This phrase was uttered more today than any phrase that I've ever uttered in my life. There were giggles after the first few times, but when I repeated it with the same inflection, volume and intonation over and over and over until I received the results I wanted, my point become clear.
Again, I wasn't singling anyone out by using names or making eye contact. I simply repeated the phrase until I got what I wanted.
"There should be no conversations going on right now."
Today's task for Math 8 was a single problem. I know they need procedural practice, but without the concepts of WHY you would need this, nothing is going to stick.
"You pull the plug on your bath tub and the water begins to drain out. At 40 seconds, there are 13 gallons left. At 60 seconds, there are 10 gallons left."
There were a ton of great discussions around this problem dealing with rate of drainage, time to being empty, capacity of the tub, etc. I was pleased with how the groups worked and, once I gave the initial directions, I let them have their conversations.
The geometry class worked practice with scale factors and ratios of similar figures. They had to use compass and straight edge to scale various polygons up to 1.5, 2 and 3 times the size. They were also given the side length ratios and perimeters of triangles and asked to find each side length.
It was a tough assignment, but they worked well and I was very pleased.
No comments:
Post a Comment