Baker's Choice was a great experience after many years outside the mathematics world. I would compare the experience to revisiting grammar by learning another language, or revisiting a book I have not read in many years. In other words, I already knew most of what I needed to do or what was going to happen, but I gained new perspectives because of the way I did it. I think part of this feeling comes from the fact that working with Baker's Choice was revisiting algebra as a student and teacher. I did the work of course, but I was cognizant of the steps more than a student approaching the concepts for the first time.
However, since this section focuses on personal growth, I think it is more interesting to talk about what was new and what helped me grow. The aspect of this unit that was most beneficial and enlightening to my growth was collaboration. I can say without a doubt that I have never worked with my peers on math problems like I did with Baker's Choice. I had never presented a math problem before a group, nor had I revisited it over and again to gain new understanding. I also had never written a report or compiled a math portfolio. Ultimately, Baker's Choice offered many firsts for me with regard to mathematics. It showed me the possibilities for how students can learn collaboratively and constructively rather than the way I was taught mathematics, through lecture and doing problems divorced from reality.
The main challenges for a unit like Baker's Choice would be its implementation in classrooms where students are so unused to thinking deeply and working collaboratively. I think that students would need to be taught how to work with Baker's Choice before they could do Baker's Choice. I do not think it would take too long, but I would compare it to students learning how to participate in a socratic seminar. There are rules and procedures that make it successful; ones that are learned rather than apparent in the every day classroom. (Of course, in my opinion, the routines of Baker's Choice need to become the every day routines of today's classrooms!)
he last thing I will say relates to an anecdote my colleague, Ms. Plantz, told about her students reaction when she had them write about math. The students replied, "This isn't English class!" I will add my own experience when I asked students to multiply a number in my English class: "This isn't math class!" I would say two things about these occurrences. (1) We need to do a hell of a better job at integrating literacy into mathematics classroom, and we need to integrate other subjects as well. (2) We need to have students reflect, through whatever the medium, on their learning. One of the best takeaways from this unit was thinking deeply and reflecting often about mathematics. Those metacognitive skills are difficult to impress on students, but they need them desperately in order to be critical and informed thinkers. They need to be doing math and doing it together as well. Baker's Choice does both of these things really well, which I why I would love to have the opportunity to use it in my future math classroom.
However, since this section focuses on personal growth, I think it is more interesting to talk about what was new and what helped me grow. The aspect of this unit that was most beneficial and enlightening to my growth was collaboration. I can say without a doubt that I have never worked with my peers on math problems like I did with Baker's Choice. I had never presented a math problem before a group, nor had I revisited it over and again to gain new understanding. I also had never written a report or compiled a math portfolio. Ultimately, Baker's Choice offered many firsts for me with regard to mathematics. It showed me the possibilities for how students can learn collaboratively and constructively rather than the way I was taught mathematics, through lecture and doing problems divorced from reality.
The main challenges for a unit like Baker's Choice would be its implementation in classrooms where students are so unused to thinking deeply and working collaboratively. I think that students would need to be taught how to work with Baker's Choice before they could do Baker's Choice. I do not think it would take too long, but I would compare it to students learning how to participate in a socratic seminar. There are rules and procedures that make it successful; ones that are learned rather than apparent in the every day classroom. (Of course, in my opinion, the routines of Baker's Choice need to become the every day routines of today's classrooms!)
he last thing I will say relates to an anecdote my colleague, Ms. Plantz, told about her students reaction when she had them write about math. The students replied, "This isn't English class!" I will add my own experience when I asked students to multiply a number in my English class: "This isn't math class!" I would say two things about these occurrences. (1) We need to do a hell of a better job at integrating literacy into mathematics classroom, and we need to integrate other subjects as well. (2) We need to have students reflect, through whatever the medium, on their learning. One of the best takeaways from this unit was thinking deeply and reflecting often about mathematics. Those metacognitive skills are difficult to impress on students, but they need them desperately in order to be critical and informed thinkers. They need to be doing math and doing it together as well. Baker's Choice does both of these things really well, which I why I would love to have the opportunity to use it in my future math classroom.