I haven't blogged in almost a year! I've spent some time reading my last posts from the beginning of last year, and I can really see the value of reflecting and writing things that were important, positive, negative, that I want to remember, or just that I'm thinking about. I had forgotten some of my ideas from last year, and I'm glad I put my thoughts into words so that I can be a better teacher.
I'm looking forward to having doubled my experience with classroom management. My experience at the end of second semester last year was that I started to let more things slide. Classroom management wasn't an issue for me at all at the beginning of the year, but at the beginning of the year I had committed to being as consistent as possible and being more strict. As the year went on, I started to take some of those non-issues for granted, and the kids started to notice they could get away with more. I was selfish and didn't want to focus more attention back on classroom management. Letting a few things slide because I didn't think I should have to take a few steps backwards was obviously not helpful for me in the long run. This year, I think I am in a better place to start off well, and continue well. I've tried to create expectations and guidelines that are more black and white. No food... that's an easy one to enforce. No cell phones, no bathroom breaks unless it's an emergency. The most important thing that I want to focus on is respect. I know that's sort of a "duh," and I've always wanted that to be my main focus, but every year it gets a little bit easier to know what that looks like.
A friend told me about a parenting book that said it's important to always tell kids why. She said that affects her teaching philosophy as well. I think if I can constantly give them good, authentic reasons for why I expect certain behaviors or why I expect to never see other behaviors, the kids will have more respect for me and the expectations I enforce.
I want to remember to do something fun in every lesson. It can be a would you rather, a comic, a riddle, a joke, and interview question, I just need something that they look forward to every day when we get ready to do notes. Then, I can use it as insurance later if necessary. If the kids start losing focus over the course of a couple days, I can tell them that I'm really sorry, but we need to make learning our primary focus, and until I see that happening, we're going to take away the things the kids look forward to. In addition, I look forward to this, so why wouldn't they? It's also nice to see them smile in my classroom. If I can get a smile out of them before they start notes, that's a much better way to start then with a frown and and a sigh.
I also feel like I've learned a lot from watching my pastor teach every Sunday. I am amazed at his ability to use stories and modeling to help me learn. An example is how he constantly refers to what the Bible says. Sometimes he draws our attention to a specific word or phrase in the verses we're looking at. Sometimes he'll refer to something in a completely different part of the Bible that enforces what he's teaching us. I have started reading my Bible differently as a result. I used to read it more like I would read a book. I don't read most books for the little details. I usually don't stop and analyze each sentence. I probably read most books faster than I should, but I read for the story line, the characters, and the drama. I often forget the details because I'll get lost in that part of the book, and then not remember small things later as a result. I used to read the Bible much that same way. Now, I try to slow my reading way down. I'll read a verse and then stop and try to figure out what I just read. I'll try to summarize it in my own words. It's made me try much harder to make sense of the Bible and analyze it because what God was saying is important, and I want to interpret it the way he meant for me to.
I want to take this modeling into my classroom as well. I can see how important the Bible and his relationship with God is to my pastor. In the same way, I want my kids to be able to see and respect how important math and mathematical thinking is to me. I think they will learn better if I show them how real it is for me and how important it is to me that I do it and think through it correctly and logically.
My pastor also constantly references the Bible. In that say way, I want to constantly reference what others have done and proven. This is going to be more difficult because my math history is seriously lacking... I should do some research. I have a cool little book that I got as a gift with a whole bunch of math topics. They give a little summary of what they are and their history. Maybe I could share those with the kids on relevant days. I just think they should know that the things they're learning about in my class someone actually had to sit down and figure out from scratch at one point. We don't teach Geometry because we think it's probably correct and true (consider evolution...). We teach Geometry because we have defined a certain set of rules and we can prove everything in Geometry to be true within this set of rules. That's how all of math is.
Showing my passion and the authentic love I have for math shouldn't be hard. I believe that math truly is the language of the universe. The whole world is just one big giant graph. That makes every single thing we do with graphing totally important. I believe that mathematical equations help us communicate things in a consistent and correct way. I believe that God is a genius at math! On a side track, it always kind of stops me in my tracks to think that God is not only all knowing and wise. He's also a super intelligent genius! I love to think of the genius smart side of God. I imagine he feels the same way we do as teachers when he watches us trying to figure things out...
My pastor also has people text questions throughout the lesson. I wonder if this would be an option for students. I would have to check the texts at a certain time in the class period. At church, he has someone designated to take the texts, answer if possible, and type them up so they're ready to be asked anonymously as soon as he's done teaching. He also always ends with an application and starts with the big idea. He also uses big units just like we do. He spent 10 days teaching on Salvation just like we'll spend 10 days teaching on quadrilaterals. I know the difference is that I'm choosing to be at church, and I want to learn. I know that is usually not the case with my students.
I've tried to be more organized this year. I've considered placement of things in my classroom. I have a sign in sheet for late students to help me keep better track of that. I've created binders for each class to help me keep a record of all of our materials for Geo and Alg 2. I've printed up generic sub notes and rosters so they're ready if I'm really sick. I have posters for my walls this year!! I'm feeling the normal beginning of the school year jitters, but I think I've been able to get myself in a pretty good place. I want to make it fun. I need to just do what I enjoy, because if I try to force myself to teach in a way that's not effective for me, than it won't be effective for the kids either. I don't want to worry about not being the funnest or the funniest or the most entertaining or the most friendly teacher. I want to focus on what's most important to me. I want to focus on being the teacher that cares first and foremost about their thinking mathematically. (Thinking mathematically... there's a blog post for another day!)
