While I had quite an experience getting to get the students at Martin County West to see math in terms of problem solving, and not routine exercises, I will not be returning. My season there is done, and I can only hope students gained a better understanding, and that he mission God sent me there was completed. (Maybe more for the struggling students than the “good” ones?)
It seems my method of productive struggle was not well received. This is understandable if they have been hand-fed from elementary on up. It’s not their fault, nor is it necessarily the teachers’ who had them previously. This is an industry standard which companies look for in potential employees. I can attest to this given my years of experience in (and leading in) the manufacturing and farming industries. Therefore when I implemented it in terms of games and intuition, it was initially accepted; however, when I threw in Algebra vocabulary, they acted like it was completely different! (It doesn’t help if the adopted textbook doesn’t support this or share the same language.)
Doing this while keeping the standards in site made a challenge. It didn’t help when trying alternate methods (side-note: it takes students who have acquiesced to a higher level of autonomy before trying allegories like “Flatland” to associate the math with day-day societal and economic applications.) Also not the students’ fault if they never have associated standards with English crossing over into standards with Math. I did make headways using tools like Desmos, Quizizz, Quizlet, and CK12.
Bottom line, not all destinations are permanent, nor compatible. I let the students know before leaving they may contact me, but I will not make pedagogical comparisons. I will not try to “fix” the next classroom, but I will hold high expectations because there are some really cool and creative minds out there at Butterfield.
Til I chalk again,
Cory “Mr. Shel” Sheldahl
It seems my method of productive struggle was not well received. This is understandable if they have been hand-fed from elementary on up. It’s not their fault, nor is it necessarily the teachers’ who had them previously. This is an industry standard which companies look for in potential employees. I can attest to this given my years of experience in (and leading in) the manufacturing and farming industries. Therefore when I implemented it in terms of games and intuition, it was initially accepted; however, when I threw in Algebra vocabulary, they acted like it was completely different! (It doesn’t help if the adopted textbook doesn’t support this or share the same language.)
Doing this while keeping the standards in site made a challenge. It didn’t help when trying alternate methods (side-note: it takes students who have acquiesced to a higher level of autonomy before trying allegories like “Flatland” to associate the math with day-day societal and economic applications.) Also not the students’ fault if they never have associated standards with English crossing over into standards with Math. I did make headways using tools like Desmos, Quizizz, Quizlet, and CK12.
Bottom line, not all destinations are permanent, nor compatible. I let the students know before leaving they may contact me, but I will not make pedagogical comparisons. I will not try to “fix” the next classroom, but I will hold high expectations because there are some really cool and creative minds out there at Butterfield.
Til I chalk again,
Cory “Mr. Shel” Sheldahl
Comments
Post a Comment