Using Maths to develop cooperative skills

Today was an unusual attempt to use Mathematics to help develop cooperative skills. There are 11 students who need to re-do a test that they did not get 75% mark. I asked today that those that did get over that score help train those that didn't. It went well except that some of the under-achievers decided to try and help each other. However, it was good to see them at least trying to help each other.
We then spent the rest of the lesson making our own problem-solving games. Some of them came up with some excellent ideas and I look forward to getting them laminated and in boxes for others to use.

Not a day I will look back on with fondness...

Today was not a good one. I had one lesson with the class and handed back their Maths tests. Only a few of them scored the necessary 75% and so many will be re-doing the test. Some seemed to treat it as a great joke - laughing out loud when asked to call out their scores by their friends. Well, then some of the class just lost it completely. They could not get back on task. Even as I went through the test, they were still calling out and laughing at their incorrect answers.
In the end I tried to set a date for the new test, and we agreed on Monday. MeB disagreed and tried to change everyones opinion to a Wednesday - she just would not accept the idea of spending the weekend learning for the test. To cap it off, she blamed me for doing badly in the test. I got very angry with that and so probably said some things I will regret (though not too bad when I think about it).
Two lessons I learnt with this class:
Never give a test back on the last lesson on a Friday and never give it back at the beginning of a lesson.
I will also be changing the seating arrangements - because the new one does not work.
SA is concerning me greatly as he appears to be getting himself into trouble in other classes and in the yard. I have spoken to him about this - and he appears to know what the correct response is - but does not want to put it into action. There is something significantly wrong here - I know he has trouble focussing but I am concerned that he DOES know how to behave appropriately and is chosing not to. Oh, well, one for the occipital lobe.

Have decided to do a couple of things next term...

1. Write up in detail what I want students to do during the week. I don't know if this is going to work but I am sick of repeating myself and it appears (from my reading) that this vagueness of adolescents is quite expected.

2. On the same sheet get students to indicate what they are going to do for homework. Then get parents to sign it. This should get some of them off my back.

3.Visit a primary school and watch how middle-schooling should be done. At the moment I am lacking ideas and direction.

4. Summarise the key points from the interviews and then put them into an action plan for each student. We will use them next term as guide posts for behaviour.

5. Do a lot more planning in the holidays.!

C'mon holidays. Hurry up!

What a woeful day. I am not sure if I am running out of ideas or the students are just tired but it was like pulling teeth today. They could just not get into it. We are working on the sampling side of this rubbish unit - boy, oh boy where they not interested. I don't think I was either, and that was reflected in the lesson. We collected a sample of rubbish just to see what was out there and found that most of it was paper and plastic. They then had to get into their groups to come to some agreement on what information THEY were going to find and how to get it. Boy, it was hopeless: the groups were disagreeing, they were missing the (my) point and they were acting like they hadn't slept in days.
I guess we will struggle on. I needed to break up the lesson more with some active components. But, as I said in my last blog I have run out of ideas.

And the interviews go on...

Another day, another 11 interviews. They are lengthy, tiresome but worth it. I learnt a lot today about some students and very little about a few of them. Two challenges I face are: what to do with parents who want their children to have more homework and two students who have asked to be accelerated, challenged, extra work etc. It is hard to determine if the parents want it or the children.
I hope to get a chance to talk to the students at school but I don't know if I have their trust yet for them to tell me honestly how they feel. Will have to put my thinking cap on, hard!
We started looking at cooperative groups today and they spend time working out the ground rules for how each group will work. They had to agree on rules to achieve six criteria eg sharing responsibility, working out how to come to a consensus etc. They were pretty good at it and it looks like each group has a workable set of guidelines. The next step was to identify the maths skills needed to achieve the outcomes and we will use the text book to try gives us clues for this.
As you would gather, we are rapidly approaching the end of the term and my resources for writing this blog are dimishing. Roll on holidays.

Just another thought

Yesterday we also started the new unit on Rubbish. It was interesting to see that the first task was to write a 100 word expository piece outlining their thoughts on the subject. They were very unhappy about this and so we came up with a compromise where they could do the 100 words, or a diagram or a mind map. To me both the other options required a bit more thinking because they had to show what they thought rubbish was and describe why it is (or is not) a problem.
I was glad to be able to give them the option because they seemed so concerned about writing 100 words. I was amazed that they felt it was going to be so difficult.

More interviews and a shock for the students

Yesterday I had four more, indepth interviews with parents of my home class. They all went well, and a common theme throughout was how well their children had settled into school and how they were enjoying it (or it was "ok" in the words of the student). Another common theme was the lack of homework. Given that Jane and I will be providing most of it, we need to discuss how to approach this so that parents feel ok and yet we are not giving it homework for the sake of it.
Last lesson of the day, and all students recieved their Science exercise books back. I checked to see how much work they had done and many had not done much. So to recieve a detail report showing this was quite a shock for most of them. Only two students can hold their heads up high and say they did all the work required. This is ok - as long as it doesn't stay that way. I think they get the idea now that I mean business and that they must complete the work set to a good standard. The timing of the parent interviews has been great because I could point this out to the parents as well.
Now the challenge is to produce a work agreement for all three subjects that I teach so that it comprehensively covers the work they need to practice and the summative tasks. Oh well, back to the keyboard.