Tag: teaching philosophy

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I Wish my Students Knew (Sharing teaching values to build classroom culture)

I am not, generally speaking, a fan of making videos. (Or, often, of slide decks)

I feel self conscious on video, and do too many takes, and I’m not even really a video-watching fan, and we’re doing zoom sessions anyways, and, well, it’s just not my favorite thing.

But, when I started planning for this year, I knew there was one video I would definitely be making: a screencast of the my “Wish my Students Knew” presentation.

I’ve been trying to figure out how we establish a classroom culture, when we don’t have an actual classroom. It’s puzzling, but core values still seem like the place to start.

Originally Published Feb. 2018, updated fall 2020

I kind of knew what I wanted in a classroom culture: support, and listening, and welcome, and a palpable belief in every student. But, I wasn’t always sure how to create it. I would not have guessed part of the answer was PowerPoint.

I had been using ‘What I wish my teacher knew….’ to start my classes. I love this. It’s beautiful, and valuable, and works at least as well for centering the teacher (and reminding me why I do this!) as it does for giving voice to the students.

So, as I pondered all of the misconceptions, and information gaps, and misunderstandings about math learning that my students started with, I added, ‘What I Wish my Students Knew…’. 

A dozen or so slides with some key ideas that I share in some form or fashion every first week. It’s my chance — before we start with the variables and the word problems, in the middle of the attendance policies and school calendars — to tell them what I think is really important to know about math class. (And to start to debunk a few things many think they know)

It doesn’t create a culture by itself, but it sets a nice foundation. They know where I stand, and what I believe.

I’ve been adding to it as I think of new wishes, and playing with the presentation format. I’ve given this as a straight-up powerpoint, a gallery walk, a read-around, had pairs look at a few slides, and now, a video.

And, if some administrator ever comes looking for a teaching philosophy, this might be what I hand them.

So, without further ado (but with commentary)

Stack of books with text "What I Wish My Students Knew.. Sharing teaching values to build classroom culture in person or online

I wish my students knew…

… Everyone can learn math. (They are often fairly certain that this is not true, at least as applied to them.) (( If they learn this, I don’t care if they learn another thing))

… But we don’t all learn the same way, or at the same pace. And that’s ok

 

 … I hated my math class in high school. (I often talk about Mr. B – -, whose teaching style combined with the difficulty but apparent irrelevancy of cosines to my life, to convince me that I wasn’t a math person) ((I hope they hear “I can empathize”))

… Turns out I don’t mind math as an adult. And I love teaching it. (I hope they hear, ‘it can change’)

…You don’t have to like math to learn it. … But it feels really good when you get something that you thought was hard. (Those moments are the reason I keep doing this job)

… Most of math looks scary… until you learn it. (I’m a big fan of exposure therapy for math anxiety  “Look at this thing we’re going to do today….” …”Hey, nice job, maybe that crazy-looking thing wasn’t so bad)

 

… You really learn math when you do math. Not when you listen to or watch me do math. (So, no, we’re not going to sit in rows facing the board)

… You’re learning the most when you’re working on something that you can just about figure out, but it’s still kind of hard.

… Mistakes happen. Even to me. And it’s no big deal (I put mine on the board for all to see)

… Being a good learner is its own skill. Everyone learns in different ways and it will make your life easier when you figure out the best ways for you (Metacognition, my personal crusade)

… Checking your answers helps you learn. If you do more than mark it right/wrong, and instead figure out how to fix your mistakes. (Answer keys are a fixture in class and a learning tool, except for all the past-teachers in their heads scolding them about cheating. )

… It’s natural, but frustrating, for your brain to have a hard time remembering something you only do once a week. The best remedy is to do math more often (Study at home!) (Our biggest challenge, my constant plea)

… Asking questions is how you take charge of your learning, and get the information you need. Also, I’m a terrible mind reader. (Phrased for those with trouble asking for help, and for those who just want to help)

… It’s ok to ask for help. Better than ok actually.  (Some things bear repeating)

I added a version of this (adapted lightly to be slightly more universal) and to my  subscriber resources. Enjoy!

(If you use it, please leave a comment telling me how it fits in your class)

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Planning Principles : Points on the Board in the First Class

It’s been a while since I wrote, here. Honestly, it has been hard to write about teaching, while everything about my teaching has been so upended by the pandemic. After a spring of emergency remote teaching, I (really) needed the summer break. I’m coming back soon to still-remote, but better planned remote teaching, and I’m looking forward to being back here more.

2020 update:

A few weeks before COVID, I started a new class, with a new group of students, and a new context. And, then, like everyone, I started (abruptly) to figure out remote work and online learning, turning on a dime, doing our best to navigate. I’ve started a few new things, professionally in the last year. And now, again, starting a new thing: a full semester online (for me, maybe hybrid or socially distanced for you).

I’m finding it calls me to think about first principles. In times of change, what do we know to be true about teaching and learning, regardless of the other stuff.

There are undoubtedly more elegant and insightful thoughts, but also: my thought in planning for the first day, the new year, the fresh imperfect start is ‘get a win’. 

For my skeptical mandated students, who weren’t interested in my name games 

And for my students, used to our supportive classroom, abruptly plunged into online learning

For my new this term students, and for me, never great at transitions.

Get a win. 

Teach a piece of math that we can all learn. 

Provide a sense of progress in the chaos.

Start the momentum, set the tone, take the first step. 

The first step is the hardest. But there’s nothing like making it, to remind you that you can take it. 

