But I'm also feeling like a horrible teacher, so I'm asking for help. Here's my situation:
I teach in a rural high school with a stellar reputation. We have about 1300 students, 87 of which are mine this semester. I teach three 80-minute periods of math II (check out the awesome way NC has broken up the high school CCSS http://maccss.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Math+II+Standards), one of which is an honors course. And we are 1:1 MacBooks.
This is my first year teaching high school, so in my room so far we've started with a warm up each day (estimation180, visual patterns, mobiles, factoring/order of operations practice, and WODB), we then review the warm up and any questions they have on their homework (they have 5 questions each night, 3 of which are interleaved from previous days/weeks/months). Then I introduce a new topic (usually lecture- so far we've looked at quadratics in standard and vertex forms, factoring, and every way of finding zeros), go through 3-6 examples, then they do an exit ticket. This takes up the whole 80 minutes and it's common to run out of time.
The students are constantly saying they don't understand, but when I talk/plan with a fellow math teacher she's saying I'm making it as simple as I can. Out of my almost 90 students, about half are hardcore failing (like 30% or less), and I let them do corrections on everything as well as use an index card of info on quizzes/tests.
So, I see all these awesome ideas on Twitter and blogs, and wonder when people have the time to do these things. I'm literally introducing at least one new topic each day, and my students are struggling to keep up. Any ideas on how I can restructure my class to have time for these application/interactive activities? I want them to understand the concepts as well as see how this applies to anything beyond the mandated standards. I don't want to be a mediocre teacher anymore :(
Just like every classroom around the world, some of your students are not going to be able to go beyond the basics, and some of them will be ready to move forward and deeper into the topics. One thing I see is that you are spending a lot of time trying to cover too many bases. Instead of spending so much time reviewing homework, you can create screencasts in Explain Everything (like Khan academy videos) that students can use to review concepts they struggle with. Post the answers to the homework along with the videos so students can see them while doing practice work.
ReplyDeleteInstead of so many warm-up problems, consider only using problems that directly relate to what you're about to introduce. Put them in small groups to solve these problems - put the top students in a different group with a problem(s) that will challenge them.
The common theme in your class is you are trying to do too much, and not allowing your students to drive the bus. When students are doing the work ahead of time, you have more time to answer their questions and get them back on track.
Your other choice on HW is to utilize videos and other tools to introduce the new concept, so when students get to class you can answer questions and clarify by having them do practice problems related to the concept. I think you are just trying to do too much to carry them to the finish line. Make them run the race, and figure out what they need to fix along the way.