Today we continued training with Hy-Vee's software. We spent quite a bit of time learning about how the software handles situations where an item is in multiple ads for different prices. It took hearing it a few different times, looking at a power point, and considering different scenarios before we finally understood how the software worked. It was a great example of how many of our students might not understand something the first time. We need to show them multiple examples of different scenarios and use different teaching methods to help them understand. I know most of my students aren't going to be teachers, but even in the business world, they need to learn to communicate and share important information with other employees. I think I can really help prepare my students by asking them constantly to share their thinking and discuss problems with their neighbors. This is something I do already, but I can be even more intentional about it after my experience this summer. I can also give them a reason for asking them to talk about the "how" and "why" of the problems we work on. I would also like to have a few assignments throughout the year where students have to present something to the class. I believe these communication skills are just as important as the math I'm teaching them.
I read a post on facebook today about things in the real world that students don't learn in school. It got me thinking about how we spiral everything in Geometry and Algebra 2. Here's how it works... We teach a brand new unit for about 2 weeks. During that time, we review something from a particular previous unit each day so that by the end of those two weeks, they have learned all the new material a little bit each day and reviewed all the "spiral" material a little bit each day. Then we give two tests, one over the new material and one over the "spiral" material. By doing this, they will experience all material once as new and a second time as spiral. This will allow them to take two tests over every unit. Their first test score affects their grade, but if they score higher on the second test, they get to keep just the higher score. If they score lower on the second test, we average the two test scores. Most students score higher on the second test becau...
Comments
Post a Comment