I have not blogged for a while and this post is about six eleven weeks overdue. On the first day of school I do the marshmallow challenge with my grade 12 classes. I do not know who deserves credit for this activity (if someone knows, please pass that along) but it's a great team-building exercise that requires collaboration to be completed in the time allowed.
I hand out cards to organize students into random groups. They start by introducing themselves to their teammates. I then have the groups brainstorm ideas before the clock starts. And then the fun begins. I love watching them try strategies and listening to their conversations. Inevitably they frantically try to finish before the time runs out only to see their structure tilt over when they place the (surprisingly heavy) marshmallow on top. I measure the towers to determine a winning group, but it's really not about winning.
What I did differently this year, which is really what I wanted to share, was to ask debrief questions after the activity that mirror the great things I see during the activity. I wanted them to think about how collaborating can help a group reach a goal. How it is important to listen and to talk and that it is important that everyone in the group is engaged. You can find the questions I asked here - I looked at ones that others have asked to get ideas so thanks to all those who have shared in the past. I want to focus on a small, but important part. I start by having them fill in this table:
Firstly, they needed to know the names of their teammates. Secondly, they needed to say something complimentary about each of their teammates who are often people that they have never really interacted with before. And they did. They did such a good job. They all found things that their teammates did well. This was important to me because I believe all my students bring positive things to my class. And that along with learning math, we will learn how to be good, kind citizens.
Today was the first day of the new school year. Last semester I blogged daily about my grade 10 applied experience as I was spiralling through the curriculum with activities for the first time. I don't plan on blogging daily again, but really do feel that it helped me reflect about my practice, which I believe is really important and often neglected aspect of our profession. So my plan is to blog when I do something that I think is interesting, however often that is.
In Ontario, most schools are semestered so we teach the same students every day for half the year, then get a new crop of kids in February. We see each of 3 classes for 75 minutes and have a 75 minute prep period each day (when we are not supervising or covering someone else's class). This semester I have MHF4U (grade 12 advanced functions), MPM2D (grade 10 academic math) and MFM2P (grade 10 applied math) first semester.
At the end of last year, one of the cards I got from a graduating student said something to the effect of "I will never forget the first day of math class in September". At the time I read it, I had no idea what we had done back on September 3rd! I did figure it out though - we did the Marshmallow Challenge. And we did it again today in MHF4U! I stole this from someone (thanks and I'm sorry I don't remember who you are). I put students in random groups of (mostly) 4 and gave each group a large whiteboard.
I actually gave them 20 minutes to build as I remember time being really tight last year. Here are some of the final products. These are the sturdiest ones:
and here is the winner:
It was really interesting to watch them interact and I loved hearing the numerous "What if we ...". I was impressed with their efforts and collaboration. We also talked about mindset and learning from mistakes. It was a good first class.
Next up, grade 10 academic. I have done the "Don't Lose Your Marble" activity on the first day of MPM2D for ever (well, almost). Students have to find the relationship between the height of a ramp and the distance a marble will roll. I like this activity because I think it gives students a chance to remember something about linear relationships in a low pressure situation. (Note: I know that it is actually a quadratic relationship and I will tell them that tomorrow. For the small data set that they collect, a linear model works quite well.) They work in groups and help each other remember things like dependent & independent variables, slope, etc. And I get to observe them which is a great way to start to get to know them. I plan on doing many more activities with this class this year so we are off to a good start.
Last period of the (very hot) day was grade 10 applied. The girls all sat together and the boys did the same. I moved a few people around to even out the groups. We talked a bit about spiralling and the fact that we will be working through a lot of activities, which was met with a positive response. Then I gave them Fawn's Noah's Ark problem to work on in groups. I think my next comment is a reflection of why many of these kids are in the applied (vs. academic) math. It is like they have have the curiosity zapped out of them. It is sad that they gave up so easily, or tried to. That they did not want to solve the problem. That they thought they were not smart enough to solve the problem. I continued to encourage them and kept saying "Convince me!" when they came up with an answer. I tried to point out some of the good strategies they were using and nudged them in the right direction if they were really stuck. No one finished the problem in class so I said there would be a prize if anyone comes in with a correct, well written up solution tomorrow. We'll see. There is always a lot of work to build up the confidence in many of the students in MFM2P. I believe they can all succeed and will work toward having them believe the same.
I did accomplish my day 1 goal: learn the names of ALL my students. Now to finish planning for day 2!