And the next one. And the next.

Text: Points on the board. Starting a new class or a new unit right. Mathacognitive. Image of a vintage scoreboard. Planning for the first day of a new school year or new term

Originally published March 2018, revised and republished 2020

Things that are different about adult ed:

Students don’t all start in September, stay in my class through June, and then move on to the next class after summer vacation.

They start when they’re ready, place into the class that suits their skills, stop when life gets in the way or when they’re ready to take a test and succeed, move to a new class when the teaching staff thinks they’re ready for it.

There are ways that this is beautiful (learn at your own pace! Education organized around the student not the calendar!) And ways that this is challenging (So many moving pieces. And I am not great at chaos). We manage it as best we can by starting and moving bunches of students together at a few scheduled points throughout the year.

All of which is to say, I get more than your average level of practice at first classes.

At least three times a school year, a third or more of my class is new. They might be new to my class, moving from a lower level where they were cruising along comfortably – feeling like the smart kid for once – to a new more challenging class. They might be in a math classroom for the first time in five or fifteen years (and feeling ready to get their HiSET, but maybe not so ready for math class) or back to school after a break to handle whatever life threw at them.

Different reasons, but for all practical purposes a new class.

So, first days of school. Name games and homework policies. What I wish my teacher (and students) knew. All of the standard stuff.

But, also.

Principles I’ve learned through multiple first days every year of my teaching career:

Get points on the board.

Meaning: By the end of the first class – between the introductions and the policies and the questions – be able to point to some math and say  –truthfully, universally — “we learned that.”

This is a worthy goal for any class, but especially for first classes, when we’re trying to set a tone that is not “OK, we’ll pick this up next class”. For the new students, in particular, it’s much needed proof that they can handle this, the first piece of tangible evidence in the case I’m building that ‘yes, you can learn math’

And, this, I think, is a goal for all of us, whether you have one first day or seventeen.

With apologies to the standards, I don’t think it matters so much what they learn that day, just that they learn.

So, my criteria for getting points on the board:

  • A one off. Something self-contained, not requiring anyone to have been here last week, or to come back next week to learn.
  • As close to guaranteed success as teaching allows. I’ve rearranged significant parts of curriculum to teach an easy win on the first day. (A student who leaves their first class feeling lost is off to a very rough start.)
  • Bonus points: An activity that incorporates getting to know you and math in one.  (Like these) Also, group work.

I often do something on the order of gather data about our class and analyze it.  (These proportions weren’t a first-class, but it’s of a type. These strategies for getting un-stuck were a my last first class.)

I have another first-class coming up. As I write, I’m still waiting for inspiration, but I’m clear on my goal: get a win.

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Student Choices

No offense to professional development facilitators, but most of my best PD is sitting around a table talking with other teachers. I had that conversation recently at the end of  a workshop, and the conversation turned to giving students more choice in the classroom.

 

Truth: I have a personality that is more inclined than is really optimal to operate on the basis of ‘if you want something done right, do it yourself’.

And, truth: my students don’t get much say in the curriculum – either the content or the method to learn it. I used to try surveys and reflections to get input, but it takes more foundation-laying time than I gave it/wanted to put in.  I now take a lot of feedback (exit tickets, lots of metacognitive comments, wish my teacher knew’s) but, truth, it’s mostly after the fact/indirect.

So, there are no genius hours, PBL, makerspaces or many other cool student-driven things. Maybe someday, but not yet.

 

But — pleasant surprise of my PD conversation — I realized we do have  multiple points of student choice in to our classroom culture.

  • Each class when they finish their spiral review they have 0-25 minutes (depending on their speed) to work on anything they want.
  • Unless an activity specifically needs group or solo work, I typically give the option of working independently or with classmates of their choice.
  • I mostly differentiate by starting everyone with the same activity, letting them work at their own pace, and giving different follow up as students finish the first task. Unless a student really needs challenge or review, I mostly let them pick from 2 or 3 related tasks.
  • I’m on my soapbox about homework but they get to choose what work they do.

 

Since ‘naturally flexible teacher’ is clearly not the foundation, I’ve been thinking about what it takes to make these choices work.

It’s not really the logistics. Mostly these choices means making copies of a few different worksheets.  It’s different to implement a homework system where they pick, but I don’t think it’s harder (honestly, now that I’m in it, I’m exhausted by the thought of keeping track of who did page 74, instead of my “did they do something” routine)

 

Mostly, it’s a mindset thing

 

Partly, that’s reminding myself that I neither want nor need to control this particular thing.

Because decision fatigue is real.

Because I really do believe in a democratic classroom.

Because they’re adults and they are perfectly capable of, say, figuring out who to work with.

It helps when I remember that one of my core goals is that they learn how to be strong learners – and they can’t do that if they’re never in control of their learning.

 

AND THEN once I’ve wrapped my mind around this idea, I have to help them wrap theirs around it.

Students who end up in my classes do not have a lot of experience with teachers asking them to make choices about their learning.

Every time I get new students, I go through the same conversation

“Great, you’re done with the review early, what do you want to work on?”

“I don’t know” OR “Anything” (or some variant, usually with a confused look that says the real answer is “Why are you asking me?” and “How would I know?”)

And then my job is to teach them how to figure out what they want/need to work on. Was there something on the review that was hard? Something from a previous class they missed or want to practice? …

Odds are good, we’ll repeat the conversation the next week.

And maybe the next.

But eventually they figure out how to choose something to work on, and that’s a great moment.