Day: February 18, 2010

Topic Lists!

Central to who I am as a teacher is the notion that I have clear, consistent, and fair expectations [1]. The teacher I admire most at my school showed me that it can work, if done right. I’m sure at some point I’ll write about that when I craft my current philosophy of teaching. Which is, well, not now.

Now, I want to share with you something my department head does with her classes, and this year I’ve stolen it for my Algebra II and Calculus classes.

Topic Lists.

These are lists of everything students are expected to know going into an assessment. I write them up and distribute them on our review days. Here’s an example of one I handed out in Algebra II:

And here’s one from Calculus:

I will admit that at first, I was against doing this. I think it is the students’ responsibility to learn how to study in my class. To learn how to organize the information we’ve learned and create his or her own study plan. And my first thought: HANDHOLDING! CODDLING! PSHAW!

But you know what? I teach the non-accelerated classes. My kids don’t know yet how to organize all that we’ve learned. And things are much harder because I don’t teach out of the textbook. I use the book as a supplement, and (at least in Algebra II) I jump around in it a lot. A LOT. A LOT A LOT A LOT. And I use a lot of my own worksheets, and only assign textbook homework about half the time. So the course is necessarily confusing because the information isn’t all in one place.

For that reason, I feel comfortable giving them these topic lists.

What I like about them is that students know if they’re ready to take an assessment. The can just go through the list, topic by topic, and see if they know how to do that sort of problem. I always tell my kids that the assessment will have no surprises. They know what’s going to be on it. And heck, they SHOULD know what’s going to be on it. With these topic lists, I’m giving clear, consistent, and fair expectations. You know what’s remarkable about it? KID’S LOVE IT. They love organized teachers who are clear and consistent about what they want. [2]

Hey, I know, I know. It’s nothing like the “skills based assessment” that Dan Meyer and his offspring have adopted. But having a list of skills for my students to look at when preparing for my regular assessments is helpful for them. Heck, it’s going to be super useful for me because next year to see exactly what I taught this year, in some sort of codified and consistent form.

[1] The expectations have to also be reasonable and I have to provide the resources to achieve them.

[2] I don’t know if I would give topic lists to my kids if I were teaching the accelerated tracks. I feel if you’re in an accelerated track, I expect you to know how to study. Also, topic lists would probably be less useful because the problems I’d probably include on exams would be ones that force students to think a little outside of the box, and to synthesize information in a slightly different way than they’ve seen before. The topic lists couldn’t account for those kinds of questions, without giving them away.

A letter preserved: where I thought I would be

I did a summer program at Collegiate (a fancy private school in Manhattan) after my first year of teaching. Let’s see, that must have been in June 2008. On the very last day of the program we were asked to write a letter to ourselves, which would be mailed a year later. We were supposed to write some goals down.

Mine letter was mailed to me in June 2009, as promised one year later. I didn’t open it until today, on February 17, 2010. (I was scared to see if I had lived up to who I hoped to be when I wrote the letter.) What I wrote then… it’s a fascinating read.

Dear Sam-in-the-future,

These things are always pretty corny — write to your future selves. But whatever, I have 30 minutes and nothing really to do but this. I’ve just finished the Collegiate Summer Teaching Institute (“new teacher boot camp”) which came on the heels of my first year of teaching. Since it’s summer and I haven’t yet had a day to myself yet, I can say I’m exhausted and ready to return home to Brooklyn.

I can say that after this first year, I’m exhausted but not burned out. My enthusiasm about teaching is still there, as is my creativity (althought I don’t really have to time to think through or actualize my ideas). At CSTI, I got to create a lesson on Matrices, which I did using Facebook and social networks as an example. Meera R. and Antonio W. suggested I develop a unit on it and present it at NCTM. So, with that said, here are some goals I hope you’ve achieved or are on your way to achieving by the end of your next year.

*Join SFJC [Student Faculty Judiciary Committee] or FSAC [Faculty and Staff Advisory Committee]
*Successfully integrate the Algebra II video project in the classroom
*Go to the People of Color Conference (if only for networking)
*Start the non-fiction journal at Packer
*Look into attending the Exeter math teacher conference next summer
*Keep current with my teaching blog
*Talk to people and look seriously into becoming a tech integrator
*Come up with a really solid, investigation-based, computer-loving Multivariable Calculus curriculum
*Finish that damn Calculus curriculum map (ha!)

Just remember — because nobody really tells me this outright — that I am a good teacher. I work hard, I have the instincts, and I can break mathematical concepts down. Don’t let anyone sell me short, and don’t stay at Packer because of loyalty (stay because it is still an amazing place to work), and don’t leave just because I want more money.

Here’s to hoping next year is slightly less exhausing as this year was!

Heart,

Gotta love it. I haven’t achieved all my goals, but I did accomplish a lot on the list. I am a member of both the SFJC and FSAC. I seriously investigated starting the non-fiction journal at my school, but the English and History departments weren’t really gung ho about it, so I had to give it up. I did go to the Exeter conference the following summer (which was amazing, by the way). Heck, I am still writing this dang blog! And I have come up with a pretty dang solid Multivariable Calculus curriculum, which is based on problem sets, but it is definitely not “computer-loving” yet.

One thing that still holds true: My enthusiasm about teaching is still there, as is my creativity (althought I don’t really have to time to think through or actualize my ideas).

We’ll see where my career goes in the future. It’s fun to see where I hoped I’d be when I wrote this a year and a half ago, versus where I am now.

PS. If you want to get a flavor of the Matrices thing that I created, I blogged about it ages ago, but I think this was a much more rough form than what I crafted at the summer program. I think I have a much better and more updated version, if anyone who is teaching matrices wants to see it. Just put something in the comments and I’ll see if I can’t dig it up.