I’ve been back from Singapore for exactly one month today. While my family and I have been adjusting to life back in Chicago, I submitted the two components of my Fulbright project and started its implementation. It’s hard to believe that we are already two weeks into the summer Algebra class that I had been working on while I was in Singapore. My co-teaching colleague and I have 22 eager students in the class and it’s been a learning experience all around. 

For the first days, we were pretty worried as they were SO quiet all. the. time. We planned for a few “ice breakers,” but they didn’t break all the ice apparently. Things improved gradually, though. We regularly remind them to consult their group mates, we offer them ways to start collaborative conversations, and we lighten the mood with jokes, some self-deprecating humor, and breaks that require the students to interact with new people and explore the campus of their new high school. Now that we are into the end of the second week, students are actually having fun. I know this because they are laughing! in a math class!   in a *summer* math class! 

My colleague and I make changes to my plans constantly, which I had anticipated would happen. We didn’t even make it through all the plans for the first day. While we have goals for each day and for the whole program, we remain flexible in the implementation because real, live teaching demands it. Students’ questions, competencies and deficiencies show up and classroom discourse takes some interesting turns. Of course, that’s one of the things that I love most about teaching: figuring out what students know and don’t know and then determining how to address that while teaching. Each student has been loaned a Chromebook so we have been able to seamlessly integrate Desmos activities, Google applications, and other fun tech stuff. It’s too bad that we can’t use Google Classroom as not all students have school emails, yet, but we’ve found some workarounds for now. 

This particular class is for students who want to progress to Geometry in the fall. Some of them have had some Algebra already and some of them have not. Some of them did not pass the CPS Algebra Exit Exam, some did, and some did not or could not take the Algebra Exit Exam. Regardless of what students know already, everyone is learning something new each day. Too many students have a procedural understanding of Algebra, so they have been building their conceptual understanding, especially through visual pattern recognition and contextual applications. Most of the students have embraced the opportunity to explore their own curiosities with their Summer Inquiry Projects and I’ve loved learning about what they are exploring on their own or with their partners. We start coding with Bootstrap next week, and I’m sure that will be another chance for students to stretch their minds…and me to stretch mine, too.

I’m not in class today (Friday) because I’ll be presenting later today at the College Board’s AP Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. My session offers the rationale for my Fulbright Inquiry Project and how I’ve been able to apply some of what I learned in Singapore schools. I’m bummed that my school principal could not join me as my planned co-presenter. She was called into a meeting at the last minute with folks from downtown. As the principal, she has to go where she’s beckoned by the bosses, but she said she trusts what I’ll be saying in my talk. My hope is that I can offer educators from other schools ideas about how to critically examine how they help all students access high level/AP math classes in high school. That’s what we are trying to do.

My flight has been delayed 90 minutes, but I’m hoping this is my only glitch in the day. We are now on our second plane and almost ready for takeoff. I’m also ready with my presentation, too.