Underway
So, school has been in session for two weeks. It's about what I expected. Seventh and eighth graders can't be THAT much different from school to school, can they?
One room of eighth graders has really given me a hard time about the fashion in which I teach mathematics. I take a problem-solving approach. In a 45-minute period, we may solve only one or two problems. This is very much unlike any math class these students have experienced before. They are accustomed to a style I call "plug and chug." Computation problems are given and answers are expected, typically 50 at a time on a worksheet. Learn a skill, apply it a hundred times, then forget it, or get it confused with another skill you have memorized.
The difficulties here are two-fold. 1) This method relies heavily on memorization of steps, and not the concepts underlying the steps. 2) Most teachers in the United States learned this way. They figure that if they learned by plugging and chugging, it must be effective. Not so.
Today, I read on another blog, that bloggers are narcissistic. So, here, I toot my own horn. I have had several students in my three-year teaching career thank me for making math understandable for them. They hated math because they never understood how or why it worked. This proves my point. Once they understood WHY the steps worked, they had a much easier time remembering them.
The problems I pose require deep thinking and multiple mathematical skills. They allow for many different, but equally effective solutions. The idea is, after a while, students get comfortable with many problem-solving approaches, and they get a feel for which strategies work best in various types of problems. They get pretty good at recognizing patterns. Their estimation skills improve.
I suppose I could go on and on about how much more effective this style of teaching is, but the blog's personal, not professional. I will merely say that I bet this particular class comes around soon. I'm the only math teacher they've got, so they had better get used to me!
One room of eighth graders has really given me a hard time about the fashion in which I teach mathematics. I take a problem-solving approach. In a 45-minute period, we may solve only one or two problems. This is very much unlike any math class these students have experienced before. They are accustomed to a style I call "plug and chug." Computation problems are given and answers are expected, typically 50 at a time on a worksheet. Learn a skill, apply it a hundred times, then forget it, or get it confused with another skill you have memorized.
The difficulties here are two-fold. 1) This method relies heavily on memorization of steps, and not the concepts underlying the steps. 2) Most teachers in the United States learned this way. They figure that if they learned by plugging and chugging, it must be effective. Not so.
Today, I read on another blog, that bloggers are narcissistic. So, here, I toot my own horn. I have had several students in my three-year teaching career thank me for making math understandable for them. They hated math because they never understood how or why it worked. This proves my point. Once they understood WHY the steps worked, they had a much easier time remembering them.
The problems I pose require deep thinking and multiple mathematical skills. They allow for many different, but equally effective solutions. The idea is, after a while, students get comfortable with many problem-solving approaches, and they get a feel for which strategies work best in various types of problems. They get pretty good at recognizing patterns. Their estimation skills improve.
I suppose I could go on and on about how much more effective this style of teaching is, but the blog's personal, not professional. I will merely say that I bet this particular class comes around soon. I'm the only math teacher they've got, so they had better get used to me!
posted by Pegs at
1:45 PM
2 Comments:
Three cheers for all the good math teachers of the world!!! :)
By
Twanna A. Hines | FUNKYBROWNCHICK.com, at 9/11/2006 4:44 AM
I've been thinking about you a lot this week with all of the school shootings. About how some people are calling not only students to point out the kids who might be troubled, but expecting teachers to start diagnosing this kind of thing as well.
While I think that teachers sometimes know who these "troubled kids" are and I can understand where someone on the outside might think that reporting possibly troubled children to the admin staff as not a big deal, I also tend to think that you wonderful teachers are already underpaid for the work you do. I'm concerned that underpaid as teacchers are, they will be unwilling to take on an additional responsibility that might result in some, um, future harm to yourself.
Keep after it. Since the US students are lacking in math skills, you are very much needed - even if the kids don't know it.
By
MamaChristy, at 10/03/2006 2:14 PM
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