Teach 15 Reflect 4

So how do we make students really reinforce concepts and ideas we spend our precious class time showing, leading and/or guiding?  How do we make sure they are reflecting on the lesson objective, using the practices  - that they are making connections?  It is an interesting question - I often ask how do I make sure my students understand the concept and embrace their learning - but perhaps I should be asking how do I make students reflect?

Thinking about student reflection was part of a speech from Naomi Harms at a professional event I recently attended - she spoke about the need to only do 15 minutes of teaching, lecturing, practicing, working, etc and then 4 minutes where the students reflect.  That reflection can happen any number of ways - but the key is to allow that time.    And I am now working hard to set up my daily teaching to make sure students are reflecting, and that they are really embracing their learning.

It may seem like a modest change, but after reflecting on it I am hopeful that it can have a large impact in my students.  I think this reflection can have a large payback - the investment is small, about 8 minutes per period - but if students can make their connections in those few minutes then the impact will be much greater than 8 minutes of more lecture, or more practice, or more anything,

Seriously only 4 minutes reflection for 15 minutes of attention, seems too easy.  But when I think about myself - even now as an adult I struggle to pay attention and connect ideas when a lecture or speech is more than 15 minutes straight.  I am shifting my classroom, I had provided time to make connections but never said "Reflect on this," or "Discuss this with a partner," etc.

So I am going to add it and see how the first month goes.  Nothing ventured.....
Finally I just want to thank Juda, JAM'M, WTI and Morgridge Family for making the conference possible - hearing Naomi is making me think about my teaching and work on making it better.  So it was a good day.

Getting a little help to make change!

I am excited that the Morgridge Family Foundation awarded a matching grant to my school to purchase and use 10 chromebooks in my classroom.  My school backed the plan finding funds to match the grant.  It started with Khan Academy sending an email about this grant as a way to use Khan more (more devices);  really what this has done is get my mind running about how I would divide up the time in my math room.  How I could differentiate more, I could use technology in place of pencil and paper practice.

My plan is to split the classroom into time sections and groups using Khan as a practice device - using the mastery challenges and target practice sections to help with skills.  This will be a way to target instruction to groups more, it will allow to review a concept and then have the targeted practice where the student has to be correct.  (The problem with worksheets is that students can learn incorrectly.)

This grant seems timely because I had made some leaps in my desire to use technology more efficiently - but had not done much differently in the past couple of months.   This grant will allow me to try some things as the year winds down, try somethings and see if we can make how I am reaching students more effective.  (Also - I push curriculum hard Sep - April, because my phrase is what I teach in May goes away.)

So thanks to Morgridge Family!