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Often times you hear that question from kids, "When will I use this? or Why do I have to?"  As a math teacher, I am usually excited to just find out how it works and get to the answer.  That challenge is enough for me.  But I also recognize that is not the same for most of my students.  So what can I do?
The thing that struck me in this was "Buy In" If we can find ways to get kids more interested in the outcome, the work will just be a part of that. One thing I can do is try to design projects or examples that give kids more choice. This will hopefully reach more kids in their area of interest. Ideally, kids will WANT to do the work, just to get to the result. I can think of things I've spent hours on that others would say "Why do all that work?" Someone might even point out an easier way, but I still wanted to see my thoughts through to the end. Hopefully, if I can just bring out part of that in students, it won't seem as much like work to them.

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Jenn Tonelli -- less homework more productive time in class

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Jenn Tonelli -- less homework more productive time in class

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I think the one huge thing I am taking away from this is to use your class time productively and make it count! It is easy to just have students finish things at home but what happens when they don't? Use your classroom time for all the skills, applications, etc that students need!

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Communicate with Parents to Build Support

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Communicate with Parents to Build Support

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This is an area that I have been trying to integrate into library media. We started with building our website with resources for students and parents to utilize. This year we added a newsletter and using twitter to show what was happening during class. This year would like to add more depth to our web page with videos of students working on projects/ digital tools they have created and presented. In addition, plan to send out the newsletter more regularly and include a parent survey.

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Kelly Allen-Help Students Own Their Learning

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Kelly Allen-Help Students Own Their Learning

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Teaching math, I often find myself giving students the information, the step by step, the whole process. I want to do a better job of setting students up to construct their own meaning of concepts. One way to do this (which I'm taking a different class on at the moment) is through guided math and the use of manipulatives. While I know I'll still have to teach mini lessons to deliver content to make sure that all students are getting correct processes and such, I want to plan for more exploratory time at the beginning of units. Even as an adult, when I discover something new and have a breakthrough in something (academic, athletic, DIY home projects) it sticks with me because I learned by doing and trial and error. I want to do try to get my students to have the same experiences to give more meaning to math.

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After reading this chapter, and also learning more about what Google can do for you . . . I plan on mixing up some traditional activities and using the chromebooks a bit more. While teaching seniors, it was challenging to integrate technology, I am going to focus more on collaboration on-line with differentiated grouping and more student choice on how to present their knowledge and skills. I feel like such a nerd saying this, but I can't wait to try it out, even though it's the middle of summer.

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Click on the image below to see it better.  Choose ONE strategy and share a brief way that you could see a teacher make that happen in your school.

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Kent Taylor - Build Relationships and Increase Buy In 

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Kent Taylor - Build Relationships and Increase Buy In 

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After all these years of teaching, most of my students have told me later on or when they graduated that they loved my class not because of the content but because I "cared". It can be that simple. I love my job and love what I do and the students can see and feel that. If you care about them, most of the time it will be reciprocated. Getting to know them by asking them to write me a letter at the start of the year or semester telling me all about them (their likes, dislikes, family, sports, etc.) has made the world of difference. It gets me to know them better very early on and gives us something to talk about or make a connection with. I think if you take care of your relationships with students, and know when to push or pull back with them, the curriculum will fall into place and they will want to work and learn for you and ultimately for themselves. Build confidence in their abilities!

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Tracy M. Build Relationships and Increase Buy In

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Tracy M. Build Relationships and Increase Buy In

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Relationships are kind of my thing. It's what I work hardest on in my teaching, more so than lessons or curriculum or assessments. So I can totally see any teacher trying to be more intentional about caring for the whole child and making a better effort to build relationships, especially with our hard to love kiddos!