Taming the Dragon

There is a paper dragon snarling and breathing fire in a folder somewhere on my desk. It is known as THE PACING CALENDAR.  It roars a few times throughout my day and begs for attention. It reminds me at 2 a.m. that I'm not covering enough curriculum in order to do it all. I've fed it a few tidbits this week to keep the flames of stress to a flicker, but the dragon demands attention at the most inconvenient times.

What is all this talk about dragons? It is my greatest enemy in being an effective teacher: TIME. I don't feel I ever have enough of it in each class period, in the week, in the school year. Just not enough time to do it all the way "THEY" say it should be done. 

What I am relaxing into is the concept that digging deeper into student thinking and problem-solving takes time. If my students are to really benefit from that hour with me, I need to give them space, opportunity to make mistakes, find ways out of their misconceptions, and support to try again.

The sweetest sound that slays the dragon came yesterday....I could have cried or leaped into the air with a backflip! While working with a partner on the Arranging Tables problem, a fledgling of mine SHOUTED and threw his hands in the air, "I got it!!!!" I went over to him and his partner, and we talked through his solution. Although it wasn't quite correct according to the criteria, they persisted and persisted until they figured out one of the possible solutions! VICTORY! That really doused the whimpering dragon's fiery breath on my desk!

What I saw yesterday from all five classes was total ENGAGEMENT for ALL learners. I saw persistence. I saw students willing to record their thinking by using diagrams. I heard focused conversations about math problem solving.  Teacher Heaven. I took a deep breath and told them we would keep working on this problem on Monday. (The dragon backed up into the cave and let out a whimper...) We are about the work of developing our mathematical brains here. We are not in a race to some finish line. The lessons that these students are learning through this lesson are invaluable for the long-term.

My students are inspiring me. The damsel in distress is ME - thank goodness they are willing to come to my rescue!