Last spring, I asked my principal if I could get whiteboards around my room. I didn't have a specific plan, I didn't know any of the research. I had just been thinking about it for a while and felt like I wanted to get my students up and writing on the boards. He agreed and I had boards on my walls a few short weeks later.
I wasn't sure when I would get a chance to try them out, but I got inspiration the first day and had my students at the boards. I cannot even remember what I had them doing, but I remember watching them working and being engaged in the math and I was hooked. I had them do problems on the boards a couple days a week. Sometimes it would be homework problems, but I also had them doing open middle problems and some problem solving. I finished the year pleased with how the boards were going, but displeased with how little effort my students were willing to put into application problems. We wrapped up the MCAs (MN state test), and although my students did well, I kept thinking that if I could only get my students to THINK, they would do so much better. They knew their math, they just weren't making the effort to apply it to the application problems. Fast forward to summer. I like to listen to math education podcasts as I go for walks. (Don't tell my friends, they will think I am nerdier than they already know I am). I happened upon the Global Math Department webinar recording with Peter Liljedahl. You can find it here. I was inspired! It was exactly what I was looking for. It was called the Thinking Classroom. The Thinking Classroom starts with three main steps: 1) A good problem (or series of problems) 2) Visibly Random Groups 3) Vertical Non-Permanent Surfaces (I just got those!) I went back to school in the fall and was ready for the change, sort of. I at least had a plan to incorporate the Thinking Classroom. I didn't exactly have the lessons figured out, but I had some inserted here and there. I did have the students at the boards a lot, but it wasn't exactly the picture-perfect Thinking Classroom. I had a day-long workshop that I had to present at. I decided that the Thinking Classroom would be a great topic. So I started researching and experimenting. Here is the cool thing about experimenting with this, it was so easy. I didn't have any days where I wondered if this was a good idea. Why? Because, when students are thinking it is a great day! When I first learned about the Thinking Classroom, I thought I would always have to do these great problems like what Peter shares on his website. But, what I found is that I could also take mundane, procedural problems and turn them into a great lesson at the boards. I became hooked on the teaching structure. My students are at the boards almost every day, at least for part of the day. However, one thing I didn't find anywhere in my research until I asked the question on Twitter: there are still plenty of days where the students are working individually at their desks. You are not expected to spend every minute at the boards, although there are some that do. You need to make it work for you. I am sure I will grow and change as I continue to teach this way. But for now, I still have homework assignments and follow their board time with flipped videos to help tie everything together. I recently gave an hour presentation at our MCTM conference. The room was overflowing. Teachers are hungry to find a way to get their students to think. I highly recommend everyone tries to do at least some form of this. Here is my presentation, the second slide has the recording of the hour. The last slide has lots of resources for you to learn more. Feel free to contact me if you have questions. P.S. I am working on creating a place to store my lessons to share with others. I will hopefully have a good collection posted on my website by the end of the summer. There are some examples of my lessons in my presentation above.
0 Comments
|
AuthorI teach mathematics for grades 7-12. Teaching mathematics is my passion. Archives
August 2022
Categories
All
|