SUM2015: Taking Time to Learn

This weekend I attended the SUM Conference in Saskatoon, focusing all of my attention on ways to become a better math teacher.  As a student in elementary and high school, I would have been considered an average math student.  I wasn't blowing anybody's mind with my mathematical genius, but I wasn't giving my teachers any headaches because I didn't know what I was doing.  Average.   
Turns out, the joke is on all my past math teachers.  I didn't know what I was doing.  I had no number sense.  I didn't understand place value.  I had no skills in applying math.  I don't even want to talk about word problems and solving for x.  Truth be told, as an adult, I have a limited (one might say basic) understanding of math. 
When I was told about the conference, I was initially very excited to go.  But after a few days to think about it, I became really nervous about it.  I began to think about the situation I was potentially walking in to.  I decided that I was probably going to be in a room, filled with people who, more than likely, were enthusiastic about math, considered themselves "good" at math, and who had mostly positive personal experiences in math.  This is not me.  Sure I memorized the formula, rules or steps to get the job done, but it was hard for me.  I remember pre-reinforcing my paper to protect those ever-important notes that contained every step I needed to complete questions that would fill my entire page.  I almost always had to turn around in my desk to ask a friend for help; a sure sign that I was wasting time, therefore not putting in enough effort, subsequently loosing precious marks that would have otherwise boosted my final grade.  On the rare occasion I did muster up the courage to get up and walk over to my teacher who was sitting at his desk watching us and listening to the sound of pencils scratching over paper, the events looked something like this:  He would stretch out his hand to take my paper, but never look at me.  His eyes focused on the class in front of him.  He never asked what my question was.  He found the question I was having trouble with, crossed out my work, and did the question for me, nary an explanation in sight.  Then he stretched out his arm again, without looking at me, and gave my paper back to me. 
All of these (and other) experiences came pouring over me and I began to develop anxiety about it.  I didn't want to be the only person in the room who didn't get math.  I didn't want to be the only person in the room having to work hard.  I didn't want to be the only person in the room who couldn't share, didn't have the right answer or had nothing to offer.  And when I was done going through all the possible horrible scenarios I could think of, I gave my head a shake and went anyway.
I am so glad I did.  I was still massively out of my comfort zone, but I couldn't believe all I was learning about math, how I understood it, and how to teach it to my students, or rather, how to have my students teach it to me.
I took away a general message of "Play, talk, stay out of the way!".  Play is an essential part of student learning.  While this message is not unfamiliar to me, I think it's safe to say that, in general, we teach the "play" out of students.  Over the course of the weekend I have learned that I teach the play out of my students when I show them that there is only one way to solve an equation, and then step in every time they require assistance.  I also do this when I don't validate their ideas, and even when I give them praise.  I do this, still, when I simply don't give them time to play. 
In all fairness, I don't exactly know what math play looks like.  I don't remember playing in math myself as a student, so I don't even have anything to lean on so I can "fake it 'til I make it".  I think that it looks like me giving students a problem, then allowing them to access a variety of learning tools to help them show their understanding , and giving them time to solve that problem in multiply ways.  That's what it's going to look like for our class right now, anyway.  (Suggestions welcome!)
As they play, they have to have a chance to talk.  This is vital.  It's vital because in doing this, they justify their thinking to one another, and to me.  They learn what respectful listening is, and how to respectfully respond to an idea.  They learn patience, how to ask questions, how to trust their own thinking, and how to deal with mistakes. 
Writing it this way seems a little rosy, I know.  The truth is that students will need many opportunities to practice these skills, and infinitely more reminders about the expectations, but I know from past experiences with students that they can do it!  It's not fair of us to assume our students know how to do these things when they come to us.  Neither is it fair for us to show them once, and expect they "get it".   What is fair is laying out very specific guidelines for expectations, and giving students chances to show us they can do what is expected.  Fair is also being patient as they learn, and being even more patient when they forget themselves.
The importance of "talking" was driven home by Dr. Ruth Parker, who shared her invaluable knowledge of Number Talks.  She modeled for us the teacher role, and we were her students, engaging in discussion and sharing our thinking and understanding of the problems put before us.  What I found most interesting is that, in general, we (the adults) had very complex ways of solving problems.  Once we shared our thinking, she would say, "Want to see what my 5th graders did?".  And without fail, every time, they showed a deep(er) understanding of math, and solved the problem more practically and in less steps than us.  It.  Was.  Awesome. 
I quickly understood the value of number talks, and realized that I am doing them (to a small degree) by accident in my classroom.  I'm also doing them incorrectly.  The biggest mistake that I'm making is that I'm acknowledging the students thinking, instead of simply recording it.  While I mean to praise students as a way to encourage them, I'm ultimately having the opposite effect.  I'm creating an environment that is unsafe for students who might be timid to share, lest their idea not be worthy of "oh, interesting!", "did you notice what she did?!" or "great idea!".  I am not encouraging independent thinking with those comments either.  I'm encouraging everyone to think like the students I'm praising.  I'm certainly not helping students discover intrinsic motivation.  I guess the silver lining in all this is that I realize what I am doing.  And when I know better, I do better. 
Learning to "stay out of the way" is another vital piece to student learning.  During her presentation, Dr. Parker emphasized the importance of letting the students take the reigns when using number talks.  This is student time.  It's a time for them to share their own thinking-correct or not.  It's not a time for me as a teacher, to interject, make suggestions, point out mistakes, or even use a "teachable moment".  There is a time and a place for all those things, but number talks are very strictly opportunities for students to talk.
As she modeled the role of the teacher for us, she would record our thinking, never once assuming that she knew what we were saying.  We were always asked to explain what we did, how we grouped images, and ultimately, how we added or subtracted numbers.  For me, this is a vital piece, because, in assuming I know what a student is thinking/saying, I might be leading them away from their true thought, and stifling their math creativity. 
The conference is over and I am mentally exhausted and completely satisfied, committed to making changes to my teaching and our daily math routines immediately.  I'm so excited to go to work on Monday and have our first number talk, and I look forward to playing in our classroom-even though I don't know what that means exactly, and expect that will be my next uncomfortably steep learning curve.  The good news about uncomfortable learning is that your brain literally grows as you make mistakes.  I have to remember to share that with my students... 

