I've been a little busy getting ready to teach with Upward Bound this summer, but I squeezed in some reading time today! Again, I'm reading Success from the Start.
Chapter 4: Gaining Important Background Knowledge for Teaching
The focus of this chapter was to "learning all you can before the school year about the students and the mathematics that you are responsible for teaching" (pg. 29). This is why I am so eager to find a job! I would like to be able to really review all of the math topics I will be responsible for teaching, and for learning about the area and grade level I will be teaching. Unfortunately, there has only been one math job posted in my county so far this summer, but hopefully that will change soon as the year ends!
The authors suggest finding a mentor in your school to help you learn about both the math and the students. In undergrad, we were always warned against buddying up with teachers who are not good role models to the point where I felt like I shouldn't ever talk to any other teachers, but I personally believe that it is possible to find several teachers who are good role models and who will be willing to help (just based on my own student teaching experience). It's definitely not beneficial to team up with negative teachers who dislike their jobs, but having a mentor will be super important to me.
The authors suggest seeking out specific information about the school, two questions of which I most agree with. One, what is a typical math class like? This is important to know because if students have been learning one way, and I bring in different strategies, there is going to be a culture shock for them that I will have to help them adjust to. This happened to me during student teaching: the students were shocked when I asked them to go up to the board to explain how they solved a problem! Another question was, "How do teachers typically deal with behavior issues?" This is important because students need consistency in rules and consequences, and I don't think that new teachers are always told all of these guidelines.
This chapter also offered six steps to learning about your materials: familiarize yourself with the materials and with the math, learn how the materials work to support learning, become very clear with the first math topics you will be teaching, plan lessons using the materials, and just keep going! The most important info here to me is to review all of the materials, not just the ones you will be using, to get an overall view of what students will be learning over several years so that you can make appropriate connections. The authors also suggest working through all of the problems you will give students - which is something I whole-heartedly agree in! Why ask them to do something if you haven't done it and seen its purpose?
The authors suggest finding a mentor in your school to help you learn about both the math and the students. In undergrad, we were always warned against buddying up with teachers who are not good role models to the point where I felt like I shouldn't ever talk to any other teachers, but I personally believe that it is possible to find several teachers who are good role models and who will be willing to help (just based on my own student teaching experience). It's definitely not beneficial to team up with negative teachers who dislike their jobs, but having a mentor will be super important to me.
The authors suggest seeking out specific information about the school, two questions of which I most agree with. One, what is a typical math class like? This is important to know because if students have been learning one way, and I bring in different strategies, there is going to be a culture shock for them that I will have to help them adjust to. This happened to me during student teaching: the students were shocked when I asked them to go up to the board to explain how they solved a problem! Another question was, "How do teachers typically deal with behavior issues?" This is important because students need consistency in rules and consequences, and I don't think that new teachers are always told all of these guidelines.
This chapter also offered six steps to learning about your materials: familiarize yourself with the materials and with the math, learn how the materials work to support learning, become very clear with the first math topics you will be teaching, plan lessons using the materials, and just keep going! The most important info here to me is to review all of the materials, not just the ones you will be using, to get an overall view of what students will be learning over several years so that you can make appropriate connections. The authors also suggest working through all of the problems you will give students - which is something I whole-heartedly agree in! Why ask them to do something if you haven't done it and seen its purpose?
Chapter 5: Creating a Learning Community during the First Weeks of School
I am very interested in this topic, as I think it is key to a successful year. I have been told over and over that expectations have to be established early on, and this chapter provides a lot of guidelines for how to do this.
The authors stress that everything you do and say needs to be aligned to your expectations. You can't just tell students what you want them to do: you need to have them actually do it. This shows them that you truly mean what you say in terms of your goals and expectations. It's also important to give detailed directions so that expectations are clear. You should describe to your students what you expect from the different interactions that will take place.
