Mind Mapping

So the first week back was a bit taxing.  I am always amazed that the job could be so physically draining.

We spent the first four days playing and talking.  I've really been stressing the idea of thinking.  Thinking about everything, including what they think!  This next week will likely be more of the same, and hopefully I can keep it up all year long.

One amazing thing happened while we were debriefing the idea about differences between knowing and understanding (thanks for the inspiration John -- @occam98).  A student said she knew that grass was green, but didn't understand why.  It was an awesome teachable moment.  Some students tried to help explain why, which lead into a discussion about chloroplasts and pigment,  additive vs subtractive colour theory and perception of colour.  I grabbed some spectroscopes, told her to look out the window at the sky, then to repeat but this time looking at the tube lighting in the room and note the differences.  Her lab partner was chomping at the bit to see for himself so I told him to grab one which of course put the rest of the class on the edge of their seats and soon everybody was fooling around and looking at spectra.  We didn't go too deep into what they were looking at; that is a lesson for another grade unfortunately, but it was awesome to see their excitement.  After that, they brought up a bunch of things that they 'knew' but didn't understand and I think the difference between the two was really driven home.  More importantly, they began to realize that their goal in this class is to leave with an understanding of the things we see and talk about, and that doing that is going to require them to really participate, think, and question.

I am going to try something that I haven't really done before.  This week, my grade nines are going to create mind maps.  I guess I am using it with a bit of a twist, in that it is an introduction to a unit with the hopes of activating prior knowledge, and using the class community expertise in the subject to both help focus the class and lead the learning.  I am going to do a simple one with them so we can all learn how to do it together, and then later in the week, or early next week depending on how things work out time-wise, they will create one in groups and extend it to a class mind map that will remain on the board as a focal point and reference throughout the unit, adding to it as we discover new things that belong on it.

I am not doing this alone.  One of the instructional coaches will be assisting me with it and we will team teach the class for the one they try to do without me.  Team teaching a student directed lesson sounds funny.  I don't anticipate that either of us will be doing much more than encouraging the students.  To top it off, my administrator will be coming in to do an evaluation of my teaching on that day, so there will be three of us in the room.  It should be interesting.

There is one thing that I am noticing about my efforts to change the way I engage students; it is a lot of work.  It reminds me a little of when I first started teaching.  The focus of my efforts is WAY different, but the insecurity and the feeling of not knowing what will work for which student is quite similar.  We are all working and learning and having fun, so the effort is definitely worth it.