I met with Zachary Hermann on March 13th, and it had a significant impact on how I have been teaching since I met with him. Before I delve into the specifics of how my teaching has been impacted, I want to first note that Zachary and I met so that he could help me manage my teacher inquiry project aka Master’s Thesis and help me finalize my inquiry question.
He began by asking me why I chose my inquiry question, which was (at the time) ‘what do teachers do to assist students after they have been absent from school’. After talking with Zachary a bit, it became apparent that what I was really interested in was helping students who have missed content (for whatever reason). ‘Why do they miss content’ is an important question to consider. Is it because they weren’t paying attention in class? Well maybe a teacher should tell them to pay attention next time! Zachary asked me (rhetorically) ‘why do you react the way you do when students have a question’, and mentioned that most teachers do not even know why they react a certain way (this is a concept known as Principles of Reaction, which I need to research!). Practically, the principles of reaction explain why some teachers always answer questions, some teachers never answer questions, and some teachers sometimes answer questions dependent upon if the student does X, Y, or Z. I admitted that I am an ‘always answer all questions’ kind of teacher (for now!). Zachary and I mentioned how this establishes cultural norms (remember Samera pulling me from my position across the room to answer her questions?), where when students have a problem, they look to me as their solution. Unfortunately, I answer all questions at all times, and students DO look to me to solve all of their problems. I thought this would be desirable, but I am tired of all the effort I am outputting. I want to work smarter instead of harder. So this past week, I decided that I only want to give instructions once. I am sick of having to repeat instructions. What a waste of effort. So to act smarter instead of harder, I told A band (on March 14th) that I do not want to have to repeat this instructions and will be only relaying them once so to pay attention!! Zachary mentioned that just because students have questions does not mean I have to answer them immediately. He gave me the example of helping 4 students over the course of 10 minutes on the same question, when I could have instead presented that problem to the entire class and helped the entire class in only 5-6 minutes. So instead of solving each individual question as they arise, to walk around, gather data on who is having what issues, and solve them as a class. Zachary was full of wonderful advice like this. He also expressed the concept of ‘delegated authority’, where I might for example allow more students to teach material. I might be able to help 60% of students understand a concept by explaining it, but having students hear explanations from multiple sources can help immensely. This boils down to saying that having 4-6 teachers in a room can be more impactful than having only 1. Delegating authority to students can help facilitate there being more active teaching delivered to students from different sources. Instead of students hearing only my explanation, they get to hear many. This allows me to teach smarter instead of harder. Delegate responsibility and authority to my students so that I can be free to do more! Which leads me to the final point I will make in this journal entry. Zachary asked me ‘how do you spend your time in class? Who gets your time?’ These questions were impactful! Now, I approach questions posed by students differently. Instead of running across the room to answer each question as they arise, I am trying to behave differently, which pretty much means not running across the room to answer question as they arise. I caught myself doing this today, which was frustrating and I realized it as it was happening. How exactly do I change my behavior though? What should I do instead of answering their questions directly as they arise? I know there are plenty more questions I should be asking about what should I go about changing exactly and what alternatives are out there. Also, which questions am I referring to? Because I do still want to respond to all questions during classroom discussion time. As I am writing this, I just told a student ‘an undefined first derivative does not have to be the result of a vertical line. That’s all you’re getting from me,’ and walked away. One final note. I observed a fellow math teacher who is known to demand perfection from students in their work. What I saw in his classroom was a thing of beauty. He was sitting down the entire time teaching. He could project his math to students from his computer, and by writing on his computer with a special pen, students could see his notes. He put this software to great use, and his pacing was excellent. He asked terrific questions, and really seemed to be challenging his students to think. While a couple students had their heads down (which went unaddressed), no students were having side conversations. Nearly all seemed to be paying attention. I want my classroom to look a lot like that. I cannot wait to observe him again!
1 Comment
Sarah Poncz
3/15/2018 01:15:48 pm
Great insight about working with your class more efficiently.
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Alex KoroljowStudent teacher at SLA @ Center City, Philadelphia. Archives
January 2018
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