mikerashidblog

Kids Love Problem Solving

Kids love problem solving. I really believe this. They like to figure things out. If given the right environment, students like to challenge their thinking and struggle with concepts.

I was reminded of this last weekend when I checked my “Shared With Me” file on Google Drive. I had a number of files from students titled “Math Puzzles.” A few of my students created puzzles to challenge their classmates.

The student-created puzzles really showcased students’ individual interests.

Everyday we start our math lesson with a math puzzle and some mental math problems to build number sense and improve our problem solving. My students love completing these tasks, so some of them they made their own puzzles.

Some students used adorable pictures of cuddly animals. Others used their favorite sports teams or video game characters.

This got me wondering if students really don’t like math, or do they just not like how math is typically presented. I had six students who spent their own time creating puzzles. I didn’t tell them they had to do it or assign it for work. They enjoyed the challenge and wanted to show their creativity. It doesn’t get much better than that – creativity, engagement, and problem solving. Now I have to keep that excitement going.

Mystery Science

About a month ago a colleague told me about a website called Mystery Science. The site has great lessons with hands-on activities. You can search for topics or browse by grade level. Best of all, it’s free!

Earlier this week I used a lesson with my students to explore how sound travels. They used paper cups, string, and paperclips to make telephones. Students “talked” through the phones to learn about sound waves. It was an engaging, hands-on activity that really helped them understand how sound travels.

If you teach elementary school, you should definitely check out this website.

Teachers as Leaders

A few years ago my district started a leadership workshop. These were monthly meetings on a range of topics. Leadership has always been an interest of mine, so I signed up for the workshop.

At the first meeting, I looked around the room and immediately felt like a fraud. Most of the people in the room were in leadership roles in the district. I was “just” a fourth grade teacher.

Over the next few months I attended the workshops and eventually got my principal certification. During that time, I thought a lot about those initials concerns. What was I, a teacher, doing in a room full of “leaders” in my district. These were people who were running transportation programs, various buildings, curriculum departments, and other aspects of the school district.

Then a thought occurred to me: I am running a classroom with 26 students. I am running a small company everyday. This requires communication with students from a range of ability and their families. There is daily planning and adjustments as situations arise. I’m responsible for the safety and security of the students in my class. All of this takes leadership.

There are many definitions of leadership and even more characteristics of a great leader. Here are a few qualities from a Forbes article:

Sincere enthusiasm
Integrity
Great communications skills
Loyalty
Decisiveness
Managerial competence
Empowerment
Charisma

These are all qualities good teachers posses. They are enthusiastic about their subject area and students. They do what is right for all students and guide their classroom with integrity. They communicate with students, families, colleagues, and other stakeholders. They passionately advocate for their students and show an unwavering loyalty in the process. They make as many as 1,500 decisions during a school day. They know and understand the curriculum, the systems in the district, and the other structures necessary to be successful – managerial competency. They empower their students to rise to their greatest potential. They get buy-in from students who, often, are not enthusiastic about school. That takes charisma.

Teachers should never feel inadequate sitting in a leadership workshop because to be a great teacher means you need to be a great leader.

Peekaboo Breathing

Children are experiencing greater levels of stress and anxiety. This is happening in and out of school. While we can’t always eliminate the factors causing stress, we can help students learn strategies to help manage stress.

This year, I’ve incorporated more meditation and mindfulness into my classroom. We regularly review the importance of taking a deep breath when we are stressed or anxious. This might be before a test, a project, or another situation in or out of school.

Earlier this year, I taught my students “peekaboo breathing.” This is a wonderful idea I learned in the book Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for Creating a Trauma-Sensitive Classroom.

Students lie on their back and place a small stuffed animal on their stomach. They breathe slowly and deeply and watch the stuffed animal rise and fall with their breath. After they inhale, they hold the breath for a moment and see the stuffed animal pause. At this point, students can say “peekaboo.” The animal gives students a great visual to “see” their breathing.

Students placed small stuffed animal on their stomach to practice deep breathing.