Summer and Learning

I'm a firm believer that everyone needs the summer vacation. Students, parents, teachers, support staff, and specialists. We all need to reboot. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I spent a fair amount of time wondering about how much my students retained, and who spent time reading, playing math games, or even drawing pictures. Basically anything that means not watching TV or playing video games. 

I'm not anti-TV. There are some YouTube videos and TV shows that my 2 year old son really enjoys. And Despicable Me. Oh my goodness, Despicable Me.  I do, however, try to put a cap on "screen time", and when I do, I watch the most amazing things happen. He learns!

On walks he sees pine cones, learns names of birds (though most of them are robins), learns the difference between the road and sidewalk, and that when he whines and doesn't hold my hand to cross the street, he gets a time out for not listening. ; )

I made him a sensory bin with rice and threw in some containers, spoons, rocks, and trucks. I saw him fill, dump, find, count, and make a major mess. It was the best. 

I was so proud of his learning!

Through these and other moments, I began to realize that maybe I thought too much about a certain kind of learning...a formal kind of learning.  I realized that I am probably not giving my students enough credit about the things they learn over the summer, and that these are also important for the upcoming year. 

It's also a good way to reflect on the upcoming year and begin to think about how students learn best. Do they learn best sitting in rows, filling out worksheets and being compliant?  Is that how our children learn best?  

I have to say that I didn't give my son a detailed lecture about how to use a spoon to eat soup, have him fill out a work sheet labelling the different parts of a typical dinner, grade him, then move on to the the next unit, "Tidy Up Time-Putting Away Your Toys".  

It may be a dramatic example, but I think the point rings true. 

Let's celebrate the fact that our students are learning over the summer, and try to think of ways to incorporate what they know into what they are going to learn with us this year!

Classroom Space Matters

As I have spent a significant amount of time during the last half of this school year redesigning my space to accommodate my students individual needs, I appreciated running across the following article referencing a study done regarding the positive impact that unique classroom space can have on student learning as I scrolled through Twitter. 

Essentially, the article summarizes the study and explains what characteristics classrooms that impacted student learning the most had.  Naturalness (natural light, air quality and temperature) had the greatest impact overall. 

If you are teetering on the edge of making some major changes to your space, this might be just the article you need to read. There is also a link to the actual study in the article. 

Here's the link!

http://www.theedadvocate.org/study-finds-that-well-designed-classrooms-boost-student-success/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost

Changing the Tools For Learning

It's late, and I'm tired, but I have to share this.

I apologize in advance for coming across as a lightweight in the technology department, but please stay with me. If you haven't heard of what I'm about to share, I'm happy to know I'm not the only green horn out there. 

Recently, I was given a link to a very interesting article regarding the inclusion of technology in the classroom.  The article was titled 10 Ways to Reach SAMR's Redefinition Level.  One of the suggestions to achieve this was to use a tool called Nearpod. Seriously, if I learned this way in school, I'd have thought I went to the coolest school ever. I probably would have sat down to learn anything. It is a very cool program that I sincerely hope I have the chance to try out. For a quick look at how Nearpod works,click on the link below to watch the video. 

Come on, commit to trying something new!  (There's still two weeks left!!)

http://youtu.be/oOhwDAC-aok

I Have a Dream

I have a dream that my classroom reflects the ideas that I have about teaching and learning.  It accommodates many different learning styles, encourages collaboration between students, and allows me to moves seamlessly among them to guide them on their individual learning paths.  My dream begins with a classroom that is comfortable.  It is inviting.  It doesn't look like this...

