Student-Centered Classroom

Today in one of my geometry classes, I had one of those experiences where I let the students help run the class. It was scary and chaotic and messy, and I hope that the students understand what happened and why I let it happen. I taught a lesson on midpoints yesterday, which was quite easy for them. Today I continued the lesson by having them find an endpoint given the midpoint and the other endpoint. You use the same formula – the midpoint formula – but you have some unknowns in the formula and have to do some algebra to find the endpoint. I didn’t realize how difficult this concept would be for students to grasp. My first hour geometry also struggled with it, so I was somewhat more prepared for this hour, but only for how much they would struggle – I didn’t really come up with a better approach between the two classes. After running through a problem at the board, I had the students work on one while I walked around. I looked at their solutions, and I noticed that one student had done it in her head and had gotten the right answer. She explained it to me, and I asked her if she would be willing to explain it to the class. She agreed, hesitantly. But she got up and explained it, and a couple of students saw it her way. Then my aide took over and started connecting it to the formula. At that point, I think the students felt like I was relinquishing my role as a teacher, and felt a little unsure about what I was doing. So I stopped the aide and told the class that I was letting this happen because I want them to know that I’m not the only one with answers in this class, and sometimes students can explain it better to each other than I can to them. More students started to figure it out conceptually, and then I started directing them to help others who still didn’t get it. I pulled some people up to the board to work with me, and some to work with the aide and the original student who got it. Students were moving all around in the classroom, gravitating toward someone who could explain it. We didn’t have a lot of time left in class to work, but at least a couple more students were getting it, and they were explaining to each other. It felt scary to let go and let them explain because I wonder if the students think I’m not a good enough teacher because I can’t explain it well enough, so I let others do it for me. Honestly, I can’t yet verbalize another way to understand how to use the midpoint formula to find an endpoint. That’s something I’m going to work on this weekend and can hopefully have ready for Monday. I am just surprised that this happened today, and it fits into some of the ideas I learned in my masters in ed program, where the teacher is not supposed to be the only authority. The class today was very much student-centered, and I could feel how different it was. I’m not sure how much I like it because it feels so uncomfortable, but maybe I can foster it and the student will learn to understand it and appreciate it because I think there is some true value in it.