We did this the first time right before a quiz. I asked students to think about their stress level. We completed a few cycles of the peekaboo breathing, and then they thought about how their stress level changed. Every student said they felt better after completing the breathing.

This is a fantastic way to help younger students learn to breath slowly and deeply. Seeing the stuffed animal rise and fall with their breath helps them control their breathing and gives them a great visual to practice the exercise. While the standards we teach students are important, it is also critical that we help students learn habits which will promote good mental health as they move through school. This strategy is a great tool to help improve mental health.

When You Know Better, Do Better

Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is, without a doubt, one of the most important writers or our lifetime. Her words and poetry are unbelievably powerful and have impacted so many people in all walks of life. This is my favorite quote from her.

It is what life should be about. Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know something is better, do that instead of what you were doing. This can apply to almost every aspect of life: relationships, nutrition and fitness, parenting, or work.

When I started teaching, literacy was an area where I needed to grow. So, I got a master’s degree in language and literacy. Throughout the coursework, I learned of research and pedagogy that, at times, ran counter to what I was doing in my classroom.

At this point, one of two things could have happened. One, I could have ignored what I learned and kept doing what I was doing, or I could do better now that I knew better. I chose the latter.

This also happened with a behavior system I used in my classroom. Early in my career I had a color coded behavior chart. Every student started the day on green. If there was a behavior issue throughout the day, they’d move to yellow. A second disruptive or off-task behavior and they would have to move to red. There were different consequences for yellow and red. At the time I was thought this was a good practice.

Then I started to reflect on the behavior system, and two things struck me. First, this system didn’t really seem to have any impact on behaviors. The students who were usually on yellow or red, were always the same students. So, moving to yellow or red was not creating the desired behavioral outcomes.

The second thing that changed my mind about my behavior chart was a thought I had during a faculty meeting. What if faculty meetings were structured like our classrooms? What if there was a behavior chart in the faculty meeting? A teacher talks to another teacher… Go clip down to yellow. Not taking notes on what was just said… Clip down to red. I imagined myself getting up, in front of the entire “class” and moving my clothes pin to yellow or red. My stomach churned just thinking about it.

How was a student going to trust me and feel emotionally safe in my classroom if I was making them move to yellow or red in front of their peers? At that point I knew better, so I did better. I never used a color coded behavior chart again.

Teaching is a hard profession. Whether you are a first year teacher or a 25-year veteran, there is always more to learn and ways to improve. I try to learn one new thing each day. This is sometimes a tip I pick up from a colleague, something I read in a book or online, and sometimes the most important lesson I learn are from my students. I’m always trying to learn, so that when I know better, I can do better.

Three for the Week

Saturdays are my time to reflect on what I read, heard, and discussed throughout the week. It is my “exit ticket” for the last seven days. So here are three ideas that made me think this week. (They are not in any particular order.)

1 – An article from Edutopia discusses strategies to incorporate choice in the classroom. I really liked one specific idea from the article, “By giving the students choice, I give them the choice to become independent learners with the autonomy to fail but also the autonomy for authentic engagement.”

2 – I’m reading the book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together? in the Cafeteria by Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum. It is a wonderful book about the role race place in our society. Dr. Tatum discusses the definition of racism on page 87. She shares David Wellam’s definition of racism as a, “system of advantages based on race.” That definition has really made me reflect on what we do as a society and as educations systems to provide advantages and disadvantages based on race.

3 – Get ready for a good cry. This is a story about a boy who adopts dogs. It’s the reason why he adopts dogs, however, that shows everything that is good about people, and children.

Mindful Eating

After dropping my students off at lunch, I think about three emails I need to send before the end of the school day. There’s also a stack of quizzes on my desk I told myself would be graded and returned to students today. So, during my lunch I sit at my desk and fire off emails, grade quizzes, and shovel lunch into my mouth. I would love to say that days like this were outliers, but that wouldn’t be the truth. They were more the norm than the exception.

