Final Reflections
When I first began our GSE program, I had no idea what I wanted to focus my research on. It was when I was looking through a chest of old pictures and memorabilia from my childhood that I realized I wanted to center my project on making math fun, yet challenging for my students. After perusing through my elementary and middle school report cards, I noticed some significant trends, not only in the teacher comments portion, but in my own personal reflections written on my report cards as a child. It was quite hilarious to read my own written reflections from as far back as second grade. I noticed that while math was always my strongest subject, I did not always enjoy it. In one of my third grade reflections, I wrote, “Math is boring this year because we never do anything fun. Last year, Mrs. Wisely used to play games with us and teach us about Hungry Herby [the greater than or less than symbol]. This year, we just work.” This was when the thought of implementing a program centered on games was born. I thought that it was peculiar that I associated math games with fun and that “work” in math did not involve games. I figured since I felt this way as a child, many of students probably shared the same feelings about math.
The idea of making the work we do in math class more fun was the direction that I knew I wanted to take my project. I wanted to adjust my teaching and curriculum, and light a flame of passion for math within my students. This action research project could not have come at a better time in my teaching career. I now realize that over the past couple of years, I have felt bored myself as a teacher. If I felt bored, than certainly some of my students felt bored learning in my class as well. I needed to be inspired to make a change within my practice. If something within me as a teacher did not change, I did not feel I would last long in this profession.
I then thought of all of my students in the past that expressed through their behaviors, writing, or conversations with me that math has always been boring to them. These students reminded me of myself as a child. This was not only my inspiration to teach math, but also to transform my students’ attitudes about math. I thought at first, “If I can set up my class in a way where students are having fun learning math, than hopefully this can change their views on math and help them become more successful.” I also hoped that teaching through math games would help to liven up my own teaching practice. This led me to the formation of my action research question, “How do math games affect student engagement and achievement in the classroom?” I found while exploring my action research question, math games surely affected a lot more than just student engagement levels and achievement. There was a huge transformation within my teaching, my students’ views on math, and the culture of the classroom as a whole community.
When looking back to previous years of teaching, I now realize how teacher-centered the culture of my classroom was. I was doing much more talking than my students throughout a typical class period. One of the biggest impacts my action research project has had on my teaching is that my class has become tremendously more student-centered, where students are leading discussions and teaching each other through exploring various math concepts, with me acting as more of a facilitator rather than the sole “teacher.” This was not even something that I intentionally sought out to change. I began the school year excited to teach through math games, yet I had no idea how my teaching and view of learning would transform so dramatically.
The use of math games in the classroom increased my students’ engagement and involvement throughout their learning. Games created a classroom culture where students are more comfortable sharing their thinking about math concepts, whether right or wrong. Whether it was with a partner, teams of students or with the class as whole, students realized that this was a norm in our class community. Unlike other years, students did not challenge this notion, but instead, they seemed to embrace it. Math games helped to create this culture because so much of our time together, students were learning about difficult math concepts through playing games. Not only did the amount of math talk increase dramatically, but also while playing, students were more relaxed and less anxious about making mistakes. This helped students see that math can be fun and provided them with more confidence. I take great pride in this transformation of both students’ attitudes as well classroom culture and believe that this change in students’ attitudes may carry them throughout their remaining experiences learning math. I can’t imagine my classroom any other way.
This transformation of my classroom culture, curriculum and teaching as a whole, will continue to evolve throughout my future years of teaching. I will continue to teach math through math games and I am excited to add to my collection of games in the years to follow. After reflecting on each game that we played in class, I have learned which games are more effective than others and which ones students have enjoyed, as well as which ones have totally flopped. One thing that I would like to add to my classroom for next year is having my students keep a journal in which they reflect on the various math games they have played and their feelings about math. I want them to feel that they can write freely about whatever comes to mind in their journals. This can be a place for them to safely write their feelings about math without any judgment from me or others. Through many of the exit slips students filled out after playing different math games, I always questioned whether students wrote honest responses, or whether they wrote what they thought their teacher, myself, wanted to hear. I think this reflective journal will help to make students feel more comfortable with being honest about their feelings. While students wrote and reflected about their thoughts on various math games and themselves as mathematicians, they did not keep these written entries together. By keeping a journal throughout the year that is more reflective, and not necessarily centered around the learning of different math concepts, students can reread their writings in order to reflect upon their own journey as a mathematician throughout the school year and learn more about themselves.
