There have been many, but I am choosing to write about one from a few years ago, when I was still a classroom teacher. (Now I am a math interventionist.)
I was in the second year of teaching jr high math and had been asked by our Curriculum Coordinator to weigh the pros and cons of student-based learning versus teacher-led learning. Working on my email response to the question made me want to re-think everything I had been doing in my classroom --- so I did. I spent January researching, planning, and creating my own curriculum materials. I turned the Honors section of my math class into a portfolio-based system. It was horribly time-consuming because there was no one to follow or collaborate with. I worried that my students would not learn the material as much as they should. I invited my Curriculum Coordinator to attend class on one of the days my students were presenting their portfolio project. And then I worried. What if this was a total flop? Should I start over again on the same skills?
The day my students presented was amazing! I can still picture the room and all the students in the room. I remember their projects --- board games, power point presentations, displays, papers, posters, crossword puzzles, and more --- all to explain how to solve a two-step equation. One of the last groups to go was a young man who wrote a rap songs to explain the steps of solving two-step equations. It was an amazing experience to watch those students show me what they knew, each in his/her own way.The long hours creating the new system suddenly seemed not so bad. I had learned that student-led learning .
I was in the second year of teaching jr high math and had been asked by our Curriculum Coordinator to weigh the pros and cons of student-based learning versus teacher-led learning. Working on my email response to the question made me want to re-think everything I had been doing in my classroom --- so I did. I spent January researching, planning, and creating my own curriculum materials. I turned the Honors section of my math class into a portfolio-based system. It was horribly time-consuming because there was no one to follow or collaborate with. I worried that my students would not learn the material as much as they should. I invited my Curriculum Coordinator to attend class on one of the days my students were presenting their portfolio project. And then I worried. What if this was a total flop? Should I start over again on the same skills?
The day my students presented was amazing! I can still picture the room and all the students in the room. I remember their projects --- board games, power point presentations, displays, papers, posters, crossword puzzles, and more --- all to explain how to solve a two-step equation. One of the last groups to go was a young man who wrote a rap songs to explain the steps of solving two-step equations. It was an amazing experience to watch those students show me what they knew, each in his/her own way.The long hours creating the new system suddenly seemed not so bad. I had learned that student-led learning .