I have to admit, didn’t really know what mindfulness was a few years ago. Yes, I knew that it meant paying attention to what you were doing throughout your daily routine, but I didn’t really understand what that looked like. After I learned more about mindfulness, I realized one of the areas were I was really struggling was eating. I would eat regularly in front of the television, a computer, or some other device.

It never occurred to me that this was a problem until I was in a professional development last year about mindfulness. One of the sessions discussed mindful eating and the dangers of multitasking while you eat – watching television, working on your computer, etc.

According to a study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, when you are distracted you eat more food. This is because your mind sends signals to tell you’re full and should stop eating. These signals can start about 20 minutes after you start eating. If you’re not paying attention to your meal, the signals your mind sends to the rest of your body might not be noticed. When you’re distracted, it is easier to miss these signals.

In addition to being more mindful, there are other strategies to help decrease the amount of food you eat before your mind sends the “I’m full” signal. Here are some great suggestions from Harvard Medical School:

Set a timer to 20 minutes.
Eat with your non-dominant hand.
Use chopsticks if you don’t normally use them.
Eat silently for five minutes, thinking about what it took to produce that meal, from the sun’s rays to the farmer to the grocer to the cook.
Take small bites and chew well.
Before opening the fridge or cabinet, take a breath and ask yourself, “Am I really hungry?”
Do something else, like reading or going on a short walk.

Since I learned more about mindfulness, I eat almost every day in the faculty room with a colleague. My computer is in my classroom, and I try to keep my cell phone in my pocket. It has helped the amount I consume, and I’ve found it helps me reset my body and mind for the afternoon. One of these day, though, I might break out some chopsticks and give that a shot too.

Types of Anxiety in Children

You’re in the middle of a lesson and a student named Jonathan approaches you. He complains of a stomach ache. It’s the middle of cold and flu season, so you send him to the nurse’s office. He comes back a few minutes later with a note saying there is no fever and no other symptoms. What is causing Jonathan’s stomach pain? There’s a chance it could be anxiety.

Anxiety is a growing concern for children in and out of school. According to the National Institute of Mental Health anxiety disorders affect almost 1 in 3 children. Females are affected more than males.

An estimated 31.9% of adolescents had any anxiety disorder.
8.3% of those children had a “severe” impairment.
The prevalence of any anxiety disorder is higher for females (38.0%) than for males (26.1%).

A growing number of adolescents are experiencing anxiety disorders, but what exactly is making students anxious? Here are some examples of anxiety disorders provided by the CDC:

Separation anxiety – Fear of being away from a loved one, especially a parent;
Phobias – Extreme fear, such as fear of dogs;
Social anxiety – Fear of being in places where there are people;
General anxiety – Worrying about the future and what could go wrong;
Panic disorder – Sudden, unexpected, intense fear with heart pounding; having trouble breathing, or feeling dizzy, shaky, or sweaty.

With nearly one third of children having some anxiety symptoms, it’s important for educators to know what symptoms look like. Not all children will present anxiety in the same way, but the following list outlines some symptoms to look for in anxious students:

Agitation
Restlessness
Inattention, poor focus
Somatic symptoms like headaches or stomachaches
Avoidance
Tantrums
Crying
Refusing to go to school
Meltdowns before school about clothing, hair, shoes, socks
Meltdowns after school about homework
Difficulties with transitions within school, and between school and an activity/sport
Difficulty settling down for bed
Having high expectations for school work, homework and sports performance

So, it is a good possibility that Jonathan does have the cold or flu. He could be worried about being away from his parents or suffering from social anxiety.

Who I Follow

There are some amazing people on social media. We live in a wonderful time where it is possible to learn from so many wonderful educators, policy makers, and other thought leaders. Here are a few of the people I follow on Twitter. The descriptions are taken directly from their Twitter profile. Information in parentheses I added for further context.

Jo Boaler – Stanford Professor, British Maths Revolutionary, Author: Limitless Mind, Online course experimenter, co-founder: http://youcubed.org & avid Baggies Fan!