There are probably many of you who are looking at this picture and saying, "But Ashley, there isn't really anything wrong with this.  I have seen many classrooms like this."  

This is my Grade 4 classroom in March of this year (2014-2015).  I can only say that I never felt completely comfortable in it.  I'm about to walk you through this space and tell why this does not work for me, and more importantly, why it doesn't work for my students.  

Desks and Desk Arrangement.

I entered into this space at the beginning of every day, and the first thing I saw without fail was books or pencils or papers or scissors or garbage or shoes or erasers sitting on the tops of the desks, and I became instantly annoyed.  Not a great way to start the day.

Every student had a desk where they were responsible for keeping their materials.  The thing about a desk is that students have everything they need right at their fingertips, and in theory, it is a very good thing.  In reality, it's a nightmare because they have everything at their fingertips.  I would frequently lose instructional time because of problems with classroom management relating to desks.  Students would have their hands in their desks, or would be fiddling with something on the top of their desks, or they would be distracted by each other.    

Pods can be great.  I love giving students the opportunity to work together so they can learn and teach each other.  The thing about pods is...students sit in segregated groups spread around the classroom, and it can be very difficult to monitor all of the students and keep them focused during instructional time.  As a result, I was forever trying to strike a balance between effective instruction and the perfect pod group for all students (which doesn't exist by the way).  My favorite phrase quickly became, "Ok Grade 4, I need everyone to practice self-control".  

The alternative I had to pods was desks in rows, which I hated and my students hated, and which all but stifled any collaboration between them.  As a result, I opted for pods.  It was the lesser of two evils for me.

One Environment Does NOT Fit All

When you look at the picture above, you can tell this is a homogeneous environment.  There is a desk for every student to sit and work in.  Knowing this, I would often find myself wondering why one student or another was always out of his or her desk.  While there were some students more than others up and out of their desks, all of my students did it at one time or another.  My spidey senses would tingle because I knew that this environment was not conducive to what my students needed.   The classroom needed to be more dynamic, but how?

The Organization Illusion

You would think that, if every student had a desk, and every student had a locker that keeping a classroom organized would be easy.  Well think again.  Part of the problem is that desks are very hard to keep organized.  Those little people have a lot of materials to cram into that little space, and if they are not explicitly taught how to keep it clean, it is likely they will not be able to.  I can't count the number of times that I thought my own desk was not big enough, so I can empathize with my students here.  This brings me to the next issue...

The Teacher Shrine

I love that term.  I heard it at a conference I attended this year led by The Two Sisters.  It's hilarious because it's true.  I consider myself a very organized person.  I like to have a clean, clear, well ordered space, but you'd never know it by looking at this picture...

If you can, look past that student desk that is giving me an instant migraine just by looking at it, to my area behind.  Just look at all that space designated just for me!!  It's embarrassing.  As one of my nearest and dearest goals is to create a student-centered space, I think it's safe to say that I was moving in the completely wrong direction in achieving that environment.

I'd also like to say that the cabinet behind my desk is full of "stuff", and almost none of it was useful to me.  The only items I kept in there that I used frequently were my scarf and mittens.  What a missed opportunity for organization!  Some of the "stuff" was mine, most of it was not.  Looking back it would have been prudent to clean it up, and put in all those binders and teacher resources I had sitting on the counter to the left of that cupboard.  I guess hindsight is 20/20.

Colors in the Classroom

As you can see, I covered the bulletin boards with basically every color in the rainbow.  Oh boy.  Here's the thing about this: I know better.  I know about color.  I think most people do.  There is a reason that schools are painted that ghastly eggshell color.  While it's nobody's favorite, I believe it does serve a purpose, and that is to ensure that the space for learning is not overstimulating to students.  Thankfully, there has been learning in this area and we've found out that natural, neutral colors have the same affect as "eggshell".  Alleluia! 

Again, here I am doing the exact opposite of what I know to be true.  I know that pink, and lime green backgrounds, used with orange and white chevron boarders (I know, even I couldn't look at it for long), are not the best use of color to create an environment that encourages calm and collected independent learners.

The good news here is that in order to do better, I had to start somewhere.  In my next post, I will share the transformation of this space, and trust me, there's a difference.

Never too late...

This is my very first post on my new blog dedicated to learning, teaching, and learning as a teacher.

I have chosen this title ironically for a couple of reasons:
1.  We are fast approaching the "end of the school year", and it seems a little silly to start a blog about learning and teaching so close to the end.  In doing this I am either incredibly early, or incredibly "late".

2.  It's 12:30 in the morning.  Again, early or "late", depending on your perspective.

I hope that you are patient as you wait for me to make this new project something special, however, I will be adding new material immediately (immediately after a 5-7 hour sleep, depending on when I actually get to bed and when my nearly-two-year-old decides its time to wake up in the day).

I hope you find and use this blog as a tool for your own personal growth, and for the learning of your students.