Let’s take this blog for a spin…

After lurking and Tweeting in the mathtwitterblogosphere (MTBoS) for just over a year, I’ve decided to push myself to reflect and grow through blogging.  I’ve been wanting to jump in for some time, but just didn’t think I’d have much to offer after taking a position out of the classroom last year.  So when it came time to talk about this year’s assignment I did something a little different; I asked to stay in my special assignment (80%) and also to teach one period of 6th grade math (20%).  Much to my delight, my proposal was accepted and yesterday I started the school year with 32 gifted and high-achieving 6th graders.  With an alternating day block schedule, it’s less crazy than it might seem…I go to the office every morning and then every other day I leave at 1pm to teach my 100-minute class.

Part of my special assignment is to help my district with the transition to CCSS in Math.  With that in mind I have several goals for this year, most stemming from ideas shared by other math bloggers for whom I have amazing respect:

1. Make sure the students are doing most of the talking, thinking, and working.  This is something our county office is hitting hard with administrators and teachers alike.  As teachers, we can’t work harder than the students and expect them to learn.  To accomplish this, I plan on the students doing a ton of group problem-solving this year.  I’m excited to use the 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions to guide my work with the students.  I’ve also invested in some 24×32 showerboard panels for groups to use as whiteboards when they explore problems.
2. Be less helpful.  So many of my students have learned to be helpless.  They don’t get it.  They don’t know where to start.  They have no idea if their answer is reasonable or not.  And these are high-ability learners.  Not any more.  I can’t continue to feed this disease of apathy and feebleness.
3. Move towards standards-based grading.  I’ve questioned the meaning of class grades for some time, realizing that there are always students who manage to earn As, even though I know they don’t understand the content at the highest levels.  There are also those amazingly intelligent kids who ace tests after being absent for three days straight.  How can I convince my colleagues to stop giving points for Kleenex donations because it doesn’t represent mastery if my system doesn’t seem to be consistent, either?  (I would have SBG as a solid goal, but my school is a letter grade institution.)

I’m excited to get some feedback from the greater math community, even though I’m a bit nervous to open up and share more about my teaching than I ever have before.  So, welcome and thanks for visiting.  I look forward to your responses.