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It's okay to fail...

One of the things I had mentioned in my LONG ago post, was. that I would post my activity more with updates how this year went.  That didn't happen.

What did happen was one long test (for me), trying to dive into a different culture so different from what I am used to, it took me aback and made me realize a few things.

  • Dislocated students or students of migrant workers are under a stress load different from residential / citizen students
  • These students consciously or subconsciously discriminate (white) skin/gender.
  • The culture developed a value set and behaved in a way I would not permit my own children to act.
I do like to modify stuff, but most of these students were not at grade level as I was told in my candidate interview.  There were also ethical conflicts I experienced, but will not focus on it here.  After my first week and after I did find out the following:
  1. No matter the student, they like play. It's important to understand what teachers think of play, is not what students think of play (usually anything not academic).  However they did like the #100game (thank you Sara Van Der Werf)
  2. They like to explore, whether they will tell you or not (most of the times NOT!!!). With these groups that struggled, they like concrete things, like building a paper tower (from Vex), working with experimental labs like Desmos,
  3. Traditional assignments (p.k.a. "homework") is &H!# to them (and unless you can create a compelling connection or why, only the most compliant students will do them).
  4. ALEKS(TM) is not everything it says it can do, (not the students' nor mine, necessarily. that requires FORMAL training to know the ins and outs, and should not be overused as it has been.)
  5. Your lists, curated resources, and bookmarks will mean NOTHING to the next group.  Each class has its own sense of learning as they come in and defined by how crazy or boring you make it (thanks Dave Burgess).
So I considered I failed to teach to get them to learn. (Yes there are two sides of this coin).  I agree with Sara Van Der Werf's pedgogy of homogenous teaching (i.e., no ability grouping), but there came a point which when I presented something with students for them to struggle a little (which due to their aptitude was a small proximal zone), they wouldn't struggle, they would defiantly quit and accuse me of not teaching them.

I thought it WAS me, (despite my years and experience), but then I dug a little deeper into their backgrounds.  They actually don't want to be babied, but because of culture, behavior, and academic mixes, it made the perfect storm when this teacher FORCED them to think without a rule, algorithm, or recipe for solving, other than steps to think critically.  I have read and have personally interviewed (informally) employers who don't care if they can remember the Spanish-American war, or Pythagorean's Theorem, but if they can solve problems independently.  I will take more notes from https://www.saravanderwerf.com/green-reference-sheets/ on this, but I think I am on the right track to make the students think through things, rather than just an answer.
As I leave this district (no I am not staying, am going back to my home district from which I was on leave), I hope that the students have at least thought of math more than just an answer, but as a way to notice patterns, describe those patterns, and generalize patterns, then I feel they learned more math than any standardized test will show.  I did finish with a scavenger hunt, hoping they have some fun with that (like, what is Pi?)

Til I chalk again, 
Mr. Shel

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