12/19

I have been struggling with how I want to change the way my class is run next semester and how to grade. I have been thinking a lot about this because I am trying to put together classroom expectations to go to the copy room. Then I thought, why not let the students create these on the first day of class. I am also thinking of creating a blog for the class to discuss what and how they are learning in the classroom and changes that might help their learning. I think that my classroom has to change to be more successful, I am just not exactly sure yet what all those changes look like.

12/15

I wonder how successful I would be if I had my students work in groups every day. I was thinking that I could have some homework problems, quizzes and tests where the grade would be based on 1 member of the team. Ideally this would have the students work together to make sure that everyone in the group knows what they are doing. The groups would need to stay around 2-4 people to be useful. If we are creating learning communities in our school for teachers to collaborate on ideas, why not try the same thing with students?

12/9

I was able to use the new projector in my room to show the students the website glencoe.com. This is the company that makes the book that we use in class. The site has quizzes from every section of the book and tests from every chapter. I think it could be a useful tool to help them get ready for their final exams.

12/8

I had 8 juniors in my Trig class on Wednesday because all the seniors were gone. One of the juniors came to the board and was doing problems for the rest of them. They were very active in the discussion and stopped many times to ask questions. I asked why they do not participate like that in class normally. The response was that the class size is to big and they do not feel comfortable asking as many questions in the small group. I asked if it would help if they were in small groups and they responded that they like having me explain things to them. I saw in that class that they were willing to ask questions and participate but I was not able to figure out from the students what would allow they to react like that every day.

12/2

We are talking about getting rid of or changing the way we grade in class. This is a difficult change for most people involved. I talked with my algebra classes about the toy drive and told them about my experiences with helping those less fortunate kids. I asked them to try to help out and their first request was for extra credit to bring in toys. There is such an extreme focus on grades that needs to be changed, but what is the best way to change it? (I gave in, to help the Fletcher kids) Can these kids not see past grades that much to help these kids at Christmas time?