Where my mouth is

So, after the Small Learning Communities seminar a couple of weeks ago, I got to seriously thinking about how to hook kids in. Because, kids won't learn jack-all if they don't decide to learn it. Nick Harris, an Aussie bloke whose wife works for the Australian consulate, mentioned that back in NSW, some schools ask students about their interests, and use that to build this year's curriculum, tailored to what the students are interested in. So, literary analysis this year might be comparison between Buffy and Dracula, if the kids said "Vampires are rad, man!"

I got to thinking about how to do this in my classroom, and got an idea. When introducing a new unit, I could explain what the main objectives will be, and then offer a few examples of topics that can be used to study the math content. So, for ratio and proportion, I could say, "We're going to be studying scale, and how things at different scales are proportional, the same shape, even though they're different sizes. So, we can do this by building houses, or by building boats, or by making model rockets, or if there's some other thing you want to build, I'm open to your suggestions, too."

And, as I'm beginning to learn how to not put off good ideas, I started this on Friday. The big idea is graphing linear equations: by the end of next week, I want my students to be able to graph slope-intercept equations, including converting equations into slope-intercept form. 4th period has chosen to do this by building and playing with cars, graphing speed and slope of the ramp they're using. 6th period chose to do an economics marketplace, looking at profit and cost. 8th period decided to do TV ratings, which was a real trick to work out, but I ended up deciding to compare Nielsen rating to number of viewers (which is, of course, not quite linear, but close).

So far, it's been going well. We'll see if we hit the objectives. I was feeling slightly overwhelmed, with so many different topics to consider, but in practice, it's been really easy to do, so far. Groups have done incredibly quick work getting their materials together, and I should be getting past "the hook" and into the meat of the subject in the next two days.

Still, I might want to get back into the original plan, of something a bit more limited in scope...