Wonder and Awe in Action

With as much stress as the common core standards have placed on teachers this year, I do have to acknowledge the positives that I am seeing in my classroom with the changes that are being mandated on us.  Teachers are busy busy busy redesigning curriculum to meet the new standards.  The WHAT that is being taught in the classroom is drastically changing as the standards shift around.

But, it's the HOW these standards are being taught that grabs my attention.  The 16 Habits of Mind and the 8 Mathematical Practices (derived from the 16 Habits) drive my instruction every day.  These habits are molding our students into better thinkers.

Case in point:
#1 - When comparing square and cube roots, we touched briefly on 4th roots and 5th roots.  By the comparisons alone, students were able to find structure (Mathematical Practice #7) in the mathematics to expand their thinking.  The 4th root idea must have grabbed a student's attention, because she promptly wondered out loud, "I wonder if we can just take two square roots and get the same result as a 4th root?"  Wonder and awe...one of the 16 Habits.  The math grabbed her attention and got her thinking above and beyond where I ever thought the lesson would go!

#2 - After a pre-test on integer exponents, a student came up to me to ask, "If positive exponents mean that you just multiply the base by itself that many times, do negative exponents mean that you divide that many times?"  Hmmm???  Wonder and awe.  Creating a hypothesis on the structure of mathematics.  Thinking about math.  It's all good!

3# - After a student had solved one of the volume TASK questions in our ALU, I noticed she was on the DisneyWorld website.  Before I jumped to conclusions of her being off task, I silently watched what she was doing.  To my amazement, she was exploring large spheres, cones, and cylinders found at DisneyWorld and was calculating the volumes of these large 3-D figures!  Totally expanding her learning!

So, even with all the demands that CCS is placing on teachers, I believe that a lot of good...and a lot of learning...is going to be the result.  Not only on the student's part, but also on the teacher's.  The good news is that it doesn't have to be all at once.  Take one standard, one habit, one practice and focus on that.  Then add another.  And another.  We have two years to transform the learning that goes on in our classroom!  Collaborating with other teachers...and we have almost the entire nation moving in the same direction...can help overcome the anxiety and frustrations that go along with change.

In only 9 weeks time, I have already seen these small changes in my students.  But what a powerful shift in their thinking!