Above the Line, 4 for 50

Early in the summer (as in, the day after school let out), I was lucky enough to attend a workshop led by Dave Burgess.  If any of you have had the same good fortune, then you know the energy and passion Dave has to “Teach Like a Pirate” are infections, and that you walk away from the workshop with a firm commitment to do something different, even if you don’t quite know what that different thing is.  After spinning lots of different thoughts around, I decided to be more focused and more intentional during the first three days of class, which is something Dave mentions in his presentation and dedicates himself to in his own classroom.  I mentioned this briefly in the last post, but now that the three days have passed, here are the details and how it went.

Before Day 1: Since I had the class lists and a way to contact the kids, I sent out a couple Google Forms to collect basic contact information and to begin to get to know the kids.  The questions I asked for the “get to know you” part were:

• How did you last math class empower or disempower you?
• What were the qualities of the best teacher you’ve ever had?
• How do you handle conflict with another student? (In a discussion-based class, this one can be very important.)
• What type of feedback do you expect to receive in this class and how often do you expect to receive it?

The number of responses to the last question that were along the lines of “every two weeks or so” shocked me, and made me realize that even though I may be giving feedback every day, the students need to realize that I’m giving them feedback.  If they don’t realize it and internalize it, then it’s not really feedback, is it?  So, one more thing to focus on this year.

Finally, I made a short video introducing myself to the class and I asked the students to do the same.  If nothing else, I’m ahead of schedule in terms of learning the students’ names this year, but I think it made them realize, even before they got to my room, that this class was going to be run differently than other classes they have experienced in the past.  It also allowed me to find out a bit about their hobbies and their personality...always a plus.

Day 1: The class period was shortened due to homeroom, so we had 40 minutes together.  I displayed the kids’ names on the whiteboard courtesy of the projector that’s hooked up to my computer (along with their number for the semester, which I use to place them in groups each day), and had them cross off their name before they sat down, which made attendance on the first day a breeze.  I also had them make a “name plate” from a folded, large index card, on which they were to place their first name on one side and their number on the other.  Rather than give directions after the bell rang, I explained to one student what was to happen as they walked into class, and then asked them to lead others through the process.  As soon as everyone knows the name of everyone else in the room, we will stop using the name plates, but until then, the students will be required to have them out during the discussions.  Once the students were seated, we left the room to do a tornado drill followed by a fire drill, and we spent the rest of the period outside.  There were lots of comments along the lines of “Thank God we’re not just sitting again for another 40 minutes.”  Outside, I went through the basic set-up of the class and what their responsibilities are to the class, to one another, to me, and to themselves.  Nice, relaxed beginning, and a tangible reinforcement that this class is not going to be like others they have taken.  Plus, no homework, unless they didn’t fill out the pre-day 1 forms or make the video.

Day 2: Since I switch groups every day, the students need a brief description about how to find their seat, which means on day 2 (similar to day 1) I told one kid as they walked in the door how to find their seat, and that they were in charge of making sure everyone else understood what to do.  I then briefly took them through the class page on Schoology, just to show them where all of the paperwork for the class was located.  Not exciting, but necessary.  After this, I gave them ten minutes to individually look through three exercises and make as much progress as they could.  This was followed by having one group do a practice discussion which the rest of the class watched,  During this discussion, I interrupted the kids a lot, noting what was good and what to try to avoid.  I also explained how to use the green, yellow, and red cups that are placed on each table.  If the yellow cup is on top of the stack, then that indicates to me that the group is fine, but still discussing the exercise.  If the green cup is on top, that indicates the everyone in the group understands the solution, and that they would like for me to come over and hear their explanation (I normally ask a student who has not been as active in the discussion to give this explanation).  If the red cup is on top, that indicates that the group is stuck and needs a hint.  Again today, no homework.  They know it’s coming tomorrow night, but there’s no need to give them work just for the sake of giving them work.

Day 3: Among other books I read this summer, I finally got around to reading “Above the Line” by Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer (as a Buckeye I should had done this a few years ago, but…).  In it, he describes the type of leadership he tries to instill in his players, how he tries to instill it, and the ways in which this manifested itself during the championship season in 2014.  “Above the Line” refers to an overall attitude of self-responsibility, of being purposeful, intentional, and skillful when making decisions and leading others, and of avoiding blaming, complaining about, and getting defensive with others.  This sounds a lot like the attitude I try to instill in my kids, but I’ve never been able to look at the process as systematically as I have this year, and I think Coach Meyer’s book is a big part of the reason why.  In addition to this, he talks about instilling an attitude of “4 to 6, A to B”, which in the world of Ohio State football means “go as hard as you can for 4 to 6 seconds from point A to point B”.  Finally, Coach Meyer describes the concept of being “nine units strong” on the football field, meaning that to be an elite football program, all nine units of the team (offense,defense, special teams, etc.) need to be running at full capacity.  I took these ideas, synthesized them, and gave them a discussion-based classroom flavor.  Signs that say “4 for 50, Above the Line” are now in several places on the walls of my classroom, meaning that for the classroom to run at full capacity, for the students to learn and to grow as much as they can, we need all four tables to have students learning with an above the line attitude for 50 minutes every day.

So, on day 3, we watched a short video that describes what “above the line” means, had a brief discussion about it, and introduced the phrase “4 for 50”, after which the students did a pre-unit self-assessment for unit 1.  Essentially, I list out the skills we will be covering and ask the kids to indicate where they think they currently are with each skill.  Sample exercises are given so they can check themselves.  I don’t look at these; they are purely for the kids to use during the unit, focusing on the areas in which they are weak and keeping track of their progress.  Once they filled out the form, the kids had brief discussions about whichever exercises they wished; however, I asked them to focus on the topics and skills that more members of the group said they were having trouble with.  No need to run from the things you find difficult. Run toward them, and master them.

The preparation for day 4 was to get ready for the first “real” discussion, which would consist of the first five exercises from the packet for the course.  It also included filling out a brief Google form in which they stated (for each exercise) that they were ready to lead the discussion of a particular exercise, or which listed the questions they had about it.

Day 4 was the smoothest first discussion day I have ever had.  While I am certain there are other factors that could have contributed to how smoothly things went, I honestly think that being this intentional about how I started the class has already made a significant impact on how things will go this year.  So, my thanks to Dave Burgess and to Urban Meyer.  Who knew that a high school social studies teacher from San Diego and a college head football coach could have such a positive impact on a math class in southwest Ohio?