Tag: wins and losses

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Celebrating the small victories

It must be a November thing.

Because when I sat down this week to to write, I thought “it’s been a hard fall, but I should count up and share some of the wins”

And then I remembered, I had posted something like that before.

Turns out it was almost exactly a year ago. I didn’t plan that, but maybe next year I will. (#MathacognitiveTraditions)

Maybe it’s the influence of a holiday about gratitude (and carbs, which are also a thing I am grateful for). Maybe it’s the declining amount of sunlight, which always challenges me.

But mostly, I think it’s about being a few months into the school year. The new-ness has worn off (even this year, with so much new) and a holiday break is sounding good, and I (and I assume you) could use a reminder of the positives.

(When I do teacher self-care workshops, this is always the first strategy I recommend, so practicing what I preach. Also, all the research agrees)

So, the struggles with tech and attendance and the impacts of the world on our students (and our teachers) are very real and very present. But, I’m taking a minute to remind myself of the wins.

Text: Noticing the positives ... even in a hard season. Image: Silhouette of a person on a road, facing a bright sun. Arms raised with fingers in a V sign

Including …

+The student who came, so sick and still determined to zoom class.

+And the classmates who taught her the exponent lesson she had missed. (And passed along home remedies and good wishes)

+And the one who had been MIA for a few weeks who came back (I think it was the email “I’m worried because we haven’t seen you…” Because, connection, even in the slog of managing remote attendance)

+And the one who asked for quadratics. And the one who has been in school for like 2 months in the last 10 years who jumped into algebra on Khan academy.

I am worried about other students, and the challenges of the year, but these and others can keep us moving forward and reaching out and putting the best teaching we can out there.

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Class Evals: Why I’m glad I bothered

Sometimes, often, especially in the middle of the year, It’s hard to know if you’re having an impact.

I think I am, I try, I believe in my practices. But, day to day, making all the photo copies and dealing with all the things, it’s not always clear.

Even, when I do an eval, it’s hard to know. My students tend to be super grateful, and super kind, and not at all used to giving constructive feedback to teachers, so I take most evals with a grain of salt.

Often, I skip mid-year evaluations altogether. I have my exit tickets, and my end of year reflection, and that’s probably good enough.

This year, I’m doing them, though. Partly, I’m curious to see the results, but mostly I think the act of asking matters more than any answer. When I ask, I get to show I care about their opinions, and its another nudge towards metacognition, and that’s worth a few minutes and some photocopies at the end of each term.

And, I got a lot of evals that were about what I expected. Kind, grateful students writing sweet but general comments. I’m definitely schedule-sending some of those to myself for when I need a boost. But they’re better for my ego, than for guiding practice. And I know enough to know that they’re not the whole story.

And, then, sometimes, in between all the grain of salt taking, and the commitment to process, and the sweet, vague comments … they show me something is working.

For once, I said nothing about brains.

But they did.

Multiple students in one class (the class full of people I’ve had Iongest) talked about their brains. They told me they liked a challenge, liked to level up, liked to review… liked homework even (#adultlearnersarethebest)

Student evaluation: "I like how we recap and transition to something new at a steady rate. Whenever I get use to a formula we up the notch to challenge my brain more."

We talk about brains all the time, and about productive struggle, and about how practice grows your brain.

And, I’m never sure if they care, or if it makes sense, or makes an impact. They’re tired working adults who carved out a few hours to learn the math they need to pass a high stakes test, not to geek out about neurons.

But, it turns out they’re listening, and absorbing, and getting it.

And showing me that means so much more than all of the praise they write.

And I wouldn’t have known, if I hadn’t given them an eval and asked.

<3

Simple Class Evaluation | Reflection & Metacognition Bundle

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Wins

We have definitely, totally, absolutely reached that time of year. The new-year energy has worn off, we’re all a little tired, feeling a little behind, maybe a little overwhelmed, and just grateful that we get a short break next week.

It’s real. I’ve given out chocolate, and tissues, and lots of deep breaths lately.

And, I am very aware of the class with the terrible attendance, and the students who struggle, and all of the things on the calendar that add stress, and all of the resources that I wish we had but we don’t.

 

And, yet, the little wins.

 

They’re there too, when I remember to breath and notice.

A few weeks ago, we did this open middle challenge.  My students were so into it, they didn’t want to move on when I told them they could. And, my college student volunteer took it home to see if she could get exactly one.

And in another class, we tried these order of operations riddles (freebie!) and one group was so into getting every. last. one. that they argued hard against showing the answer key at the end of the class. They got it, averting their eyes and solving it with seconds to spare.

I’m grateful for the people who put creative and engaging teaching out there. But, my favorite wins are just my students, working  and learning.

I showed my (struggling) middle level class a preview of Algebra equation solving when we were finding the missing side in area. Most of them thought I was nuts to do so much extra writing when they could just divide, get an answer and move on. But one student, who sits in the back and struggles with math and rarely says much, kinda liked it. And when she was done with the first task, took on some simple equations (? + 7 = 15), and then some less simple equations, and by the end of the two hour class was slowly solving two step equations (2x+6=20)

 We had one of those nights early on, where enough of the class had to take an assessment that I couldn’t do anything new. It was early, but I gave the few left in class some practice HiSET tests to look at. Mostly they looked at them, their eyes got wide, and they threw up their hands. I moved on (I’ve never seen such enthusiastic agreement to switching to word problems) But one student stuck with it. He doesn’t know more of the math, he’s just more able to sit with it. He and a tutor worked that practice test for two hours, and then for homework, and then when he had free time in another class.  A few weeks ago, he asked for another test.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Wins And Losses

It’s more fun to talk about the wins, but we learn so much from the losses (if we take the time to look). Wins and Losses is a chance for me to reflect on one of each.

(Also, I could use a better series title, stay tuned for updates or suggestions)

 

Loss:  Group Dynamics

I have one class with a particularly challenging mix of personalities. Some super quiet, some rather oblivious to social cues about volume and sharing air time, and a wide range of maturity, mental health, math skills, personalities and opinions about school. Individually, they all have plenty of things going for them, but it’s not a group that’s gelled.

After a frustrating class where more of my energy when to classroom management than to teaching, I decided to break it up. Small groups, spread far enough apart that they couldn’t distract each other, each with one of my generous classroom volunteers facilitating.

I gave them a beautiful activity, from a thoughtful resource, setting up functions by exploring the calories burned in different activities. Last time I used this, I had one student skipping soda and climbing the stairs by the end of class.

This time, I had, instead of one classroom full of conflicting dynamics, two. I was short a volunteer, so larger groups than planned, and had designed the groups to spread out the different management problems. In the process, I got groups with vastly different math skills, and no interest in working together. The quick ones were bored, the slow workers were lost, and I got “Is this on the test?” instead of “I’m taking the stairs”

 

Take away: Design for learning first, then dynamics. If I were to do it again, I might do more homogeneous groups and give chocolate/many thanks/lots of support to the volunteers working with the more challenging ones.    

 

Win: Fractions

I don’t know about those of you teaching K12, but in ABE, fractions are a black hole filled with quick sand (or some other appropriately sticky metaphor). They’re counterintuitive, take for-EVER, set off students’ math anxiety, and then rarely appear on the HiSET.

*grumble*

But last week, my students figured out how to add fractions, with no explicit instruction on my part.

I gave them fraction circles, and visuals, and partners and said “observe, try it and report back”.  And they reported back a neat summary of adding fractions, and that it was easy. I typed up their observations, gave everyone a copy and moved on to mixed numbers.

Take away:  Trust them. With the right supports, and the right sized step (we saved uncommon denominators for the next class) they can do it.