Context is not enough. The power of sentence fragments, the need to be oh-so careful....

Was reminded again how powerful the teacher can be for evil (by mistake).  Often I talk about the need in my calculus class for students to study and make sure they treat the course like the college class it is (4 credits - is 8-12 hours per week in 1 semester, we do it over 2 semesters - so 4-6 hours per week).

But I accidentally ended a sentence with "you cannot get an A in this course."  And that is what is remembered.  Now that ending sentence fragment was part of a speech that you need to study to do well.  And the whole sentence that ended the speech was "If you do not study, you cannot get an A in this course."

But that is not what gets remembered.  I made sure to correct it and made sure students understood that everyone in the course can get an A.  And I reflected on how I talk about studying and Calculus - knowing now it would be better to say "If you do not study, it makes this course extremely difficult typically" or something like that. 

It is the details that count and we must remember the power we, teachers, have.  And even after a decade I still trip up.  That is why reflection is so important....

So to all my calculus students - studying is important and As are completely possible.

Okay versus Great, planning is key

So I have entered my 10th year of teaching (how I am not sure, actually I cannot believe 10 years has already pasted, but that is another topic for another day), and most educational "people" would say that those years make me better.  And that I agree with - so as I prepped for the first week of school - prepared my room, my google classroom (my virtual room), and many details with the telepresence course I teach - I decided to use my daily plans from last year for the first 3 days.   I am always thinking about ways to skip good to do great - reusing did NOT result in great.....

So this experiment I ran with planning just did not work.  I felt under-prepared, it took me 10 minutes to plan 3 days by "re-using" (copying) last year's plans.  I typically would take 90 minutes and I now know with certainty that I must give that time and thought to each week.  It is a combination of planning and reflection, where reflection of how to teach and reach the students is my driving consideration.

So the plan was there, but the reflection was not.  It kept me from having the insights, often when planning I think about misconceptions, vocab, common errors - when I just reused the opening days I missed those thoughts and thus felt like I was chasing my tail during the lessons (FYI - I teach the very first day -- I do "class" stuff, like rules, etc later -- we have math to do!).

So even though I have more experience, shortening planning time is not a trade of good for great.  Planning time is a requirement of great.

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.

Time outside class - Figuring how to Flip

So as I reflect on how we are going to do homework in the coming school year, It's 2013 shouldn't HS HW look different, I am really trying to figure out how to use a flipped classroom to help deliver content.  I know there is value in doing practice and problem solving during class when I can help guide the students.  I also know a lot of the low level practice can be done outside of the class.  But how much is enough?  What I mean is how much time besides the 220 in-class minutes do I need per week? 

In the past I have asked for 15-20 minutes of outside work 5 days per week, for projects, homework, etc.  - though students tend to procrastinate the projects into 2-3 hour sprints.  And it should be noted that I had already taken daily practice to 4-8 problems that are complete review for practice (I don't assign new content for homework).  So my thought going forward is to keep the 100 minutes per week of outside time (with study halls that is not too much), somewhat tough to pick a number because everyone works at different speeds, but it is a target.

That would allow me to assign about 20-30 minutes of "online" practice per week, 15 minutes of pencil/paper homework per week, 25-40 minutes of project work per week leaving 15-40 minutes for flipped instruction.  That would be about 2-3 videos per week (seems like a lot).  My goal would be 1 video per week, perhaps 2.

The problem is how do you know whether a student watched the video, it would be awfully hard to do practice in class without an idea of the content (students will try to though - asking to be taught the video info in class).  How do you know they watched?  Reflections (google docs)? Notes?  A worked sample problem?  And what do you do with the students who don't watch the videos, is it the same problem as homework?   Remember most students are minimalists, at 16 who cares if you understand, they are just trying to get it done (at least that was how I was).

Currently I make students stay after school to do the work on the same day (see HW FAQ), I treat assigned work like deadline work in the world, and I suppose I could do the same with flipped videos but I still need something to check (a problem, note sheet, reflection, a quiz).  My temptation is to do notes for upper level courses and perhaps a google doc reflection in the trilogy courses (Alg 1, Geom, Alg 2).  I plan to start making some Physics videos soon -- that would be a high level course in my school.  So I would expect to see notes (because the course is open note for all quizzes, tests and exams).  In the trilogy courses I think I will start with the google doc reflection (thanks to Brian Steffen). 

Either way the commitment is made -- math is gonna be different.