Why Relevance Isn't Always the Same as Real-World

Over and over during school, I heard " you want real-world lessons" time and time again. Why? Because students need to directly relate to material to see the value in it and to know the reasoning behind WHY they have to learn what they need to know. While I agree, the problem I have with that as a middle school teacher goes back to growth and development of adolescents. We know that during this time students place a value on themselves. They can be selfish and struggle to see the viewpoints of others or reasonings behind anything other than what's important to them at that very moment (for most-- Snapchat and Instagram are at the top of that list). Keeping that very fact in mind, can a middle-schooler truly see the value in needing to know rates and ratios for comparing laundry detergent costs? Or how much gas it takes to make a round trip from Kentucky to California? Or even the best packaging for popcorn? It's real-world, but is it relevant? My answer is no.

Students want need a teacher who is willing to get to know their interests and what's popular for their students. Relevance is something that can change on a yearly, monthly, weekly, and even daily basis sometimes. Right now my students are all in on the fidget spinner toys roaming around. If I would have connected a lesson to those back in January my kids wouldn't have cared a bit. Did they exist then? Sure. However, they weren't relevant to their lives right at that moment. This goes back to relationships. To know what's relevant with your students, you have to be willing to build relationships with them. Ask questions about what they like. Talk to them about their weekends. It's easy to create relevance once you create relationships. Be willing to build those relationships & the rest becomes easy. 

Create-a-Station

We started this week by MAP testing, which make for long days for the students. To break up the testing, I wanted to do something as a review where students could create their own station. We do stations quite a bit, but they have never gotten the chance to create their own. Why did this idea take so long to come to mind? I don't know-- but it will definitely be something I use in the future. Students are engaged, they are going back and reviewing old material, and they are creating quality work for their peers to do. They love that students are actually going to do these stations, rather than just making them and moving on. They are excited to see if the other kids like what they are creating. 

Every time I allow students to create I am so overwhelmed-- in a good way. It amazes me what they are capable of creating. They are creative, ingenious, & they know exactly what other kids like to do. I gave them a rubric to keep them on track, as well as a group/peer evaluation to complete at the end to hold all kids accountable for participating and providing quality work. 

I love the way these projects are turning out. It's interesting seeing the things the students come up with and are interested in. Board games were the overwhelming creation made for this activity. 

In my last post, I mentioned the importance of being prepared. For me, the best possible way to do this is to use a planner. All year, I had been using a provided planner from the school. The problem was that it was only a monthly view and I was finding that it would get extremely cluttered and ultimately impossible to read. I decided to take the plunge into a new planner and after some research, I purchased the 365 Happy Planner kit. I am in love OBSESSED with this planner. It's cute and I've found myself feeling so much more organized and as a bonus it makes planning fun because you can turn it into a scrapbook. Or don't....that's your choice, which is the best part!

   

 Along with the planner, I wanted a more cost-effective way to get stickers. I bought the Xyron 1.5 inch Sticker Maker to go along with it and I've never been so excited by an $8 toy. In the image below, every single sticker you see is homemade from a free printable I found with a quick search. All you do is print your image and quickly roll it through the sticker maker, peel off the backing, and your good to go. It's the perfect accompaniment to the planner and you could use it for so many
things outside of your planning life.

 

Oreo Stacking Box-and-Whiskers

As a day-before-Spring Break activity, my math classes all did the Oreo Stacking activity, which I found here. Oh my goodness...this was one of the best activities we have done all year. Student buy-in was there, engagement was at an all-time high, AND they got to eat Oreos! The focus of this activity is on mean, median, and mode. When we got back from break, I wanted to find a way to extend this so we could use their data we had already found. I decided to have my students create box-and-whiskers based off the entire classes' data.  For their posters, I wanted them to make sure they had their data listed, the box-and-whisker plot created and labelled, and lastly, I wanted them to analyze their box-and-whisker plot to determine what it truly means in the sense of the Oreos. This was a knock-out project & I encourage you all to try the Oreo activity if you haven't already!

Once again, the Oreos weren't even there, but engagement was still extremely high because this data meant something to the students. This is so important and as I have progressed throughout the year I have realized just HOW important relevance really is in a classroom. Their math work turned out amazing & the posters they created look fantastic.

Do you want to do work you see no ownership or value in? Probably not. And even for the self-motivated, it's likely not going to be your best work. How can I create unrealistic situations for students that aren't important for them and still expect them to perform at the top? I've decided I can't. Let's stop giving students useless tasks and start creating experiences.

What I Learned My First Year Teaching

As the school year is coming to a close, I can't believe that I have almost completed my first full year teaching. There have definitely been the downs, but overall this has been a great year and one of the biggest learning experiences of my life thus far. With my KTIP ending this week, it has left me feeling nostalgic and I've been reflecting on what I have learned along this journey. I decided to come up with a list of the things I have learned as I'm beginning to prepare for next year.

• Start the year off stern. This was one of the hardest things I had to learn all year long. It was one of those things I had heard during student teaching and in my methods courses, but I didn't anticipate how hard it would be to actually do. I had to spend my entire second nine weeks reversing this and finally it's paying off. For future teachers, seriously listen when you hear this. It is worth it in the end no matter how mean you feel. 
• Be prepared for your heart to be torn. These kids are tough. The stories you learn about their lives at home will break your heart, but will also motivate you in so many ways. Keep snacks in your desk. Listen when they need you. Be a little more patient when they refuse to follow your directions. Never forget you might be their biggest hero. Will they drive you nuts some days? Absolutely, but they will also fill your heart. 
• Be prepared. I've always been a planner and it's finally paying off. The more you get prepared for the week ahead of you the less stress and long nights you will spend after you leave school. Get your week planned, make copies for the week on Monday morning, and the rest goes smoother. 
• Build relationships. Kids need you to be more than just their teacher sometime. You have to be their advice giver, their mentor, and sometimes a parent. Talk to them about their interests. Ask questions about their life. Share with them a piece of yours. Once you get their trust, you can get them to climb mountains for you. 
• Give yourself time to breathe. The first few months, school was all I breathed. As soon as I would get home, I would work more until I went to bed. This had me on the fast track to burn out real quick. Don't feel guilty about going home and not doing a thing. The stack of papers will still be there tomorrow. Students need a refreshed teacher more.