Monday, May 17, 2010

Be Less Helpful

Got in trouble last night for waking up with The Wife with a way too late in the evening "Hallelujah!" due to checking out Teacherninja's post of Dan Meyer's video on "How to Teach..." -- all evening I had been slightly nervous about starting a week-long job, but this got me all fired up!

I'm not a Math person and he lost me on the ski slopes, but I am totally into the "be less helpful" angle* and I consider my absolute number 1 priority as a teacher (and parent/coach/adult) to prepare students for what comes next for the rest of their lives: solving problems.  I don't consider not having all the correct answers penciled in on a workbook page or turning in a certain amount of homework assignments to be problems; more often than not I see students simply copying off others, filling in the answers during review, or completely tuning out the lesson and discussion until the quick 'n easy how do I jump through the next hoop solution is presented.  It looks like Dan Meyer's blog tackles similar issues, plus he and his shopping cart were on Good Morning America!

*My sons will recognize this in the form of one of my mantras: "Look it up!"

No comments: