The Teacher

This past week I assessed students for number concepts and computational skills, and I assessed their writing skills. I am very excited and I wanted to let you know that on Friday, I was able to facilitate meaningful learning in each of my four classes of noisy, boisterous, extremely loud and social 6th grade students (24 to 28 students per class).

In groups of four, they were given a grocery store sales paper and instructed to come up with a grocery list of items they would purchase with $30 (pretending there is no sales tax). The groups discussed, fussed, mussed (and probably "cussed") before they finished their lists. Then, they totaled their groceries and subtracted that from $30 to find their correct change. The reporter for each group then crowed out their list, and the rest of us checked their math. Those who accidentally went over $30 were told to do what I had done when I made that mistake; put an item or two back and recalculate. (The boys who put beer on their list to go with the pizza were instructed to put it back and get sodas!)

They were all engaged, they had fun, they constructed meaning, and the observing math coach (2nd period) was thrilled! It was unnerving because of the noise, but it was truly FANTASTIC! I'm now planning for next week. I told them to find out the MPG in their family's car and to note the price of a gallon of gas over the weekend. We're taking a road-trip! (an imaginary road-trip)