I'm looking forward to having doubled my experience with classroom management. My experience at the end of second semester last year was that I started to let more things slide. Classroom management wasn't an issue for me at all at the beginning of the year, but at the beginning of the year I had committed to being as consistent as possible and being more strict. As the year went on, I started to take some of those non-issues for granted, and the kids started to notice they could get away with more. I was selfish and didn't want to focus more attention back on classroom management. Letting a few things slide because I didn't think I should have to take a few steps backwards was obviously not helpful for me in the long run. This year, I think I am in a better place to start off well, and continue well. I've tried to create expectations and guidelines that are more black and white. No food... that's an easy one to enforce. No cell phones, no bathroom breaks unless it's an emergency. The most important thing that I want to focus on is respect. I know that's sort of a "duh," and I've always wanted that to be my main focus, but every year it gets a little bit easier to know what that looks like.
A friend told me about a parenting book that said it's important to always tell kids why. She said that affects her teaching philosophy as well. I think if I can constantly give them good, authentic reasons for why I expect certain behaviors or why I expect to never see other behaviors, the kids will have more respect for me and the expectations I enforce.
I want to remember to do something fun in every lesson. It can be a would you rather, a comic, a riddle, a joke, and interview question, I just need something that they look forward to every day when we get ready to do notes. Then, I can use it as insurance later if necessary. If the kids start losing focus over the course of a couple days, I can tell them that I'm really sorry, but we need to make learning our primary focus, and until I see that happening, we're going to take away the things the kids look forward to. In addition, I look forward to this, so why wouldn't they? It's also nice to see them smile in my classroom. If I can get a smile out of them before they start notes, that's a much better way to start then with a frown and and a sigh.
I also feel like I've learned a lot from watching my pastor teach every Sunday. I am amazed at his ability to use stories and modeling to help me learn. An example is how he constantly refers to what the Bible says. Sometimes he draws our attention to a specific word or phrase in the verses we're looking at. Sometimes he'll refer to something in a completely different part of the Bible that enforces what he's teaching us. I have started reading my Bible differently as a result. I used to read it more like I would read a book. I don't read most books for the little details. I usually don't stop and analyze each sentence. I probably read most books faster than I should, but I read for the story line, the characters, and the drama. I often forget the details because I'll get lost in that part of the book, and then not remember small things later as a result. I used to read the Bible much that same way. Now, I try to slow my reading way down. I'll read a verse and then stop and try to figure out what I just read. I'll try to summarize it in my own words. It's made me try much harder to make sense of the Bible and analyze it because what God was saying is important, and I want to interpret it the way he meant for me to.
I want to take this modeling into my classroom as well. I can see how important the Bible and his relationship with God is to my pastor. In the same way, I want my kids to be able to see and respect how important math and mathematical thinking is to me. I think they will learn better if I show them how real it is for me and how important it is to me that I do it and think through it correctly and logically.
My pastor also constantly references the Bible. In that say way, I want to constantly reference what others have done and proven. This is going to be more difficult because my math history is seriously lacking... I should do some research. I have a cool little book that I got as a gift with a whole bunch of math topics. They give a little summary of what they are and their history. Maybe I could share those with the kids on relevant days. I just think they should know that the things they're learning about in my class someone actually had to sit down and figure out from scratch at one point. We don't teach Geometry because we think it's probably correct and true (consider evolution...). We teach Geometry because we have defined a certain set of rules and we can prove everything in Geometry to be true within this set of rules. That's how all of math is.
Showing my passion and the authentic love I have for math shouldn't be hard. I believe that math truly is the language of the universe. The whole world is just one big giant graph. That makes every single thing we do with graphing totally important. I believe that mathematical equations help us communicate things in a consistent and correct way. I believe that God is a genius at math! On a side track, it always kind of stops me in my tracks to think that God is not only all knowing and wise. He's also a super intelligent genius! I love to think of the genius smart side of God. I imagine he feels the same way we do as teachers when he watches us trying to figure things out...
My pastor also has people text questions throughout the lesson. I wonder if this would be an option for students. I would have to check the texts at a certain time in the class period. At church, he has someone designated to take the texts, answer if possible, and type them up so they're ready to be asked anonymously as soon as he's done teaching. He also always ends with an application and starts with the big idea. He also uses big units just like we do. He spent 10 days teaching on Salvation just like we'll spend 10 days teaching on quadrilaterals. I know the difference is that I'm choosing to be at church, and I want to learn. I know that is usually not the case with my students.
I've tried to be more organized this year. I've considered placement of things in my classroom. I have a sign in sheet for late students to help me keep better track of that. I've created binders for each class to help me keep a record of all of our materials for Geo and Alg 2. I've printed up generic sub notes and rosters so they're ready if I'm really sick. I have posters for my walls this year!! I'm feeling the normal beginning of the school year jitters, but I think I've been able to get myself in a pretty good place. I want to make it fun. I need to just do what I enjoy, because if I try to force myself to teach in a way that's not effective for me, than it won't be effective for the kids either. I don't want to worry about not being the funnest or the funniest or the most entertaining or the most friendly teacher. I want to focus on what's most important to me. I want to focus on being the teacher that cares first and foremost about their thinking mathematically. (Thinking mathematically... there's a blog post for another day!)
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