The quarter has ended, the halls are quiet. Everyone is off to spring break.
This was one of the most peaceful end of quarters I have had in a very long time. I must give myself a little credit, but my students deserve some as well.
I had an overload this quarter, which means I got to teach all four blocks in our block schedule, each one was a different prep, so that was an adventure. I survived it. It was a lot of work, especially early on, but I laid out my expectations, took out the busy work (for myself and my students) and learning seems to have taken place.
The biggest change that has worked for me:
I know I've said it 100 times, but getting rid of daily homework being graded has been the most liberating part of my teaching career. That sounds a bit dramatic, but seriously, grading is my least favorite part of my job and grading busy work ranks even lower than that. The way homework was being used in my class was wasteful and not purposeful.
Today I surveyed my algebra 2 students and the most interesting responses were on the homework policy change. Many students said just what I was expecting they would experience. Here are some direct quotes from my awesome students' responses to the question "Did the homework policy help or hurt your performance in the class?":
"I think it helped because I didn't feel the stress to get it done, so I could soak in the information better."
"I like it but it defiantly hurt me because I didn't do it. But then again I probably wouldn't have done it anyway."
"Helped I think. Because otherwise I'd probably have a lot of wrong answers on my assignments, and that'd have hurt my grade a lot."
"I think it helped me. It made me take responsibility for myself and my grade."
"I think it helped my performance because I was more comfortable to self-learn and think through things."
"It helped it because if I didn't have time because of work I wasn't to worried as long as I knew how to do it, and I did majority of the time."
"I think it helped me because when we corrected our homework I had to fix my mistakes by myself and I knew what I got wrong."
I think for the most part, much of what they said was what I expected they would say. There were only a couple that said they don't think it's fair that they don't get points for doing the homework or that the points 'save' their grade because they don't do well on tests. To those students, I think they need to pay more attention in math class-especially in most math classes that only give 10% of the grade to the homework. Homework won't save you if you are bombing every single test. They just like that security blanket, I get it.
Ahh. I feel good. I am thrilled to embark on a new quarter with a new philosophy that I truly believe in. There are still things I need to work on to make it better yet. I still need to keep on top of my reflection support for the students; I want to keep the reflection meaningful and important to the learning experience. I also need to continue to work on finding more awesome activities and experiences for the students to better learn the material. It will never be perfect, but I sure do feel like I have made a big step this year.
Bonus: I didn't have to hear the pleading students that want to turn in 9 week late work for .04% added to an already low grade.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Homework
The end of my first quarter with a new homework policy is almost here. I used my Algebra 2 class as a nice little experiment and although I may have changed too many variables to determine what had the biggest impact, I do know that I will never go back to grading homework.
My new policy was to not assign points to the homework. Rather than do the homework to get points by the date that that homework is scheduled to be due, my students were doing the homework to learn the material. Novel idea, I know.
I know I'm not the first person in the world to ever think of this idea or implement it, but I think I am the first in my department in my own building to break from the homework mold. I feel free. I feel empowered and I know that my students felt empowered, after they got over feeling lost and unsure.
It was not the most easy transition and we are still in transition as we move into the second half of the semester. Some of my students, many who are freshmen and sometimes not the most mature group, took this new "freedom" and then had to suffer the consequences when that summative assessment came around. However, after 3 rounds of this process, I feel that my students are making progress. Through my surveys with my students, I am finding that they appreciate being given the responsibility for their own learning, for the most part. Many students appreciate that they can do the practice at a time that is convenient to them and that they know the end goal.
I did have some students who said they don't think it's fair because not everyone is doing the homework that I suggest and they think that those students should be 'punished' for not doing the work. I found it interesting that the students who didn't like the policy, didn't like it because of the actions of their peers, not necessarily their own actions.
Only a few students (2 or less) preferred the homework to be given points because otherwise they have a hard time finding the motivation.
I feel that another of my new changes has done well to support all of these students and their viewpoints. I have chatted with students about these concerns and tried to help them see the benefits to themselves through this new policy.
I have had many points of contact with each student, some have been conversations with students in person, through their blogs, through class discussions (in person or digitally) or information that I have gathered through surveys. Students have spent a lot of time this quarter analyzing their own work habits and understanding. They have checked in digitally with me at least once a week with an update on their learning (of course I am also checking in with them informally in class) and they had a few other ways that they were checking in on understanding so I could drive where our class would go next on our road to learning and understanding....not the road to doing a bunch of homework problems for a free 5 points if they are done on time, which could be from copying your friend's paper and not getting caught.
