The Oxymoron of the Century: Irresistible Math

When I was in high school, I loved school. Yes, I enjoyed having breaks and I didn't love waking up early, but I thoroughly enjoyed going to school.

I came home, did my homework, and then enjoyed my hobbies.

In class, I was polite, hard-working, and a total teacher's pet.

I wasn't the smartest or best student, but I worked really hard to achieve my goals.

Thinking back to my math classes specifically, I loved when I had teacher's who were really structured in their lessons.

We had a warm-up, we went over the homework (allowing time to ask for questions), we took very detailed notes with example problems that the teacher worked through, and then we had time for homework.

I LOVED this process. It made sense to me. It allowed me to see exactly how to do a problem, and then allowed me time to try the same problems in class.

I am a very organized individual, so I loved the structure these classes provided me with.

In college, we learned how to integrate technology, how to make lessons more project-based, and how to make math exciting.

But honestly? It just felt like SO much more work. 

The idea of planning these lessons, executing them, managing behavior, grading them... No thanks! I would rather just stick to teaching math the way I learned it. 

And that's exactly what I did last year. And I truly felt that for the most part, my students excelled because they were shown exactly what to do. I adopted the same teaching styles that I was exposed to. 

This was not the case my first year of teaching. 

I taught 8th grade math at Glacier Middle School, and it happened to be their very first year with a new curriculum. This curriculum was very focused on student discovery.

Each day, the students were given new problems to work through, and basically had to follow the process in order to learn how to complete the problems. 

I was basically just a facilitator. 

And with 8th graders, that meant I spent 90% of my day managing behavior, trying to get students on task, and pulling my hair out.

The students told me that they didn't feel like I was teaching them anything.

So, when I began teaching here at EHS, I was SO EXCITED to be able to teach the way I wanted to.

And then, this year we were introduced to the new Theory of Action; challenged to make our lessons Irresistible, Deep, Exciting, and Authentic.

HORRIFYING FLASHBACKS TO MY FIRST YEAR OF TEACHING.

All I could think about was how much work this would be... Especially since this time we weren't given a curriculum, we had to come up with this on our own!

I will be honest, I was terrified. I didn't want to go back to just being a facilitator.

But, the more we talked about it, and the more I started brain storming with others, some of my fears started being laid to rest.

I have to admit, I know how boring note taking can be. I know not all of my students can learn well with that structure, so there has to be a way that I can engage them more.

It has been a difficult journey so far, but it's just the beginning!

I am excited to have the opportunity to re-evaluate my teaching strategies, and work with my colleagues to come up with more engaging and exciting lessons.