Task 5

When I decided to do my searches for "active engagement" I added high school math to my searches. Being a math teacher I read many good articles that sound great but then have trouble applying them to an upper level math course. As many of us may remember our days in math class, teacher lectures shows so examples and assigns problems. I have to admit I have fallen into that trap at times, is it hard to do something new and find a new way when there is very little support of it. So when I do searches I try to find good articles that I can apply to my classroom. The article I read, Struggling Helps Students Master Math by Bernice Yeung, really had me thinking. Help students by making them feel frustrated, doesn't seem to make sense. The more I thought about it the more it made me realize what I like about math. Some of you may have done the Sudoku in the paper, and I love the ones that really make me think. Even though I might it frustrated and even have to go back and erase parts the satisfaction I get by completing it is what makes me want to do another one. In math class I never really thought of challenging the students to that extreme point. As a teacher this can be a great way to involve the students and get them engaged in word problems. Give them questions that will challenge them beyond the normal drill and practice problems. As a teacher it can be hard at times watching them really struggle but this is when I need to step back and let them work it out on their own. There also have been times in class where I purposely make a common mistakes to see when the students catch it, and so they can see how a little error can lead to an incorrect answer.

The video I watched was Developing Minds: Learning How to Rebuild a Town- The UrbanPlan Project. This video discussed a project which seemed to cover several classes, math, economics and government. Engaging students within your classroom is a great way for students to master content, but once students see how subjects overlap then a new understanding can develop. As a math teacher there are several standards that can relate to different styles of art and also to most science classrooms. Of course it takes a lot of extra planning but being able to create projects that cross into other subjects is an excellent way for students to see how standards tie together. In Algebra I students need to solve equations, and in chemistry students need to balance atoms within elements. By teaching these two concepts together students can see their relevance, but taught individually the standards seem too abstract.

In Larry Ferlazzo's blog he has a post titled When Are Teenagers in the "Flow"? In his post he discuss how teenagers learn best when they are active in the learning. They are easily distracted during lecture type lessons. The article really is focused on how many social studies classes are lecture based. He states that art classes are the extreme of student guided classes, but also that an art class may not be rigor enough. Ferlazzo feels that most experiment based science classes represent the perfect balance between lecture and student lead instruction. I feel the math classes can fall into this category as long as their in time for the students to experiment their own hypothesis and have opportunity to fail and learn from their mistakes.