This process of collecting data for our action research project has really helped me to refine my teaching for the years to come. Requiring me to reflect more on my practice and take copious notes on the ways students respond to various experiences in the classroom has transformed my practice. I’ve become a more reflective teacher who uses research to drive my instruction. This continuous growth in my teaching practice will not only continue to inspire me in my future years of teaching, but I also hope it reaches out to other teachers that felt they were in need of some inspiration as well. By continuing to share my experiences and findings throughout my project with other educators, I hope to help change an exponential amount of students’ attitudes about the way they view math in general and themselves as mathematicians. Let the math revolution begin!
The idea of making the work we do in math class more fun was the direction that I knew I wanted to take my project. I wanted to adjust my teaching and curriculum, and light a flame of passion for math within my students. This action research project could not have come at a better time in my teaching career. I now realize that over the past couple of years, I have felt bored myself as a teacher. If I felt bored, than certainly some of my students felt bored learning in my class as well. I needed to be inspired to make a change within my practice. If something within me as a teacher did not change, I did not feel I would last long in this profession.
I then thought of all of my students in the past that expressed through their behaviors, writing, or conversations with me that math has always been boring to them. These students reminded me of myself as a child. This was not only my inspiration to teach math, but also to transform my students’ attitudes about math. I thought at first, “If I can set up my class in a way where students are having fun learning math, than hopefully this can change their views on math and help them become more successful.” I also hoped that teaching through math games would help to liven up my own teaching practice. This led me to the formation of my action research question, “How do math games affect student engagement and achievement in the classroom?” I found while exploring my action research question, math games surely affected a lot more than just student engagement levels and achievement. There was a huge transformation within my teaching, my students’ views on math, and the culture of the classroom as a whole community.
When looking back to previous years of teaching, I now realize how teacher-centered the culture of my classroom was. I was doing much more talking than my students throughout a typical class period. One of the biggest impacts my action research project has had on my teaching is that my class has become tremendously more student-centered, where students are leading discussions and teaching each other through exploring various math concepts, with me acting as more of a facilitator rather than the sole “teacher.” This was not even something that I intentionally sought out to change. I began the school year excited to teach through math games, yet I had no idea how my teaching and view of learning would transform so dramatically.
The use of math games in the classroom increased my students’ engagement and involvement throughout their learning. Games created a classroom culture where students are more comfortable sharing their thinking about math concepts, whether right or wrong. Whether it was with a partner, teams of students or with the class as whole, students realized that this was a norm in our class community. Unlike other years, students did not challenge this notion, but instead, they seemed to embrace it. Math games helped to create this culture because so much of our time together, students were learning about difficult math concepts through playing games. Not only did the amount of math talk increase dramatically, but also while playing, students were more relaxed and less anxious about making mistakes. This helped students see that math can be fun and provided them with more confidence. I take great pride in this transformation of both students’ attitudes as well classroom culture and believe that this change in students’ attitudes may carry them throughout their remaining experiences learning math. I can’t imagine my classroom any other way.
This transformation of my classroom culture, curriculum and teaching as a whole, will continue to evolve throughout my future years of teaching. I will continue to teach math through math games and I am excited to add to my collection of games in the years to follow. After reflecting on each game that we played in class, I have learned which games are more effective than others and which ones students have enjoyed, as well as which ones have totally flopped. One thing that I would like to add to my classroom for next year is having my students keep a journal in which they reflect on the various math games they have played and their feelings about math. I want them to feel that they can write freely about whatever comes to mind in their journals. This can be a place for them to safely write their feelings about math without any judgment from me or others. Through many of the exit slips students filled out after playing different math games, I always questioned whether students wrote honest responses, or whether they wrote what they thought their teacher, myself, wanted to hear. I think this reflective journal will help to make students feel more comfortable with being honest about their feelings. While students wrote and reflected about their thoughts on various math games and themselves as mathematicians, they did not keep these written entries together. By keeping a journal throughout the year that is more reflective, and not necessarily centered around the learning of different math concepts, students can reread their writings in order to reflect upon their own journey as a mathematician throughout the school year and learn more about themselves.
This process of collecting data for our action research project has really helped me to refine my teaching for the years to come. Requiring me to reflect more on my practice and take copious notes on the ways students respond to various experiences in the classroom has transformed my practice. I’ve become a more reflective teacher who uses research to drive my instruction. This continuous growth in my teaching practice will not only continue to inspire me in my future years of teaching, but I also hope it reaches out to other teachers that felt they were in need of some inspiration as well. By continuing to share my experiences and findings throughout my project with other educators, I hope to help change an exponential amount of students’ attitudes about the way they view math in general and themselves as mathematicians. Let the math revolution begin!