My favorite quote from this chapter was, "Most of the time they will be figuring things out rather than simply following rules and directions" (pg. 46). This is definitely my motto and classroom philosophy. This describes the type of interactions students should be having with the math, and the authors provide a sort of checklist that describes what this type of interaction should look and sound like. The same checklist is provided from student-student interactions and teacher-student interaction. The authors suggest that you write down specific indicators that these interactions are positive and productive, and look for those indicators throughout a lesson. Essentially, when you want something to happen a specific way, you have to name, model, and reinforce the behaviors - "no one learns how to act solely by learning what not to do" (pg. 49)!
This chapter provides some teacher moves to establish community. A few of these I already value, such as learning names and greeting students. Other suggestions were things I have not thought about before - that you shouldn't do anything else while giving directions (to show that the focus is on the directions), and that you should redirect distracted students by asking specific questions about the mathematics, to keep the focus on the math.
The next part of the chapter addressed routines - which ones to establish and how. These are all things I've dealt with before, with one exception. A lot of times we are told to have a warm up activity in order to occupy the students while we do administrative tasks like attendance, but this book recommends that you have to be circulating during the warm up to show that you value their work and thinking about the task - that it is not just busy work. This is so true! The authors also recommend setting a time limit for this task.
The chapter closes with a discussion of the physical layout of the room. Personally, I am for paired rows of desks as these still allow students to work together but do not allow for much distraction (as might happen at 4 person tables). The authors also suggest using the walls to showcase things that you think are important, valuable, or exemplary. Of course, this only works if you are allowed to put things on the walls! I definitely want a poster of the Standards for Mathematical Practice, but the book also recommends posters describing productive group work, good representations, and successful problem solving.
As far as the first few days of class go, the authors recommend keeping the focus on math - in particular, math tasks that will allow students to think and interact in the ways they will be expected to do all year. This is something I have been planning on doing since reading Designing Groupwork last summer.
The authors stress that everything you do and say needs to be aligned to your expectations. You can't just tell students what you want them to do: you need to have them actually do it. This shows them that you truly mean what you say in terms of your goals and expectations. It's also important to give detailed directions so that expectations are clear. You should describe to your students what you expect from the different interactions that will take place.
My favorite quote from this chapter was, "Most of the time they will be figuring things out rather than simply following rules and directions" (pg. 46). This is definitely my motto and classroom philosophy. This describes the type of interactions students should be having with the math, and the authors provide a sort of checklist that describes what this type of interaction should look and sound like. The same checklist is provided from student-student interactions and teacher-student interaction. The authors suggest that you write down specific indicators that these interactions are positive and productive, and look for those indicators throughout a lesson. Essentially, when you want something to happen a specific way, you have to name, model, and reinforce the behaviors - "no one learns how to act solely by learning what not to do" (pg. 49)!
This chapter provides some teacher moves to establish community. A few of these I already value, such as learning names and greeting students. Other suggestions were things I have not thought about before - that you shouldn't do anything else while giving directions (to show that the focus is on the directions), and that you should redirect distracted students by asking specific questions about the mathematics, to keep the focus on the math.
The next part of the chapter addressed routines - which ones to establish and how. These are all things I've dealt with before, with one exception. A lot of times we are told to have a warm up activity in order to occupy the students while we do administrative tasks like attendance, but this book recommends that you have to be circulating during the warm up to show that you value their work and thinking about the task - that it is not just busy work. This is so true! The authors also recommend setting a time limit for this task.
The chapter closes with a discussion of the physical layout of the room. Personally, I am for paired rows of desks as these still allow students to work together but do not allow for much distraction (as might happen at 4 person tables). The authors also suggest using the walls to showcase things that you think are important, valuable, or exemplary. Of course, this only works if you are allowed to put things on the walls! I definitely want a poster of the Standards for Mathematical Practice, but the book also recommends posters describing productive group work, good representations, and successful problem solving.
As far as the first few days of class go, the authors recommend keeping the focus on math - in particular, math tasks that will allow students to think and interact in the ways they will be expected to do all year. This is something I have been planning on doing since reading Designing Groupwork last summer.