Elements of class

2011-05-22T14:38:00.000-04:00

As an international teacher I find myself moving countries and changing schools every 2-4 years. These moments of transition, when I know I'll be starting over again in a new location, with new students, at a new school, give me a chance to really consider what I consider to be core elements to what I want to be included in my classroom. What is it that I am so convinced students need that I want to continue to make sure that I include them in my next location? This is the point I am at yet again as I get ready to transition from Paraguay to India. What do I want to make sure I take with me? What do I want to work to implement?

My fundamental beliefs about math education

students have to do math in order to know if they understand it or not
it takes more than one attempt to know if you can do a problem, it might be chance you got the correct answer the first time
students need to be able to talk about math, not just do it
math is much more interesting if you can figure out how to tie it to the real world experiences students have
it is okay to make mistakes
students have to be comfortable enough to ask questions, even if the answer seems obvious to me
it takes multiple exposures to material for a student to be able to claim the knowledge
when you can help students make connections (to other math topics, to other subjects, to real life) they are more likely to own their knowledge

Hopefully, as I get closer to the transition I will be thinking about how these are implemented in my classroom and what I want to retain/throw away as I move on. What about you? What are your core beliefs and elements?

c squared

Elements of class