It’s already mid-July, and I am desperately trying to accomplish some planning for the coming school year. I will have 5 preps; Algebra I, Algebra II, Honors Algebra II, Honors Pre-Calculus, and AP Calculus. I’m the senior class moderator, and I was also asked to be the Math Department Chair. I know I have to get something done this summer, or I will be in way over my head this fall. So, to help myself synthesize some of the ideas that I want to incorporate into my classroom, I have decided to pick the best of the best and put them all in one place. Here is the short list of goals that I have for this year.
1. Incorporate more reading.
About a million years ago, I was in a bookstore and I found a book called 50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know by Tony Crilly. The book does exactly what the title suggests: lists 50 different mathematical ideas that are integral to mathematics. Everything from the concept of zero to game theory is described in detail. This is a great resource to help me do pre and post assessments on student understanding. For example, before taking on the study of complex numbers, I can have students read about imaginary numbers. I like to use Tweet the Text to assess students’ understanding of the concept from the text. I have students “tweet” the main idea in their own words. Once we finish our work on complex numbers, I give the students the same text, and ask them to do the same thing. Comparing the two tweets shows how much the students learned and how giving them context can help them better comprehend what they read.
2. Take more risks.
The first book I read this summer was The Classroom Chef by John Stevens and Matt Vaudrey. There were so many great ideas in this book, but the biggest takeaway for me was the fact that I need to take more risks in the classroom. Reading great books, following rock star math teachers on twitter (thanks #MTBoS!), and keeping up with the best blogs in math education has given me an infinite number of fabulous ideas; what I usually lack is the fortitude to implement them. The fear is real – fear of failure, fear of looking like a fool in front of students, fear of the repercussions for doing something “unconventional” in a very traditional environment, fear of not covering enough material (the ACT is right around the corner!)…the list goes on and on. One of the first things that Stevens & Vaudrey address in their book is the fact that if we become risk-takers, our students will follow. Aren’t we always telling our students that failure is a sign of learning? That they must be willing to be wrong if they want to accomplish something? That solving difficult problems requires them to take a risk? It’s time for me to start modeling the behavior that I expect from my students.
3. Music!
Th
is one is easy – bring some music into the classroom. I’ve always wanted to do this, but it’s been pretty low on my list of priorities. This summer, I bought myself a bluetooth wireless speaker and compiled a list of really great motivational music as well as some stuff that just makes you want to dance. When I first started teaching, I used Pink Floyd’s “Learning to Fly” to introduce a particularly difficult project. I began by passing out a copy of the lyrics and asking students to read them. As most of these students were unfamiliar with the song, we had a short discussion about what the words meant. As expected, the students stuck to the literal interpretation of the lyrics, someone is learning how to fly an airplane. After the short discussion, I played a video that I had made of my firstborn son learning how to walk. We then revisited some of their earlier conclusions about the meaning of the song, and they were able to connect the song to the difficulty of learning something new. It was a quick lesson that was not math related, but so much more important than anything in the textbook.
Stranger in a Strange Land 