tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post2748844084968354626..comments2023-05-22T10:24:47.725-04:00Comments on Re-Learning To Teach: Day 100: Sharks, Scale Factors and The VoidJustinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13309915942161862912noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-80974941611233074792014-02-13T16:13:26.982-05:002014-02-13T16:13:26.982-05:00Dear Max, Please come to my classroom stat. That i...Dear Max, Please come to my classroom stat. That is all. Thank you. Elizabethcheesemonkeysfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09311170815422010013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-80639508376231084272014-02-13T11:54:20.167-05:002014-02-13T11:54:20.167-05:00When I described what happened to my wife, she was...When I described what happened to my wife, she was immediately put in mind of 50 First Dates and how Adam Sandler had to re-introduce himself to his girlfriend/fiance/wife every day. Eventually, he made a video for her to watch every morning which was a summary of the past 20 years that caught her up. I wish I knew of a way to do this with my students.<br /><br />It is also highly possible that, by my having my expectations so high, they were unrealistic, not in terms of ability, but in terms of dedication and perseverance.<br /><br />Perhaps the creation of the park should be the last of 3-4 tasks that start with the room and build up for there, giving the students a better understanding of what scale factor means and how to apply it. Today, I'm backtracking slightly and giving them a worksheet on scale drawings so that they can practice the skills without having to worry about the issues involved in that pesky "reality" thing.Justinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13309915942161862912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-83402022982900135072014-02-12T18:13:36.346-05:002014-02-12T18:13:36.346-05:00Thinking about what has to happen for 8/9 and 4/5 ...Thinking about what has to happen for 8/9 and 4/5 to be ready for that is tricky, because one thing that has to happen is that, with their park, they have to be willing to give up on their imaginative plan to make a realistic one. That's hard for kids who aren't confident and empowered. If you don't believe math can work out, and you can't verify it in real life, it's hard to invest in making a mathematical version of something that's more fun just to imagine*. I think that's what's so powerful of making a scale drawing of the room. You can confirm it right there in the moment and realize that measuring and calculating actually beats intuition! Period 8/9 was ready to go think about their park with you after having that positive math experience, but it didn't last into independent work 24 hours later... I wonder how quickly you could get them to recall what happened yesterday and what they were doing with the parks and what scale they decided on and how big the basketball court was in relation to the bathrooms? Did they recall that stuff, with prompting? Was there one person in each group who could get the others started on drawing scale versions of their various pieces of equipment? That's what I'd imagine the kiddos would need to be having the scale drawing conversations you wanted -- a slightly speedier (maybe 20-30 minutes?) rehearsal of yesterday's whole lesson (complete with outrage that 4/5 got to rearrange the room and they didn't) followed by one more example at the board, and then the specific task of picking 3 of their structures and placing them in their parks, to scale. And then have the kids repeat the task back to you (at least 2 volunteers). And then turn 'em loose to do that specific task. If that worked, I'd then help the groups prioritize their remaining project tasks, but those are less important to me than the scale drawings.<br /><br />Thanks again for letting me come visit. I'd love to spend the rest of the year hanging out in your classroom. Once we can wrinkle time and tesseract me there, and me still get paid by someone, I'm totally in!<br /><br />*Which is why most time-travel stories don't hold up to reasonable physicsMaxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16935784635103701185noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7363356760450940988.post-88961179502241433822014-02-12T18:13:17.373-05:002014-02-12T18:13:17.373-05:00Hrmph, I take Period 8/9's rebellion personall...Hrmph, I take Period 8/9's rebellion personally. But maybe it's because the desks were rearranged by Period 4/5... which is all my fault! So there's that.<br /><br />Did Period 4/5 address the appropriate scale for the park yet? Like, have they thought about whether a 200 ft by 300 ft park can be drawn on graph paper with a 1 foot = 1 block scale? That seemed like it *could* have been a good transition to parks, for sure.<br /><br />But then, dag! Period 8/9 not going to work more on their parks is frustrating. I thought for sure at least one kid from each group would be ready to get back to work on finishing the scale drawing. I can see now, in the infinite wisdom of hindsight, how the tasks-per-person thingy could backfire (though it seemed so wise at the beginning!). Is the scale drawing the most important part of the project, mathematically speaking? Plus the calculations they did to make it (though I bet most of those were done in heads and on calculators and getting them on paper will be like pulling teeth!)?<br /><br />One thing you've blogged about a lot is your planning process and how, much like mine, it tends toward the haphazard and grandiose. The thing I use to ground me is a series of two questions: "What math experience/conversation do I want the kiddos to have today?" and "What do they need to be thinking about to be ready to have that conversation?" Those two questions help me to plan class openers that remind students of what we've been doing and make plans for what they're going to do with the next period-of-8th-grader-attention-span, and to focus on the really important math experiences/conversations. Like what you *really* want to happen with this park is for students to imagine something imaginative, and then buckle down to figuring out how math can help them tame that imagination and make it a reality.<br />Maxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16935784635103701185noreply@blogger.com