Change is Inevitable

Those of you who know me or have gotten to know me through this blog wouldn’t be surprised to read that in the back of my mind, I teach with the philosophy “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” I stopped writing in journals when I went off to college, but I am constantly reflecting on my teaching and how lessons are received.

If my students struggle on certain units or lessons, I ask myself, “What do I need to change in order to help them grasp the concept?”

I don’t play the blame game.

To meet the needs of my students, my curriculum is forever evolving. I am always tweaking or changing something from year to year. This has put a strain on my family because the time commitment it takes to search for different, better ideas and then to mesh it with the other lessons in the unit. My husband realized early on that I couldn’t teach any other way and is supportive. Luckily he’s there to keep me on track when I stray off too far.

One of my biggest challenges the past couple of years has been the lesson on how change of dimensions affects perimeter, area, and volume. All of us here have tried to improve this lesson one way or another. CSISD’s 8th grade teachers committed three days to the concept and Laura had revamped the lessons and assignments to align with one another. Much to my dismay, 95% of my students this year still struggled with this.

Carnegie Learning is currently working on producing lessons on change in dimensions. It should be ready for the national edition of their middle school curriculum. Until then, I am asking for your help. Do you have any suggestions? Do you mind sharing? I’ve searched online and haven’t found much. NASA put something out in 2004 in conjunction with their Personal Satellite Assistant robot. I haven’t had a chance to delve into it yet to see if it’s feasible to implement. Because direct instruction hasn’t worked, I am looking for a discovery lesson where students must be able to generalize the concept for themselves after they’ve done some kind of hands-on activity. Am I asking too much? I hope to hear from some of you out there!