Homework has always been a point of contention for me. I don't love assigning a lot of it and I don't like to give students points for it. I never have and I feel so liberated to finally cut it out of my life. Now, that doesn't mean students shouldn't have time they need to study at home; students do not all have the same needs when it comes to studying. I do not want to give problems to students who don't need them or give too much to students who are going to struggle all night long. I want students to work on things they know they need to work on. I want students to know those things they need to practice. Through reflection and constant check ins my students have been more aware of themselves and their understanding this semester than ever before. I have focused on using my class time for the extra practice that the students need, we work together on learning, reviewing and practicing the material at least 70 of the 90 minutes each day. The other 20 minutes are spent on individual practice time and meaningful reflection.
Looking ahead to this upcoming week which is typically littered with students handing in 5 point assignments from the beginning of the quarter in hopes of raising their grade significantly and then being disappointed when it barely moves it up 0.04%, I am thrilled that I will NOT be experiencing this ever again. My students have been learning, not hoop jumping and point gathering. I am free. My students are free.
My new policy was to not assign points to the homework. Rather than do the homework to get points by the date that that homework is scheduled to be due, my students were doing the homework to learn the material. Novel idea, I know.
I know I'm not the first person in the world to ever think of this idea or implement it, but I think I am the first in my department in my own building to break from the homework mold. I feel free. I feel empowered and I know that my students felt empowered, after they got over feeling lost and unsure.
It was not the most easy transition and we are still in transition as we move into the second half of the semester. Some of my students, many who are freshmen and sometimes not the most mature group, took this new "freedom" and then had to suffer the consequences when that summative assessment came around. However, after 3 rounds of this process, I feel that my students are making progress. Through my surveys with my students, I am finding that they appreciate being given the responsibility for their own learning, for the most part. Many students appreciate that they can do the practice at a time that is convenient to them and that they know the end goal.
I did have some students who said they don't think it's fair because not everyone is doing the homework that I suggest and they think that those students should be 'punished' for not doing the work. I found it interesting that the students who didn't like the policy, didn't like it because of the actions of their peers, not necessarily their own actions.
Only a few students (2 or less) preferred the homework to be given points because otherwise they have a hard time finding the motivation.
I feel that another of my new changes has done well to support all of these students and their viewpoints. I have chatted with students about these concerns and tried to help them see the benefits to themselves through this new policy.
I have had many points of contact with each student, some have been conversations with students in person, through their blogs, through class discussions (in person or digitally) or information that I have gathered through surveys. Students have spent a lot of time this quarter analyzing their own work habits and understanding. They have checked in digitally with me at least once a week with an update on their learning (of course I am also checking in with them informally in class) and they had a few other ways that they were checking in on understanding so I could drive where our class would go next on our road to learning and understanding....not the road to doing a bunch of homework problems for a free 5 points if they are done on time, which could be from copying your friend's paper and not getting caught.
Homework has always been a point of contention for me. I don't love assigning a lot of it and I don't like to give students points for it. I never have and I feel so liberated to finally cut it out of my life. Now, that doesn't mean students shouldn't have time they need to study at home; students do not all have the same needs when it comes to studying. I do not want to give problems to students who don't need them or give too much to students who are going to struggle all night long. I want students to work on things they know they need to work on. I want students to know those things they need to practice. Through reflection and constant check ins my students have been more aware of themselves and their understanding this semester than ever before. I have focused on using my class time for the extra practice that the students need, we work together on learning, reviewing and practicing the material at least 70 of the 90 minutes each day. The other 20 minutes are spent on individual practice time and meaningful reflection.
Looking ahead to this upcoming week which is typically littered with students handing in 5 point assignments from the beginning of the quarter in hopes of raising their grade significantly and then being disappointed when it barely moves it up 0.04%, I am thrilled that I will NOT be experiencing this ever again. My students have been learning, not hoop jumping and point gathering. I am free. My students are free.
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
√(-1) ≤3 MATH
I have seen this a time or two and it's painful.
It's painful for a number of reasons besides the fact that I can't wear it because I use Algebra every day of my life.
Here's a few reasons I can think of right off:
1. This gives math a bad name, especially algebra.
2. People don't understand algebra enough to know if/when they are even using it, which makes me think that the way we teach algebra is not in the best way to help all people understand how it can be used.
3. People don't know how different their life would be without algebra: the problems that couldn't be solved, the patterns that wouldn't have been discovered, the fun that they could be having.
4. Some topics in algebra that are being taught to students are not applicable to most people's everyday life, but we continue to drag everyone through the mud causing them to have such a distaste for math.
5. This anti-math advertising turns people off to math; just like when I have parents come to conferences to say they were bad at math so their student/child will be too.
My new t-shirt idea:
√(-1) woke up ≈ 2 hours ago have already used algebra 4π.
I <3 math.
∞
Thanks Jen for a blog topic today :)
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