Take your pick!

Today, I decided to expand the students thinking a little more. Teaching Power Mechanics to 4 boys and 2 girls can prove to be challenging. Especially when each of the students comes to class with a different level of understanding of topics we are to learn about.

Today and yesterday we learned about the rotary engine. I decided instead of looking for youtube videos to show the whole class, and have them read a section in the textbook and answer some questions, to have them take control and learn about the rotary engine using their own ideas. I did provide them with the textbook so that they could look through it and find their information on their own. Part of the assignment is to see how the students cope with finding their own resources so that they can build an understanding for themselves. Many of the students chose to use youtube videos to see who the engine is built an dhow it works.

What I found interesting is how the students decided on which videos to watch. The students chose a video that had no narration, (a video I would not have picked for them to see) and used it to get most of their information from that video. (clearly shows how their learning style is different from my teaching style)


Students had to use their own words, and could pick any format to show/tell me what they understand about a rotary engine. I'm hoping that they will choose a variety of different ways, (this will also tell me what their learning preference is) and that I can learn something about them, while correcting what they know about rotary engines.

As for the Fractions lesson we started yesterday. While circulating through the groups today I made sure that each member in each of the groups was able to use the protractor, and also able to figure out how to find the angle of each piece in the different fractions. Still; the quote pertains, so far, so good.

Taking the Plunge! For the Better, hopefully.

Since the beginning of my teaching career, 3+ years ago, I have heard and thought a lot about an inquiry based approach to learning. I'm saying learning because I have found that anyone can try teach, but it is the learning that is taking place that is the key to success. Working with a small number of students may sound easy, but there are still many different ways that each of the children learn best, and the hard part of teaching has been seeing that the way that I "teach" best is not always the way that the students "learn" best. 

So I decided to be daring and try incorporating a discovery based approach where the students help each other and work towards an understanding of a topic. Preparing for a class on fractions I decided to formulate a question and then give students just the basic information and let students build an understanding of the topic for themselves. The question I gave the students was: 

Since the measurement of degrees in a circle is 360, at which degree would you have to cut the circle so that you can show, halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, sevenths, eighths, ninths, tenths, elevenths, and twelfths? 

The students were then paired and given a piece of chart paper, a calculator, protractor, and compass as tools to help them display that they understood the concept being "discovered".

Like I had thought, the initial reaction was "unwillingness to try", however, this soon passed and at the end of 40 minutes each of the groups was well established in their pursuit of understanding.

Throughout the lesson, I circulated amount the groups asking questions and observing the progress, all while trying to keep myself from assisting them too much and interrupting the learning process. I find that with the teaching style I have been utilizing, I have been doing most of the critical thinking and "spoon feeding" the student instead of letting them think and make the connections for themselves. 

My goal as an educator is to wean students off of my lectures and dictations and letting them choose their own paths, and to stand by and act more as a guide than as a driver.

Tomorrow, we shall see how well students remember what they discovered today and how well it set in for them as opposed to previous lectures and lessons.

As the saying goes, so far, so good.