the hellishness of the last post (to be found underneath this one, as blogs spit in reverse chronological order) is nearly over. tomorrow i give my 9th lesson - a discussion of exponential notation, complete with hastily-formed group game.
some time back (last tuesday?) i gave a lesson for mrs. (ms?) cornelius (sp? yep, i'm pretty useless), and it was taped. as with my previous taped lesson - the majority slice of an afterthought of afterthoughts in the wild world of graduate school credit hours - i am required to reflect on it. as i have no recollection of what it was i tought, and little recollection of watching the tape - i'll manage my notes as best i can.
(before i dribble off, in other news: my mom visited this weekend, i got quite argumentative at a town hall meeting for the teacher corp reunion, i have a new car, i'm less familiar with driving stick than i thought, our cat likes plastic bags.)
taped lesson - disintigrating loops.
it's true. i pace. and walk around. it doesn't seem too distracting, however; just, random.
i've yet to grow out of the pacing thing. a recent comment sheet likened me to "a tiger." chew on that.
"you're thinking... thinking is good."
as i've been more comfortable in front of my classroom, i've been more comfortable setting up the laughable moment. last month, joel commented - and with reason - that i had been employing a sarcastic vein of humor that may have been confusing the students, who weren't aware of the joke's aim or foundation. so, it seems like i put the clown nose in my pocket for a couple weeks. it's been coming out as of late, and it's a nice release to laugh with people.
[i] teach linguistically, spatially, and dramatically. i explain and re-explain
i've often felt like i was literally pulling dialogue out of students; that is, pulling them towards cognitive social interaction, to save myself from the tautology of monologue. there really is a dramatic layer of this in my teaching. energy is meant to extend out, and pull in, and swirl around. keep people talking. keep people on the same page. keep people figuring things out for themselves/with each other. if there's one blatantly curricular-educational thing i've figured out this summer: i teach through induction.
i definitely need to learn how to write on the board and look on the class
this - like driving your new manual transmission used honda civic - comes with practice. also, i bought transparencies at wal-mart today. i talk to the board too much.
"ask...pause" utilized
again - the colloquium of it all (robbie, i'm searching for some appropriate greek term... symposium?). creating the empty space which i will not fill - a social tension eased by the resultant inertia shift of the students.
personal anecdotes on thms, defs, formulas - relevant
i've crafted their note-taking and binder space after methods of learning math i know work for me (god knows if it'll work for anyone else). the messy thinkspace of notes is kept seperate from the clean distilliation of those basic things that are iterated and reiterated through the year. i studied for tests in college by copying all the definitions, theorems, and formulas from my notes (townsend's image of emerson running magnets over his papers, pulling the needed filaments for the needed essay), and studying them as they were. my students will have the benefit of that separation orgainized for them.
"you want me to keep it on the board? would it be easier for you?" this classroom is designed by all.
this is in reference to the part of my board labeled "definitions, theorems, and formulas," where the day's terms are defined, and the terms of recent days are listed, for constant reference. a student recommended that i leave the space's title for convenience sake. it is a space owened by all, and aimed at the economic/collaborative/game theory cognitive development of all.
inverting student jokes into correct answers
people like to throw curveballs. i like to catch them empty-palmed, and curve them back. often times, a person's attempt at counter-example is nothing more than a rather brilliant example. re: setting a=b, and figuring out why. re: there are many ways of writing zero.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment