#flipclass Flash Blog: Classroom Community

Tonight's #flipclass topic is building community and collaboration in the classroom.

Classroom community is another area where I've come a long way in the last few years. It wasn't that long ago that I said, pretty regularly, "I don't like group work."

A couple of years ago I discovered partners. Students seem to work much better with partners. They're more focused and accomplish more. I can put two sets of partners together when I need to, but I almost always begin work in class as partners.

Last year my colleagues and I found partner-matching cards, and this makes the process even better. Partners are random, and nine times out of ten this works extremely well. Occasionally a partnership or two has to be adjusted.

I like students working together, because they often seem to learn more from each other than they possibly could from me. They can reword things in ways they understand. The student helping another solidifies their understanding, and the student being helped gets to turn around and help someone else.

The benefit of student collaboration became very evident to me last year, when I first flipped my classroom. Since so much practice and application was done in class, students got to talk to each other a lot. They got to refine their mathematical vocabulary. And learn how to use their notes as a reference. And how to ask good questions.

What troubles do I have with my classroom community?

I have a few students who prefer to work alone. I allow this, but I sometimes wish those students would occasionally get to know the students around them and learn from them.

Middle-schoolers will be middle-schoolers, and they can sometimes get off-task easily. I keep this under control by circulating and asking groups where they are in the activity and what they're working on.

Middle-schoolers can also blurt things out that don't need to be said and can come across as mean. I have a sign in my room that encourages students to THINK before they speak: Is it True? Necessary? Kind? Most of the time they just think they're being funny, but they need frequent direction on what is and isn't appropriate to say.

How do I scaffold collaboration?

This year (we're almost 4 weeks in!) I find myself joining groups quite a bit. I facilitate the conversation and try to model positive collaboration.

I fairly happy with my classroom community. As I continue to seek to improve my classroom community I would like to find more meaningful, deeper ways for students to collaborate.

#flipclass Flash Blog: Building Community Outside of School

Tonight's #flipclass blog prompt: How do you find/build community outside your school site?

The short answer: Twitter.

When I first joined Twitter I was very lost; it has a learning curve. Now, if I could only have one social media site, Twitter would be it.

When I decided to flip my classroom a year ago, I found #flipclass chat on Twitter and made so many helpful, like-minded connections. Those connections often lead to other connections. I could not have flipped my classroom without the help and encouragement of the Twitter #flipclass community.

I made a connection with @RoxyGirlTeacher on Twitter. She teaches 8th grade math, too, and has been an invaluable source of help and information and resources.

Through my blog I've made a connection with another 8th grade math teacher in Illinois. We comment on each other's blogs, ask each other questions, and get ideas from each other.

One of my newer connections is a teacher in a nearby district. We met at a tech conference in June. We stay connected via - you guessed it - Twitter.

I am thankful for the community I continue to build. I love being able to throw a question "out there" and get so many ideas and answers. If one of my connections doesn't know the answer, I'll be directed to someone (new!) who does. I love being able to share new ideas and resources I learn from my online connections with those in my building.

My growing community has made me a better teacher.

Involving the Community

We're entering the final week of TeachThought's Reflective Teacher 30-Day Blog Challenge!

Today's prompt:  "Write about one way you meaningfully involve the community in the learning in your classroom. If you don't yet do so, discuss one way you could get started."

I have to admit I'm one of the "don't yet do so" teachers.

But I have thought about this from time to time, and the way I see to start is with the parents of my students.

The question I hear most often is, "When are we ever gonna use this?!?!"  Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I've been asked that....

I have what I think is a good answer:  I doubt any future employer of my students is going to ask them to solve an equation or factor a trinomial.  But will these future employees need to know how to think?  How to organize information?  How to recognize patterns?  How to persevere through a challenging problem?  Yes!  And that's what I'm really trying to do:  teach them how to do all of those things.  I'm trying to develop brains.  Grow and strengthen synapses.

But, that answer doesn't satisfy young teens.

I would one day like to ask for parent volunteers to come share how they use math in their daily lives/careers. I could list topics we cover and see if parents can share things that they do that tie directly - or even indirectly - to those topics.

I could then extend that to leaders of local businesses.

This is an idea that has been rolling around in my head for awhile, and I'm not sure when it will actually happen.  It will definitely need to be focused on and intentionally planned.  I need to research and see what other teachers have done similar to this.  I would want to make the experience worthwhile and meaningful for my students.

One day, though, I'll be able to blog about the experience!