A definite highlight of this past week was putting on a party for the math class for their outstanding scores on the NWEA testing. The kids were stoked on getting some pizza, pop, cake, and ice cream. One girl brought in her guitar and played covers of any song new and old and even broke out some Nirvana for me. The girl is one that you would think is an outcast but she definitely connects with everyone. It was good to see after all the testing that the kids were able to celebrate their success together and realize that their hard work payed off. The kids were impressed that I knew every song they did and they remembered that I'm not old! I hope as time goes on that I don't distance myself and to know what makes kids click.
Something that made me think a little differently was out of those scores, one student who is having his first full inclusion year improved 42 points while the class average was 15 points. It just proved to me how much including students with their peers motivates a kid to succeed. His behavior has been a complete 360 degree turn around as the previous year he was constantly getting into fights. This year zero. A kid like this motivates me to really try and improve on differentiated instruction and one aspect of that is letting students know that they can teach one another. I'm only able to teach a concept so many ways but students can add their own perspective that might make something click.
A strategy that I want to implement is project based learning. I've gotten a taste of this method in our chemistry unit as it has built upon itself in academic language and in referring back to 9 substances. I think this has helped students make connections to prior knowledge to help explain what is happening in the reactions they are seeing now. I would try to extend this unit by providing an end goal and to let students help plan how to reach that goal or essential question. For a chemistry unit like this I could see looking at a car engine and explaining how a car runs based upon the combustion reactions. They would have to explain the properties of the elements involved and how to write out the reactions. Of course I would want to see overall what student interests are and tailor the project to different groups.
A perplexing situation that occurred was dealing with all male lab groups. The seventh period class has a high ratio of boys versus girls and it does affect behavior. When one boy gets going it can get the rest of them going, combine that with chemicals and cool reactions, it can become a safety issue. I have found myself being more stern with them and letting them no that they get no extra chances in lab. Overall, they have become more responsive to my authority and know when it's alright to joke around as well. My cooperating teacher is really good at this and it keeps learning on track.
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