Great success with Mistakes

Some of the best moments of the school year have been those during which I can stand back, watch my students, and actually see their curiosity, engagement, or determination while trying to solve a problem. These moments have definitely been few and far between, but in the last week I stumbled upon one of the best instances of this that I've seen all year.

I've been thinking for a while that I needed to incorporate some type of practice in my classroom involving "proofreading" math work. After all... editing paragraphs in English class is a very common lesson plan, why can't it work in Math? So, last week, bravely scheduled for the day that I was being observed by my Teach for America program director, I copied mistakes from the most recent quiz onto transparencies, made up a graphic organizer and proceeded full steam into a new classroom activity. It was a HUGE success! The lesson was not focused on simply correcting the mistakes, but identifying them, describing/analyzing them, and concluding each little mistake with a statement or rule that would prevent the students from doing the same thing in the future. At no point did we actually say "The answer should have been this..." That was implied by all of the other analysis. (If anybody is interested in the graphic organizer, I would be very excited to share it with you!)

During this lesson I saw the "problem-solving spark" that I have lamented the absence of all year. As I moved from one example to the next on the board, uncovering each on the overhead with a little played up fanfare, I didn't need to remind students to pay attention, keep their head up, or not talk to their neighbors. They were intent on finding the mistakes on their own. When I asked the analytical questions following this, instead of getting blank stares I got really thoughtful answers - some of which I had never thought of myself. These attitudes toward this mistake activity have continued to be positive this week as they have used the same organizer to analyze mistakes they were making on their own. "Ms. Breeden... I've been making the same mistake on all of these, I just need to remember this..." It's been great.

There are a couple of different things I can take from this experience... First, with the analysis of the mistakes I asked my students to move up Bloom's taxonomy and they responded amazingly. Why have I not been doing this all along?? Their previous boredom with the material is not necessarily a result something intrinsic, but a result of them not being pushed to the higher levels of understanding that inspire motivation and curiosity. The second realization comes from what I've seen this week... after being pushed to the higher level, almost every student has shown mastery of the topic this week. In addition to that, about half the students (much more than normal) have been successful at taking this knowledge and applying it to different, more challenging problems. (Problems that are even a step beyond NM state standards!) Maybe they're just a little smarter this week, maybe I did a great job of explaining something, but I think it's more an issue of them finally being challenged and pushed. My expectations have not been high enough so far, but maybe this experience will get me a little closer.

I can't take your attitude

As a very young female teacher, I worried a lot about getting respect. Some of my students are within a couple years of me; if I met them under different circumstances, they would be my peers. How am I supposed to act as an authority figure under those conditions? This thought has constantly come up throughout my first year of teaching. What I'm guessing, however, is that this like so many other negative attitudes within the classroom, this thought quickly becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. If I think that for whatever reason I deserve or instantaneously gain less respect from the students than other teachers, that's exactly what's going to happen. Or at least, that better be the way it works because if I truly don't have any control over this situation, I'm just not sure what I'll do...

There have been a handful of situations this year, in which I have had difficult conflicts with older female students. These conflicts have inevitably included a lot of teenage attitude and have made me feel very uncomfortable. The first conflict came last semester when I had a very intelligent white girl in one of my classes who did not like me or respect the way I did things. I would try to address it by hearing her out, listening to her as I would listen to a peer or a colleague, and reasoning from there. That just seemed to fuel the fire and she convinced the administration to let her transfer out of my class by the end of the year. While I should be above the petty, "she doesn't like me... she thinks I'm a bad teacher" type of stuff, I'm not. This was, of course, the reason the situation was so challenging.

The current issue I'm having involves a handful of senior girls who do not like me in the classroom or at track practice. I tell them to do their throwing drills - they whine and complain disrespectfully then run to the head coach for support. I tell them that they can't be late to my class - they manipulate another teacher into writing them a pass to be late then whine and complain under their breath as I write them up anyway. It's definitely not an easy situation, but it is made worse by the fact that I let them bother me.

I let myself get caught up in the immature, irrational emotions of high schoolers. I let them make me feel uncomfortable in my classroom, the hallways, or at the track. As an educated adult woman who has a handful of significant accomplishments under her belt - especially at such a young age - I should be so far above this. Right now I just don't feel like I have enough distance to be truly above it though, and I don't know how to rationalize everything to get myself there without putting the students down. I need to balance a respect for where they are right now with the knowledge that I don't have to be a part of it. I guess working with these challenging personalities is not really that different than working with challenging people in any other professional setting. Sometimes though, it just feels like high school again. If anybody has any tips for me, please send them my way. Everyone remembers what 16 year old girls are like...