Who's really in charge here......

Discussions in class lead me to question who is really in charge of the learning in our classrooms? If we are supposed to meet our students at their level and take them through the curriculum over the course of the school year, why then are school districts imposing rigid schedules and  outlines for us to follow in our classrooms? What if our students are not ready, what if they need more time? How can we truly do justice to a math program and our students math education if we are so caught up with "staying on track" of a schedule imposed from above, the schedule should come from the grassroots level, from the students themselves. It only stands to reason that if we move on to newer and more complicated areas of mathematics before our students are ready, before they have a good understanding of "the basics" that they will continue to struggle, that they will never "catch up", that they will never enjoy mathematics or come to see it's usefulness.

I have to say I never experienced this strict regime when teaching in Alberta, nobody imposed a schedule on me, and I was actually encouraged to spend additional time on areas where students were struggling, knowing that in the end it would allow my students to grow in mathematics as a good foundation had been put in place. Nobody ever told me what HAD to be assessed at each reporting period, I also exercised choice over the resources and assessment methods used within my classroom, if the other grade level teacher chose to give pencil and paper tests and I chose to assess in a different manner that was ok, we did what worked for us, and for our students. Here we have teachers who not only must assess in the same manner, but on the same day.......whatever happened to differentiation? Since when does one size fits all work for students? for teachers?

If we are to provide our students with a truly rich mathematical experience then we must tailor that experience to meet their needs and to meet our needs as teachers. We need to make the choices that are best for our students, choices about when and how to assess, how quickly to move through the curriculum, choices about the types of activities and resources we use, choices that allow our students to make sense of mathematics and build their own understandings of concepts; as opposed to rushing through a series of text book lessons, expecting students to make sense of abstract symbols and concepts without the hands on, concrete experiences that although they may take more time and effort to complete can provide our students with a much deeper understanding than a teacher provided demonstration and pages of pencil and paper practice.

It's time to give the control back to those who need it, the students. Let them dictate the speed of our lessons, the activities we use and the assessment tasks. Let's give them the opportunities they deserve, the opportunities that many of us were not afforded during our own math education.

Melanie