Overhead deductivating

In the perfect world that had perfect students who all came to school every day with the desire to learn for the sake of learning, who worked hard not to compete with others or to make good grades to get into colleges, but instead to further their intellectual capacity, where the teachers could always be 10 steps ahead of the students with perfect lesson plans for the students who were all on the same ability level...then using inductive strategies would be the only way to teach. At HCHS, however, this of course isn't the case. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely students who really do love doing mathematical problems and enjoy thinking about the world in a mathematical way...but this is certainly not the majority. Too many of the students are too far behind to be able to inductively reason laws or rules or methods...it's discouraging and sad and I don't always teach the way I want to teach, but I do the best I can.

In my classroom, I have to admit I mostly lecture, however I do constantly ask questions. I have learned to use the overhead (finally!) and I do it in such a way that I don't give it all away at once. Nothing makes me more more bored than for students to simply copy notes and not say a word...I ask them questions and get them to think and attempt to answer before revealing the correct rule, method, or law. And oftentimes, they get it, or at least partially get it. And I work with whatever they give me. I can tell they enjoy class more when they get to think for themselves and use their own prior knowledge (although much of what I teach they should have already been taught...it makes me wonder about how truly effective "I Can" labs are for Algebra I). It makes them have a little more ownership of the class, gives them a little more confidence and motivation to go farther...

A classroom where the teacher simply has notes, talks, and students copy, or even worse one where students are just given worksheets to complete with no classroom interaction, is not effective, relaxed, or pleasant (although I admit it is work-oriented, one of the 3 main goals of an effective classroom, but who would want to work if it's boring and unpleasant?). Inductive reasoning is a beautiful thing, and I would like to try to incorporate it more in my classroom. However, because I am a first year teacher and am still in many ways just-making-it, I often stick to what's easiest and seems to (usually) be pretty effective with my students--deductive teaching with constant discussion.

I am not a "math" person

Yet I'm teaching math! How does that work?

One of my students came in today and said, "You must love math," probably because I had a long "Do Now" on the overhead that he didn't want to do. I also get lots of comments about how I'm a work-a-holic and how I have so much energy. Yet, my passion really isn't in math or physics Yes, I do enjoy it, and yes, I do like the theory behind it, but I do not get excited when I get a critical thinking problem to solve (such as many we've had in EDSE 645) nor do I try to figure out how things work (from more of a physics perspective).

I declared my physics major way late, later than I was actually supposed to. I was almost a religious studies major...and my last 2 years were unpleasantly filled with too many physics courses. I liked physics cuz it made me think, and it challenged me more than anything I had ever taken. But I am certainly not passionate about it. I enjoyed some of my classes, I loved my professor (for the most part) but it's not where my main interests lie.

So here I am teaching high school math and physics, and loving it. Why? And how do I get energized to teach? I like the more elementary math and physics, and I enjoy teaching it to others. More than anything, I love the students. Even though they also drive me insane daily, this is where I draw my energy from. I love their humor, their energy, their immaturity, and the fact that they are (mostly) trying to make it. I love that I am there to serve as an unstated positive role model. I love their funny ways of saying things and their dancing and excitement to see me outside of school. I know when I've had a good class when the students are interested, working, interacting, and we are all happy to be there. We feed off of each other.

I suppose I'm more of anthropologist than a physicist, and isn't that what teachers are called to be?