. And I saw them using context clues and reasoning too -- estimating how many copies of Rolling Stone fit in Charlotte's Web, ruling out too big and too small answers, etc. Very cool.
    5. Vanilla milk.
    4. Our talks about all the factors that effect the classroom... and all the ways classroom teachers can still have an effect on their classrooms (argh I still never know whether to use affect or effect)
    3. That you blogged about it! That you blog about everything! (Psst Jasmine should do that too!)
    2. The moment when the 7th desk fit perfectly, just like the scale model predicted. Also the moments when the students knew that the scale model and the park project had to do with the problem of trying to fit 31 life-sized desks onto a Smartboard drawing, and the moment when the student suggested using the squares on the walls, and when she measured her desk using those squares.
    1. That you welcomed me into your classroom with open arms and liked having me there and knew that I was smiling because the kids were so familiar and fun to be around, and watching you teach was super fun and I was having a great time thinking about all of the things that are hard about teaching and all that we've learned and have yet to learn.

    Thanks!
    Max

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was telling my wife that I think one of my strengths as a teacher is to be able to take a good idea and run with it for miles. I'm not great at coming up with the initial concept, so I am deeply appreciative that you were able to give me that.

      When the 7th desk fit, especially without us checking it first, it made the entire lesson come together both for the kids and for me.

      I know I spammed this all over Twitter, but I am so glad that you were able to come and watch all of my classes. I know that I interact differently with different groups of kids and it was nice to have someone watch and give feedback on a day rather than just a moment.

      I know that a ton of teachers don't like to be observed and I think the way we have the observation system makes it difficult for teachers to ever admit weakness, or anything short of mastery.

      I crave the feedback, especially now that I'm actually interested in being a better teacher instead of just pacing time.

      Delete
  8. I'm late to this party and am catching up on your blog. Here are the things on my mind...
    1. Thank you for sharing your struggles. I often feel that my lack of classroom management negates my plentiful knowledge, love, and good intentions. I'm going to try to go easier on myself and try to embrace the impact I have on the ones who are "present".
    2. I love love love that being yourself is part of your measure of success (and Max noticed too).
    3. I have never thought about distractions that way! I bet any admin who pops in wouldn't get it either, but it'd be a good discussion to have.

    Thank you for being real with the world of math teachers. Not sure how you got that Max in your room for the day, but can you send some of that to ND?

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...