Engagement takes a little change in scenary

I continue to try changing the way I do things. Trying very hard to limit the time I spend at the front of the room. Its not always possible.

Yesterday i was teaching year 13 stats class about solving simultaneous equations. This is a alternative class so students range in ability and intrinsic motivation. I did a fairly traditional period of teaching around this because these students really need the basic ability to follow a procedure when solving. Some students got it but many struggled and shut down. Today I wrote down 5 questions on sticky notes and placed them on my wall white board, my interactive board and , and 2 small mobile whiteboards. I gave them pens, told them to work in 2s or 3s and complete 3 of the 5 questions..some did all of them.. I was able to go around and coach the group that was really struggling but the change in engagement was exponential. Those students who sat in chairs yesterday blinking continually, were up and writing.

It was very unstructured a bit chaotic but very enjoyable...and the girls came away with a lot more confidence that they could in fact do this. Sometimes its just a little change, a subtle, low tech hack that can be very effective.

Vulnerablility leads to Powerful Learning Moments

So the other day I was having a math lesson similar to so many . I was at the front of the room we were engaging with an excellence level question on discriminates when a funny thing happened. The students were struggling so I jumped in to rescue as I always do. I hadn't done the question in a while and I got the wrong answer. I  had made a mistake along the way and initially I couldn't find it.

I heard some murmuring and could feel the uncomfortable shifting of students. I could hear their silent voices saying, she can't do the question, so how can I do it?

It's a difficult place to be as a teacher you are suppose to be the expert, everything mathematical should be easy to you, you are  completely exposed. Your brain is screaming with tales of lack of preparation and lack of expertise. And then something amazing begins to happen. We start to have a discussion, the students start to lead that discussion. We work together to  find the mistake.

The room becomes a collective of humans searching for a solution and trying to find meaning. They help others understand what happened and where the work should go. I step back , take a deep breath and let go of my ego and realise what is happening and move with it. When we are finished, my image as "the expert " may be tarnished, but the students understanding of a difficult question is completely cemented in most students brain. There are still some rumblings of discontent at the uncomfortableness of not having someone at the front who can rescue them from confusion but I realise what just happened is ten times more powerful then if I had smoothly jumped in and rescued them. They would never have seen the pitfall , the potential errors, grasped the  understanding of what lead to the error in the first place.

This not the first time this has happened, I am not a trained maths teacher, I am a person that over time has evolved into this role. It often requires hours of sitting down with content and learning the skills myself . I have  at times found this to be both a blessing and a curse, but it enables me to work with great empathy and to understand what a growth mindset is all about. I am a poster child of that growth mind set, something to be proud of, and something to continue to encourage in my students.

What at one time I would have identified this as a "bad lesson", became this powerful epiphany of learning. I am sure many students left with a sense of uncomfortableness, but I am equally sure that many students went away with a sense of empowerment and confidence that they really understood the question on a much different level.

So I think the next step will be to have a conversation around that experience and have them discuss that situation as a learning model and as a model that sets them up for life after high school. There will seldom be that " expert" willing to rescue, so what will you do then?