Blogging in Math Class

Part of my plan for this blog is to keep track of my own progress in adventures I have in my classroom.  I am always one for trying new things to improve my students' learning.  I tend to be the math teacher in my department that doesn't quite fit the typical math teacher mold.  I don't love the traditional style of teaching, but sometimes feel tied to it because that's what comfortable to students and to myself even (since that's the way I learned and have seen math most often presented).  However, I know it's not the most effective way of teaching all students, so I try to mix things up.  Sometimes new things work, sometimes they don't.  Sometimes those things may have worked if I would have stuck with them long enough, but I admit that in teaching, if something is too cumbersome, sometimes you just run out of time or energy to keep with things.  If students aren't catching on or buying in, it can be really hard to keep pushing them; it takes a lot of energy and teachers are human too...

But, recently, I started what I think is a great plan.  This one I am determined to stick with to the end.  

Recently, I also started graduate school, which has given me the extra push I may have needed to really think through and implement some ideas that have been floating around in my head for a while.  I have also had a great mentor who has been an excellent encouragement to me in my adventures as I sometimes feel as though I am swimming against the current in the world of math teachers.  

So the new plan...

My classroom is a place of learning.  It is not a place where students get hoops that they have to jump through (daily homework), but a place where they will spend time exploring, discussing and practicing mathematics.  Students in my class are given suggested problems to do each day, but these problems are not "required" and students do not receive points for doing these problems.  These problems are practice, you don't get trophies when you practice basketball, you shouldn't get a fake trophy for practicing your math either.  You should practice because you need to or want to improve.  You also don't lose in practice; you practice to get better.  You shouldn't be punished for a bad practice.  So if practice doesn't go well, we find another way to practice or work hard to practice better next time.  

That's my new theory.  However, if you just tell students they don't have to do homework, many of them won't do it at all.  So, to put the focus on the act of learning, my students are creating a math journal or portfolio via Kidblog.org.  Their blogs are an on-going conversation between student and teacher.  Students are given prompts daily and have a minimum of 10 minutes each day to respond to those prompts.  Prompts include requests to summarize concepts that have been covered, explain how to solve specific problems, or to reflect on their progress of learning.  

Students have also been given an "I Can" document that outlines the things that they will and should be able to do by the end of the unit.  They will use this "I Can" document as a guide to produce evidence that they have an understanding of the concepts that we have been exploring.  Before we get to the summative assessment portion of the unit, students will have used their blog as a place to collect evidence of their learning and understanding of the "I Can" statements.  The daily practice problems can serve as evidence as well as videos they record of themselves explaining concepts or solving problems, etc.  My hope is that all the focus on what they know or don't know will prepare them or help them better prepare for that summative assessment.  

We are only 4 days into this process.  So far, I've gotten the students trained in on blogging everyday for at least ten minutes in class. I think thus far my completion rate on the blogs is about 95% for all students over the course of 4 blogging days.  I believe if I were to go back to last semester and look at the daily work grades, the completion rate for the homework would have been around 75%.  In the blog, it's harder to hide if they aren't understanding.  I am able to hear from EVERY student in my classroom about their understanding.  Those students that often sit quietly and don't ask questions are very clear in their blogs.  They can't say they didn't have time, as there are ten minutes dedicated everyday to blogging.  Right now, they are all talking to me.  That's where we are starting.  

This week, the focus is going to be on great blog entries.  Some students gave me one-liners last week.  "I understand everything" is not going to be quite enough this week.  I found a great rubric we are going to use as a guide for our entries.  I am looking for evidence of learning and a statement saying you understand it doesn't prove it.  So, this is where things will get tough.  Pushing through the learning of how to write a good entry in their blog will take patience on my part.  It will also take diligence to read the entries thoroughly and with 37 students in my one class it will take time.  

But I've got this one.  I am sticking with it to the end.  I know that this has the potential to be a great opportunity for students to really learn some math and learn how to learn math.  It's algebra 2.  It's full of great concepts that have been covered a little in algebra 1.  It's a great opportunity to try something new and get to know ourselves as learners.  We'll see how it goes.