Marilyn Burns – Working to make the world better for children through mathematics. I blog at http://marilynburnsmathblog.com

George Couros – The best educators change the trajectories of those they serve. Through learning, teaching, writing, & speaking, I continue to aspire to this. I also love dogs.

Malcolm Gladwell – Skinny Canadian (Journalist and author or books such as The Tipping Point, David and Goliath, Blink, Outliers, and Talking to Strangers.)

Jon Gordon – Best-selling author of 20 books including Energy Bus, Power of Positive Leadership, The Carpenter. Clients: Rams, Clemson FB, Dodgers, Dell, Snap, Heat, Pacers

Adam Grant – Organizational psychologist @Wharton. Books: GIVE AND TAKE, ORIGINALS, OPTION B. Podcast: WorkLife @TEDTalks. Diver. Success is helping others succeed.

John Maxwell – Bestselling author & speaker on leadership. Christian. Blogger. Trainer. Coach. Everything rises & falls on leadership.

Pedro Noguera – Professor of Education, founder @ctschoolsucla. Primary interests: urban education, race and policy, changing the world.

Daniel Pink – Author of 6 books. Father of 3 kids. Husband of 1 wife.

Michael Pollan – Author of How to Change Your Mind; Cooked; Food Rules; In Defense of Food; The Omnivore’s Dilemma; The Botany of Desire and Second Nature.

Kristen Souers – I am a licensed mental health counselor, author, professor and consultant who has dedicated over 25 years to advocating for those impacted by trauma.

Greg Tang – Speaker, Educator, Writer and Online Game Developer. My goal is simple. Help kids become smart, well-rounded people who love to learn!

Todd Whitaker – Focus on Leadership, Teaching, Motivation. Written 50 books inc What Great Teachers Do Differently, Shifting The Monkey, Your First Year, School Culture Rewired

I know… So I… To find… Therefore…

Teaching problem solving is a tough task. Students have to read a word problem, understand what to do, complete the computation, give an answer, and then determine if the answer is reasonable. So how do teachers best support students in that endeavor?

There is no magic bullet to help students become better problem solvers. They need to be exposed to different problem types. They need to see, hear, and learn how other mathematicians around them are solving problems. Some students also need a structure to help them solve problems and explain their thinking.

One strategy I’ve use is called “I know… So I… To find… Therefore…” This helps students work through a problem and explain their thinking. Here’s a breakdown of each of those parts.

I know… What important information was given in the problem?
So I… What did you do to solve the problem?
To find… What answer did you get?
Therefore… What is the answer with the correct label?

Let’s look at the following problem to walk through the process.

David started his coin collection with 14 coins. He added 3 coins to his collection at the end of each month for 5 months. How many coins are in David’s collection after 5 months?

Students would answer the question with: I know David has 14 coins in his collection. He adds 3 coins each month, and this happens for 5 months. So I added 14 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 because he gets 3 coins after each of the 5 months to find 29. Therefore, David has 29 coins in collection after 5 months. (Students could also say they added 14 + (3 x 5) instead of using repeated addition.)

This takes some modeling at the beginning of the year, and I always supply a graphic organizer with the “I know.. So I… To find… Therefore…” components already listed. I created a copy of the graphic organizer on Google Docs.

Students pick up on the process pretty quickly. Using the graphic organizer slows their thinking, which improves focus during the problem solving process. It also helps improve a student’s explanation by giving them a structure to follow.

Last week, my students were working on problem involving fractions. The problem was: A quarter is 1/4 dollar. Noah has 20 quarters. How much money does he have? Explain.

I gave my students graphic organizers. (We’re not quite ready to take the training wheels off yet.) Here are two examples of how an average student completed the graphic organizer.

This student used repeated addition to solve the problem.

This student used division to determine how many dollars Noah had.

I have adjusted this approach over the years. I’m sure I’ll continue to make slight changes in the future to try and improve the supports I’m providing for my students. What strategies and supports do you use with your students to help them be better problem solvers?