9 Weeks Into Teaching

The first nine weeks of teaching was a very scary ride, even as I have been warned by many veteran teachers. I just wanted it to be better. I never thought teaching math could be so stressful. I am challenged by the fact that most students to not enjoy math, do not see the point of math, and are very difficult to engage. After some soul-searching, I have come across what may be valuable tools to help math become more engaging to my middle school students.

Classroom Management

First of all, my biggest challenge has been classroom management. I had a system in place that I worked on during the summer that promised to be perfect. It made use of guideline infraction notices and it seemed to work at first. However, other teachers were complaining that students were turning it into a game. That was very disheartening. I dropped the guideline infraction notice system immediately. Strangely enough, my class became worse.

Gamification

I have decided to gamify my classroom. I have read about many different ways to engage students, and by far this one seems to be the most effective. Essentially, students can create characters, earn levels, unlock achievements, and do quests. I first learned about gamification of the classroom through an article that featured Ben Bertoli and his ClassRealm concept. After reading more about different ways to gamify a classroom, I decided to start small and grow it.

With more reading and searching, I found resources from Michael Matera through his blog and purchased his materials from TeacherspayTeachers. With a few modifications, I have a way to record and display student achievements with a leaderboard. That, combined with the procedures suggested by Ben Bertoli, makes an awesome classroom system.

Another challenge I face is making the content engaging. With a classroom system that aids in engaging, it may be simpler. However, I want it to be so much better. I was inspired by Dan Meyer and his TED talks video about how math needs a makeover. I think he is right. I want students to learn to think about math and not just calculations. I will need time to figure out how to apply his ideas into my classroom.