Welcome to my little corner of the internet! My name is Hannah and I am excited to blog for the first time and connect with other math teachers!
When I started my teaching journey 8 years ago, I did not know how important it would be to me to share my experiences and gems of knowledge from this rigorous but rewarding adventure called teaching. I first started sharing my experiences with my sister Megan, who is also a teacher (elementary)! Talking with her about school was foundational for me to develop into an effective teacher because I was able to talk through lesson plan ideas, gain insights on classroom management, and vent when it was hard!! In turn, I listened to her talk about her experiences and collaborated on ideas for her classroom. These “sister talks” are the reason that I chose to name my blog and Teachers Pay Teachers store School Sisters Math.
Currently, I teach 7th and 8th grade mathematics. This age group may try to tell you that they don’t want to learn math, but don’t let them fool you! I have learned that these students are curious, and they are natural problem solvers. The key to engaging this group of learners is to hone in on that natural knack they have for problem solving by teaching with tasks (also known as Problem Based Learning or PBL).
Have you ever tried to give direct instruction about finding slope? Some students listen to every word you say, while other students catch a few words about rise over run. On the other hand, if you skip the direct instruction and give students a task to discover what slope means you will see a vast difference in their engagement! With a task, students can discover that slope is a constant rate of change in a context that makes sense to them. They can investigate and observe that the slope of a line is the change in y over the change in x. Students will collaborate on ideas and you will be able to have meaningful class discussions. When you teach with tasks, you will see the transformation in your students from passive learners to actively engaged mathematicians. And this is what I want to share with other math teachers: how to engage your learners through task based teaching!
As math teachers, we have the extra difficult task of getting our students to buy in to learning math. My math teacher friends and I joke that we are envious of teachers that teach elective classes because students choose to take their classes. With our job, students are required to take math, whether they are interested in it or not. And that can make our job more difficult. I empathize and understand why teachers feel burned out, especially after they have spent an hour with a class that keeps complaining, “When will I ever use this in real life?” If you have felt this and want to change this dynamic in your classroom, then I advise you to start teaching with tasks! I will share with you how I changed the whole atmosphere of my classroom and my students stopped complaining about math.
Please stay tuned and return to my blog as I will share effective, engaging tasks for teaching 7th and 8th grade mathematics and I will share how to establish expectations for engaged classrooms.
Do you have ideas about engaged learning that you want to share? Send me an email and I would love to chat about it!
Happy teaching!!
-Hannah from School Sisters Math