Today I was listening to the Making Math Moments Podcast, episode 98 with Peter Liljedahl and decided I wanted to write my reflection of what I learned from it. I fell in love with the Thinking Classroom over two years ago. Since then I have been studying articles, reading books, listening to podcasts, and exploring; basically doing anything I can to learn more and teach better. When Covid-19 changed our classrooms to online environments, I refused to go back to lecturing. I used Jamboards and Zoom breakout rooms to keep my kids going. It worked pretty great and so I planned to keep doing that during the new school year. I started the year with 4 classes of students who were in my class last year, they were already familiar with working on whiteboards and learning through the Thinking Classroom. I also had 2 classes of student who were in my classroom for the first time and haven't been introduced to the Thinking Classroom yet. Also this year, I am teaching Hybrid. Half my students are in my physical classroom, half are at home attending through a live zoom link. I am super grateful for the technology that my school has made available for this as I feel that I can pretty seamlessly teach both groups at the same time. During the 8 weeks of school we have had so far, I have been putting my in-person students on the whiteboards and my at-home students on Jamboards while working together in breakout rooms. It has not been going as well as it did in the spring. Over the last 4 weeks, I have been trying to figure out what to change while still honoring the 14 guidelines of the Thinking Classroom. Thanks to the podcast episode, I think I am ready to make some (informed) changes for Monday! My frustrations and possible solutions: My College Algebra class has not been doing well. They complain that when they are at home, the breakout rooms do not go well. They tell me that they are only learning during the consolidation time and the breakout room time is a waste. I actually quit doing the breakout rooms for two weeks, which broke my heart. But their tests have been backing up their claims of not learning. This week, I had a heart-to-heart with the class about what needs to change to help them learn and they all chimed in that they want to be back at the boards. So my new mission is to get them back to the boards. So here are the issues I have been battling during Hybrid learning and what I am going to try differently. 1) Most of my seniors and juniors no longer have a touchscreen device. The amount work they have to do to write on the Jamboard has become enough of a nuisance that their boards are blank at the end of the hour. Besides that, the work space on a Jamboard is way too small. In my visit with my seniors, they all felt that having a physical whiteboard at home would help with groupwork in breakout rooms. So I called up the local lumberyard, ordered three sheets of shower board, had the shop class cut them into 2 foot by 2 foot pieces and handed them out to each student in College Algebra to keep at home. If this works, I will get more to hand out to the rest of my classes. 2) Random groupings of 3. In person, a random group of 3 is best, I have seen this over and over. But I have been questioning the "3 in a group" part this fall. I have heard from many students that being in a "bad group" means that they do all the work on their own and there is no interaction. I suppose this happens for many reasons, one of them being that I cannot easily monitor the groups and intervene when needed. (I wish there was a way to be able to see each breakout room simultaneously to make sure they are unmuted and interacting. I can monitor the Jamboard, but watching them write does not guarantee interaction and discourse). I have been playing around with the idea of having more students in a group. I was excited to hear that Peter Liljedahl also found the same problem and that 4 or 5 students in a virtual group worked better. (Listen to the podcast to hear the research behind the number in a group). So I plan to now randomly assign my students into groups of 4 or 5 during virtual breakout groups, still 3 when in person. 3) I don't like that I cannot listen in to the zoom breakout groups easily. During distance learning in the spring, I would hop between breakout rooms and check on each group. This worked relatively well. However, now that I am physically in a room of students who are physically distanced while working together and talking with masks on, my joining a group is almost impossible. They can't hear me, I can't hear them. I don't have a solution. But I did like Peter's suggestion of having a discussion board where virtual groups can list what they found difficult and how they worked through those difficulties. I am thinking I might assign some of that. Maybe have someone in the group keep a "group diary" summarizing their time?
4) I am horrible at leaving time for meaningful notes. This is even true for my non-Covid 19 teaching. The podcast was the first time I heard them referred to as "notes for your future, forgetful self". I love that. I am going to start assigning that for post class time each day. I have spent this first quarter modeling how to fill it in, I think my students are ready for it to be independently assigned for post-class reflection. 5) I still need to work on the "homework" part. But I am feeling overwhelmed and overworked, so I am going to be okay with that being left for future improvements. Although that is really hard for me. And that is what I learned today. I am looking forward to creating my lesson plans for the week. I hope to get back to feeling like I am living the dream of every teacher: engaged students, deep thinking, and great discussions. And I am confident that if I don't get to the great REM cycle dream, I can at least reach the daydream level.
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AuthorI teach mathematics for grades 7-12. Teaching mathematics is my passion. Archives
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