Clear communication with students is the key to having a smooth semester. One thing that I do every day of class, either before class or after class, is to put the homework assignment as a News Item in the learning management system (LMS). In addition to this, I usually rearrange the placement of the items on the home page of the course in the LMS so that the News Item is front and center. This assures my students of where to look for their homework assignments every day. Once that date is over, I archive the News Item so they are only seeing the one that is currently relevant. I started this practice a few years ago and it has helped both the students and me. They know exactly where to look for the homework assignment every day and I have to be more organized for each class.
During this pandemic, personal communication with students has become more important. For my classes, we met synchronously during regular class time. Every meeting I tried to ask the students how they were doing, if they were feeling okay, and if they knew anyone who was sick. I also did this each time I had one-on-one virtual interaction. It was essential that the students knew that I cared and was concerned about their well-being. It didn’t take much extra effort on my part, but I believe that it made a big difference to the students. They need to know that we care about them as people and we need to visibly show that, especially this semester.
Whether or not we like it, technology is essential to teaching. It was somewhat ironic that during the spring semester, I teach a technology course for future STEM teachers. When we found out that courses were going to finish online, the direction of this course changed some. I made an effort to look for specific tools that they could use in teaching online. Their in-class teaching lesson became a video lesson and we looked more closely at online assessment tools. One of our favorite tools that we found is a website called, Edulastic. It is a free site for K-12 teachers that could be used for online homework, quizzing, or testing. There are millions of math problems that have been created and you can create your own. The problems are standards-aligned so that you can search for them by standard and grade level. Some aspects of the reporting system are only available with a paid subscription.
College students can and will do great things for you if you give them clear directions, and lots of support and encouragement. Some things that I am most proud of students accomplishing this semester are:
- One student completed an original mathematics research project;
- Four students completed action research projects while student teaching—a project that they developed completely on their own including: writing the research questions, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and reflecting on the experience;
- Twelve students completed Desmos Art Projects;
- Fourteen students wrote History of Math papers; some of my favorite words from a student’s paper are: “Math class is special because it stresses the brain differently. A lot of classes are simply memory; math, on the other hand – if taught well – is not at all. Math should be based on applying what you know and thinking both critically and creatively.”
- Fourteen students created the assessment portion of a unit plan that they can use when student teaching. In addition, they had to read other students’ unit plans and make comments and suggestions. Here are some of my favorite comments from their reviewing each other’s partial unit plans:
o
I really like how organized your unit
plan is. I also like how you plan to meet with your students individually at
the end of the unit to discuss their work from the unit. I think doing this is
very beneficial for both you and the students. Its allows the students to share
with you where they think they are at and how they think they should improve
and what they should continue to do in the next units, while also allowing you
to build relationships with them.
o
I also like that you have a podcast that
you have each of your students do. I think this is a good way to see what your
students understand and get them using math vocab as they do not always have
many places they can do that.
o
I really liked your idea of having the
students write a bulleted list/short paragraph with a week left in the unit
about what they do not yet understand. This will give you a chance to create a
review sheet or something similar to help make sure they are ready for the end
of the unit. Another benefit is that by doing it a full week out, you can even
still expand your unit an extra day or two if that is what it takes for your
students to fully understand everything they need to! Awesome work.
o
I also liked the idea of having students
set a goal for themselves; it might be nice to give them an example of a goal,
just saying have a goal is a little broad. Another way to possibly improve this
is to have students revisit the goal/goals they set and see if they
accomplished them! I know that it's a great motivator for me to see the things
I have accomplished that I couldn't at one point.
o
I thought it was great that you used
point intervals in your rubrics instead of just using a set point value. I wish
I would have done that! I think that having that room for tolerance will be
better if a student asks about their grade. I also really enjoyed the house
assessment because that is something that is a direct application of what the
unit is over. You are showing students how the content is applicable in real
life, and how it could be used in a potential career, and I think this would be
great to use in a classroom.
o
I really like the idea of the Checklist.
It is essentially a test and still covers the topics you would have in the test
but I don't think it would be as stressful. Because even if you try to not make
a test stressful, students hear the word and instantly stress. I also like that
you mentioned corrections on exit tickets. I think without that the exit
tickets could just be wasted and students wouldn't really learn from them.
Tell
me that when reading these future teachers’ comments, you aren’t just beaming
with pride at how thoughtful they are about the role of a teacher in helping
students succeed. I am always proud of my students at the end of the semester,
but somehow this semester I am more proud—likely because of all that they
accomplished under the circumstances that they were given. At the end of each
semester, these students remind me that the future of math education is in some
great hands!
