First Day

There are many reflections I could make about my first day of school and teaching, but there is one that I want to write about here. I teach 8th grade math and high school geometry, and I have my room set up in groups of four. One of the other math teachers was talking to me about how that might (or might not) work out. She has taught 8th grade before and from experience has found that the kids get distracted and talk too much during lectures if they do not face front. I just read someone's blog about why she became a believer in groups (will have to find who), and one of the reasons is that in groups, students only have about three people to distract them; whereas in rows, they  have people to every side, so more like 8 students to distract them. However, when looking at it in my classroom, I see that in rows, students are all facing the same direction, so it's harder to get distracted and start conversations. In groups, students are facing each other, so the temptation is stronger. So I'm not really sure where I'm at with that yet. I want to play around with groups for a while longer and see what my experience is.

During that conversation, I said I'm not sure how much lecturing I will be doing vs. group work. I might not have to worry much about students getting distracted during lectures if we're doing mostly group work. (Although from today I can see how easily they get off topic while in groups.) In talking about 8th grade, she said that she has found there's hardly any time to do group work and fun things because there are so many standards to cover. I want to believe that I can teach in a way that prepares students for standardized tests without pushing them through procedures and concepts. I need reassurance that it's possible. I haven't finished all of Jo Boaler's MOOC on How to Learn Math, but she cites research that shows that students who took math classes where they did tons of problem solving and didn't see standardized tests for three years (or something like that) did better than students in traditional classrooms. While I want to believe that's true, I really don't know. I don't personally know any teachers who do it. Sometimes I think it takes a veteran teacher to make that happen, and that's certainly not me. I want to grow into the type of teacher that can teach problem solving and prepare students for the world - and standardized tests - without lecturing all the time. Yet traditional teaching methods are mostly what I see in schools, and sometimes it looks like it has better results. And I feel pressure to teach that way. I think that if I try something different, and students don't do well, it's because the traditional way of teaching is better. I'm scared of that being true.

I am really hoping that in the near future, Indiana switches to PARCC assessments where problem solving is more important than procedural work. That would make me more comfortable teaching in a non-traditional way with an emphasis on math thought and process rather than procedure.