Renewed Approach

So as it was, my students weren't going to be able handle project based learning.  With attendance being the main issue, trying to have groups that are consistent is challenging.  I have restructured the way I've approached my lessons.

Over the past quarter, I noticed that the students want to be in charge of their learning.  If I were to go up to the board and try something traditional, you would see heads go down within a minute.  Not that I'm that boring, but that's what probably landed them in my school in the first place.  These students want to be doing something at all times.  Note taking from my lectures is not "doing something" apparently.  I think there is something beneficial to group discussion and I'll come back to that in a moment.

I have put my students on a computer based learning program.  Attached to all the lessons are quizzes to show some sort of mastery.  The kids get the instant feedback that they seek and are constantly doing something.  This is where it gets pretty cool.  I have given them a pace at which they need to follow and complete X amount of lessons in a certain amount of time.  I have also associated GAMES with about 1/2 of the lessons in which they to complete a level in which I have established.  I am now able to walk around the classroom and sit with students and give them one on one tutoring.  If they show they have not mastered the lesson after taking the online quiz, I review with them how to do the particular problems, and then have associated worksheets that they are to complete before they get credit for that lesson.

The best part about this is that the students are now working at their own pace.  Although I have to put a certain pace to the class, (because of SOL's), it allows them to concentrate on their weaknesses and fly through their strengths.

My goals are these:

• Have students who show mastery help out others that may struggle in small groups
• Use the beginning of class to have the students work out in groups a real - life problem that either teaches them something new or uses some of their old skills.  This will be about 15 minutes at the beginning.  Then discuss some of the techniques they could have used from the things they learned.
• Have students BLOG about their new learnings after each section that they complete.
• Connect concepts to the real world
• Review challenges etc.....
• Create projects (like the things we are learning in class) that will bring the majority of the concepts together.

My Head Hurts

JASON THINKING

So, I'm sitting here trying to think of a webquest...................................and sitting....................................and sitting..................................you get the point.  I've never designed one before, but I've used them.  I've also seen a ton of webquests out there for graphing lines for algebra and so I knew I didn't want to do that.  In fact, most people attack that area of the subject when creating online tools.  It's good because that is an important part of the curriculum, but the focus of these lines usually is on the same thing, slope and y intercept.  Whatever, I'm not going to do that anyway.  Well, here I am thinking of something a bit more ambitious.  Unfortunately, this is where my brain always takes me.  I don't want to reinvent the wheel, I always seem to want to invent the wheel.

I'm now thinking of the area of algebra that I want to learn more about, but also want the students to understand.  The area of quadratics.  In taking a test this week on linear systems, I used a webquest that focus on buying a car that would be most efficient.  I had one of the students say to me, "I didn't know this is what these things were for".  It dawned on me that we hadn't covered the word problems or real world scenarios in that particular class because of time restraints.  We only went through process.  I figured at that moment, I would make sure that I apply the concept of real world at the beginning.  It's really not hard to understand the mathematics and what it means, it is hard to actually recreate the algebra behind all of the data collection and graphs.

AND NOW my quest begins.  A quadratic problem that would give the students a good idea of what they are doing at the beginning of me actually having them learn the processes.

Thus far, my first problem was to take all of the ideas in my head and focus on something that they would find interesting.  After looking at some of the word problems that others had posted I've settled on traffic accidents.  Students will look at different demographic areas such as age vs. AA members, texting vs. age, cell phone calls vs. age, age vs. accidents.  I think that I will have appropriate links for them to find the information, but I haven't found anything great, but I've found the information.  Now, I'm stuck on the Introduction.  Do I go with a game show theme or do I go with helping out a family member letter?  UGH!!!!! Ultimately, I would like them to be able to write a letter to someone that actually could use this information to help apply laws.  If my students were able to make a change, that would be pretty cool.  Since my little part in class was to look at the collaboration, I thought this was a great idea.  So I have definitely included that as part of the quest.

The hardest part of this is in making sure that if I actually want to use this, I've found myself doing a lot of research on quality websites.  Again, I've found the information, but I would like for them to actually have to use some sort of database or something to have to search for it, not really just read an article and collect the info out of it.

And so it is, my head hurts.

My Dilemma

Well, grades came out, and as arbitrary as they are, they were not good .  I had one on one discussions with all of my students and 90% of them felt that their grade was accurate based on their efforts and the amount of work that they completed.  This leads me to my dilemma.

In my school, the biggest obstacle that we are up against is truancy.  If I had to guess, about half of the students have a P.O. (parole officer) and are being monitored by the court system.  Another good portion of students attend, but are unmotivated, and a small percentage needed a different environment to thrive.  With that said, we went through the quarter, where I put together great lessons that incorporated multiple disciplines and sometimes, multiple topics within the subject of Algebra.  The students were 100% engaged.  Learning through collaboration and creativity.  The thing is, these lessons were great!!...............for the few that showed up regularly.  It was the majority of students who would be absent for 2 or 3 days in a row or absent 1 day here the next ( and then trying to figure out what the hell was going on), and gone the next day.  The thought provoking lessons that were put together, a lot of the time, were a bust because the students would not show some or all of the time allotted.  Before they knew it, we were on to the next topic in class, and my part time students were barely getting off their feet on the previous topics.

This causes me to really doubt the approach of project based learning for my type of student.  I've always wanted to do it and finally, this year, I did.  Now, I'm highly disappointed with the results.  Some students have argued that they are not used to learning this way and they are too conditioned to learn a new way.  Is that true?  Should I not try to give them a glimpse of the future?  I can definitely say that I am one of few in our school that approaches learning through authentic problems.  Unfortunately, swimming against the current is exhausting in such a tough subject.  It's not that the support is not at the school, it just wears you down having to explain to the students, all of the time, why they need these skills when there is next to none preaching these same principles with me.  Again, not because they don't agree, but only because this is not how they practice their subject, so most of this is foreign to the kids.

So, where am I now?  I have gone back into my shell and am using technology to simply redistribute information through technology rather than use it to educate students on how to seek their own knowledge.  They are having more success because all of the lessons are in individual sections (because it's math) and the students can easily see what topic they have missed when they don't come to school, but it's simply not realistic to how they will work outside of school.

NOOOOWWWWW back to the drawing board.  They are learning on a self paced program which I am able to get around the room and individually help them.  They are collaborating on an ongoing notes document in Google Docs for those that miss class.  They are learning through games.  They are getting practice from these things and worksheets, but nothing authentic.  They have the means to communicate with the class or myself if they are out.  They can always see what assignments they have turned in and not turned in and retrieve any documents they may need.  So maybe, I will only have the authenticity be thrown in on a formal assessment.  It may be too demanding for this population to be able to handle projects that take 4 or 5 days to complete?????  I truly believe that the authentic approach is the way to go.  I haven't been asked once this year, "when are we ever going to use this"?  Something must be going right in that sense.  Now it is just time to find a balance.

Suggestions appreciated. :0)