There are somethings in your classroom that you can not control. Like whether you are given a room with windows or what the desks look like. Things like that you just have work with what you are given. But somethings I can control are what go on the walls, how I arrange the desks, what other outside resources I can bring into the classroom. My room is not going to be empty, meaning, there will be things on the walls. Sometimes I do feel that the "decorations" put up in classrooms can distract from the learning which is something I want to avoid. So what goes on my walls will be helpful to the learning and when projects are done those will be displayed. This will let the students know that I care about what they have done.
Originally I was very vague in what would go up on the walls in my classroom. I feel like this is kind of a difficult thing for a mathematics classroom because it's not like students are making art that you can display. It's kind of silly to put homework up on the walls and I am against putting up tests that people got good grades on because that could make the others discouraged. Most often it seems that the same people are doing well on tests. But depending on what class it is there could very likely be one or two projects done and those could be displayed. I would display every single students project, so that they know that each persons work is valued and seen.
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| Image 1: This picture demonstrates a temporary arrangement for working in groups. I would arrange the desks so that they wouldn't need to be moved every time we wanted to work in groups. |
A big misunderstanding with mathematics is that there is one correct answer and only one way to get that answer, but that is very rarely the case. I am going to have resources in my classroom that will allow the students to work hands on and to help them explore other ways of answer questions. Blocks, fraction tiles, calculators, mini white boards, etc. will be available in the classroom.
Here I have assumed that everyone will be able to communicate with each other. It is very likely that I will have students whose primary language is not English so I would make sure that they have an opportunity to work with other students in the class who speak the same language as them. Although they would still need to be able to explain their work and so I would still want them to work with others who don't speak the same language so that they can be learning how to explain their mathematics in a way that the whole class can understand.
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| Image 2: Expectations, rules, and policies will be posted so that all students can see them on a daily basis. |
Students are going to be expected to show up to class and to be present and attentive. Meaning they will be expected to participate in small group and whole class discussions.
Classroom rules: be respectful of others, stay on task, learn from your mistakes, come prepared and ready to participate, and have fun!
If they fail to follow these rules they will get a warning, lose privileges, grades will suffer, and if it becomes a constant thing we will have to talk with parents and/or principal.
I also want to get the students involved in coming up with the rules and expectations of the classroom. When they feel like what they have to say is being heard and that they are making a contribution then they are going to be more willing to follow those rules.
As a teacher I must have high expectations for all of my students. If they feel like you don't believe in them then they are going to give up. I don't know if I was clear about this but participation points can be earned for participating in the whole class discussion or in small groups. For some students it may be real intimidating to speak in front of the whole class, I know for me it always was, so I need to be accommodating for those who will not speak to the whole class. There are several factors that could cause this to happen and I need to be an understanding teacher. But they are expected to participate and cannot just sit back and never say a word.
While I do want my students to have a say in the rules and expectation in the classroom there are a lot of issues in the world that may come up in class and will need to be address, there is language, sexual orientation, race, etc., and I need to be upfront on the first day of class saying that inappropriate language and bullying will not be tolerated. When speaking to them I will not speak down to them as if they are children. They are learning to be adults and need to be treated as such. I obviously will not be able to address every little detail on the first day of class and I'm sure things will come up throughout the year, but my students need to know that we are going to take the time to discuss the issue in class. It is not going to be brushed under the rug. Every individual in my classroom is important and if I feel uncomfortable or feel that someone is being treated unfairly then it needs to be taken care of.
My Students
My students are going to be from all different backgrounds and they are all going to be welcome. My vision for my classroom is that it is a safe environment where students from different backgrounds and interests will feel comfortable sharing and participating. I want it to be place where you see the varsity sports players and the music/arts students, and math enthusiasts are all working together, forgetting about their label in school.
Expounding on the fact that I want my classroom to be a safe environment. Saying that is one thing but actually creating it is another. They way that I will do that is with the rules and expectations described above. They are made to make everybody feel comfortable. Also as the teacher I will make sure that I am aware of each of my students, the different cultures, languages, races, gender identification, etc., that may be present in my classroom so that if issues do come up with some kind of bullying or misunderstanding, I will be able to address them in class. If I am educated in these things and show my students that we need to treat everyone equally then my students will be more likely to pick up on that idea. I'm not saying everybody has to be best friends but everyone needs to respect each other. If this can be accomplished then they will feel more comfortable participating in class.
This may be a lofty goal, but I want to create and environment where if my students were outside of the classroom and saw one of their classmates being picked on that they would stand up for them.
I want to really get to know my students so on the first day of class I want to give out a get to know you survey asking questions like:
- what are your interests?
- what is the best way to contact parents/guardian?
- what do you want to learn?
And maybe just some silly random questions. But if I can get some basic information and interests then I can gear my tasks towards those interests to get the students more engaged.
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| Image 3: I hope to build a safe environment where all students hands are in the air when I ask a question |
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| Image 4: My students will feel comfortable coming to the board to share their work and teach the class what they discovered. |
Me as a Teacher
A day would look like this: the students come in and get started on some kind of warm up to review the stuff they learned the day before or maybe even a week before. This will be one way for me to assess if they understand ways they have already learned. Then we will go over homework. I will have the students come up to the board to show their work and then we will discuss as a class if we agree why or why not. Then we will get into the lesson. My lessons for the most part will be task based. I want my students to be actively learning and not just listening to me lecture for 30-45 min. So after a little bit of instruction from me they will be given a task where they can work with each other. Something we may be working on is solving equation by substitution, elimination, or my graphing. I want them to learn that there is not just one way to solve an equation. There are three different approaches that will give you the same answer which ever way you choose.
When picking students to come up to the board to show their work I am going to want to show work that is wrong as well as right so that we can walk through the students processes and I will be able to see where they are not understanding. But I will need to be careful not to just pick the minority because they may appear to be the ones who get answers wrong more often. No one group should be targeted more than the other. One way I could avoid this is to put names on popsicle sticks and pull names from there and who ever I pull will come to the board. Then it won't be like I am targeting anybody because it is random.
It is important to have multiple sources for which students and parents can receive the assignments. The Mathematics Vision Project is an online source that has tasks that can be used in the classroom. Children now a days are very technology savvy and so providing online resources will play to their strengths. One of the tasks I could use in class could be from the MVP online resource The SM1 Module 5 covers systems of equations and the tasks I could use could be pulled from there. If a student misses a day of classes or a parent wants to see what they have been working on they could go online and look at it themselves. I also think that having a class website would be good to have so that parents can look at that. I would provide past homework assignments, notes, future homework assignments, and contact info. I understand that not all families are going to have access to a computer so these things will be available in other ways as well.
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Image 5: When I give my students a group assignment that doesn't mean that I am going to be sitting at my desk. I am going to be walking around to see how they are doing and ask questions to see their thought process. This will be another way for me to assess where my students are at with understanding.
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Image 1: http://aplacetothrive.blogspot.com/2013/09/classroom-reveal.html
Image 2: http://everybodyisageniusblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/classroom-expectations.html
Image 3: http://msbrownnobullteacher.com/wordpress/talking-out/
Image 4: http://yorkvilleschools.blogspot.com/2012/10/yorkville-high-school-math-thinking-to.html
Image 5: http://www.tbo.com/news/education/hillsborough-art-classes-adopt-common-core-approach-20140309/
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