My Dream Classroom Design

Our school is undergoing some renovation. Every room will be changed. We are trying to design the ultimate classroom. Will you help? I have put down a few of my ideas on the Voice Thread. I would love to hear your ideas on this. You can comment on Voice Thread by typing in a comment, or using a microphone and verbally giving your comment, or you could even phone in your comment. Just click on the comment button (on the Voice Thread above) and join in. If you want to hear or see other peoples comments just click on their image.
Hope to hear from you,
Dave

www.voicethread.com

Front of the Class A book by Brad Cohen

I am amazed at how Brad Cohen overcame his Tourette Syndrome and became a wonderful teacher. Tourette Syndrome is a neurological condition that is exhibited through twitches, yelps, verbal outbursts, and more. The problem is that with TS you have no control over these behaviors. It is like blinking for most of us.
Brad's main theme in the book is that he would educate people about TS and they would generally accept it. He would honestly explain his condition to any audience that would listen. Most importantly he would educate his students. His students would then in turn ask questions which Brad answered frankly. As kids are, they accepted Mr. Cohen quickly. It is really a great story of how positive attitude and fortitude will get you to realize your dreams. In this case Brad's dream was being a teacher.
Brad's story reminds me as a teacher how I treat all my students. It makes me think of how sometimes I assume that students have complete control of themselves at all times. I always need to investigate before I make assumptions. It has been a great lesson for me.
Thanks Brad for your inspiring story. I hope you get a chance to read it.
Here is Brad's Website http://www.classperformance.com/

Move and Learn

A colleague told me about an activity that she had done with her Intro to Algebra Students. She gave them each a card with a fraction on it. She then told them not to talk. They had to order themselves from least to greatest. They could write anything down that they wanted to.
I thought it was an awesome idea. I incorporated it the next day.
The first round I gave them numbers from -12/12, -11/12, -10/12, ...0 ... 10/12, 11/12, 12/12
They did this with only a couple of mistakes in about 4 minutes. I then made cards of the same exact numbers except all were reduced. -1, -11/12, -5/6, -3/4 ... and so on. The second round proved to be a little more difficult than the first round. However, there was a lot of computations going on. There was a lot of movement going on. And furthermore, after they set themselves in order, we checked to see that the order was correct.
And yes, there was some off task behavior when the students were lining up. However, I think they gained a better understanding of what a fraction is and where it belongs than if they had been sitting in their seats watching a fraction lesson.
Extend the Idea:
Give each person in the class an integer on a card. Then I will ask them to pair up with someone else and add their integers. Now ask the class to line up from least to greatest in PAIRS. The students cold multiply the numbers as well.
Move and Learn

Thanks Heidi Heslinga. I appreciate you sharing your idea with me.

Category Sort

This is the latest structure that I have been using in my classes. The directions for this activity are "Sort these into three categories" This gives the students a little less structure than normal. This is how I set it up.

1. Partner work: I gave the slide to the students. Then, I had the student try to decide if they could combine at least two items together. They continued to put things into categories until they were all in three categories. The students worked together for about 3-4 minutes.
2. Student Sorting and Explanations: Then I had a student picked at random to come to the board and put two of the items together. That student had to explain why they put the items together. The next student came up and put two more items together, or added to the previous students work. This continued until all the items were in one of the three categories.
   
3. More Time: At times, I gave the students some work time with their partner to get the rest of the items into the correct category.
4. Closure and Summary: Then we reviewed the activity and the key points of what was important.
   

Always make it student Centered: My goal will continue to make my class student centered. I'm at the back of the class and the students are in the front explaining why they placed items in certain categories.

How would you mulitply 11 times 29?

Does it matter what way you work 11 times 29 if you get the correct answer?

1. One way would be to multiply 10 times 29 which is 290 and then add another 29 which is 319.
   
2. Another way would be to multiply 11 times 30 and which is 330 and subtract one 11 to get 319.
3. Another way would be to add 11 plus 11 plus 11 ... and so on until you have done it 29 times.
4. Another way would be to use the column method. See below.
5. How about using a calculator?

Usually students are drawn towards the method that is easiest. Furthermore, students want what is easiest for them. Reviewing different methods is an excellent way to have students buy into a quicker method. So often I make the mistake of showing one way to do a problem. I think that I'm cheating some of my students when I do this because they lose out on the opportunity to add to their toolbox of methods of solutions. I think that by only showing one method, I'm sending a message that the way I cover is best, and whatever way you used to solve this problem is not as good.
So I think that I need to work harder at showing multiple methods to solve a problem. I need require my students to find multiple methods of solving a problem. At the high school level, it is more about how students are thinking to solve problems. I know they can get a solution. More importantly, how did you come up with it. Justify your thinking.
So, yes it does matter how you solved the problem. The way you solved it might just help me understand it a little bit better.

More on When Students Teach

I received an email this week from a teacher Susan McKay that gave an excellent suggestion.
She calls it "Teacher, Student Pair"

1. Separate your students into pairs
2. Have them designate one person a teacher and one person a student.
3. Now give the class a problem for the pairs to work out.
4. The designated teacher can only explain how to do the problem and the designated student can only write the solution to the problem. With these rules the pair must try to solve the problem.
5. Remember, if you have the pencil, you can't talk. If you don't have a pencil, you can talk.
6. Now give the class another problem and the pair will switch roles.

I can't wait to try this in my class. Thanks Susan!

When You Teach, You Learn

I have been a firm believer of the idea that when you teach something, you actually learn it better than you would if you just learned it traditionally. I have an example for you. A student today was explaining to another student how to find an equation of a rational function and stopped in the middle and said, "I don't know why there is a 3 in the equation." She realized that she had found the answer, yet didn't know why she had done something. In the middle of "teaching" it, she had to learn more herself. I thought, that was excellent. She taught herself by teaching someone else. Is it accountability? Maybe it is the idea that you genuinely want to help someone else do something correctly. I'm not sure. But it works.
I have been trying to have my students teach each other. Lately, when a student gets done with a math problem, I tell them they must walk around and help others arrive at the solution. By the time I have 3-4 other "teachers" helping me, the whole class catches on to the idea of the problem.
Give it a try. Students love to help others. Give it a try.