One of the benefits I reap from working with the Park City Mathematics Institute (PCMI) is that I find out about blogs (and other resources!) that the participants have. This morning a 2011 Secondary School Teachers Program (SSTP) participant alerted me to her new blog. She’s named her blog Pi Crust | An accomplished novice wonders about the challenges of depth over breadth. Cool name but also an intriguing short description. I was enticed to read! Her entry about Mr. Benson reminded me of an idea I used in my middle school classroom a little more than a decade ago.
Before I describe that idea…here’s a little background.
Memory 1: Between 1995 and 2000 I attended several Math Forum Summer Institutes where I was introduced to the idea of starting each Institute day with Connections. “Connections is a time when individuals in a group gather to focus, collect, and even share thoughts.” During one of those scheduled reflection times I remember thinking about the importance of celebration in the classroom. I wondered to myself what could I start in my classroom to celebrate learning. Could I create a celebration that was long enough to create the feeling that I wanted to achieve but not so long that I would be hesitant to use it?
Memory 2: Going in to my first Math Forum Summer Institute, tessellations were a passion of mine. At that point in my classroom teaching career I was teaching computers (and Newspaper) and had developed a tessellation lesson for the students to learn more about HyperCard but I couldn’t resist having them experience some math while they did that!
So…back to my celebration idea. What I thought of doing was use my love of tessellations, the circular physical arrangement from Connections, and woven through it the valuing of both the individual and the group. I bought two sets of Escher Foam Lizards puzzles — each piece is about 3 inches in length. I still have the puzzles — here’s a photo of some of the pieces that I arranged on my desk just now:
In my mind the students (there were 31 in that class!) would stand in a circle each holding one lizard puzzle piece. In the middle of the circle there would be a table and the students would quietly place their pieces one-by-one on the table and together the puzzle would be completed. Ten students have placed their pieces:
If you are a middle school teacher reading this (and, in particular, work in a Title 1 school with a challenging population, as I did) you may be thinking — did she really DO that! Did it take a day to pull it off? Good grief!
I’ll be honest. No, I never managed to do it. One challenge was that my classroom was a computer lab and while I had managed to arrange things so that the tables/computers were in clusters, there still just wasn’t enough floor space to have anything close to a circle. I think if I had started in September with a small activity to work up to this culminating celebration, by February or March it might have started working…but…I didn’t do that. And, the next year I had left the classroom.
But, I still LOVE the idea and reading Allison’s blog this morning brought all of the memories back of why I think celebration, valuing, and creating both individual strength and group strength in a classroom has such value.
Thanks for posting this! It reminded me of a moment I had recently, helping a group of college students who were learning to be math mentors for middle-school students. I was modeling an interaction for them and one of them noticed, with great surprise, that I was valuing and celebrating each student’s contribution… even when it seemed “wrong” on the surface. But I found something to celebrate about each thing.
What surprised me was I didn’t exactly realize I was doing anything special. I have trained myself (cognitively) to look for the kernel of good thinking and understanding in kids’ work and that was showing through to the future mentors as (emotionally) valuing and celebrating the kids as thinkers.
I thought that was neat!
“Celebration of learning” I like that concept. It has the potential of developing the “we” community of learners. I would like to think that I do it all the time but I am sure there could be a more intentional focus. I love the foam puzzle pieces.
Glenys, I know that you’ve experienced “Connections” when attending a Math Forum Institute. While it’s not a celebration per se, it is definitely different from a regular Institute interaction. Steve sets the tone of what the purpose is and there are different behavior expectations during Connections than at other times. For me one of the purposes is to encourage reflection.
If you think of a “celebration of learning” as a different interaction than what regularly happens in the classroom, how would you organize it? How would you set the tone at the beginning of the year? How often would you hold the celebration? How would it help develop the “we” community of learners? …, thank you for that description — I love your phrase!
i had not thought of it but you are correct in stating that a tone should be set at the beginning of the year. To start the year with routines helps in their maintenance through out the year. The connections concept would work. Having a daily reflections of who helped me in my learning today or how was I able to help a class member today. I need to think on this, it has the intentional focus that I was refering to.
Thanks Suzanne,
Glenys