Could not have been more grateful for a long weekend and the four day week that follows (I think the kiddos would agree). However, coming back from a long weekend also comes with its challenges - mainly crazy kids. Sometimes it's important to realize that your idealized outcome in a lesson will not be met in the way that you intended. Yesterday, I had a perfect and orderly (in my opinion) math lesson on word problems and a review of ballpark estimates all ready to go. Unfortunately, the kiddos were NOT having it and it was frustrating for all of us.
Lesson of the week: don't force something if it's obviously not working. I cut the lesson short and resumed today. I created teams and set up a "Ballpark Estimate Game Show". The first time ballpark estimates were introduced, the kids did great on the carpet showing their responses on their whiteboards, but when time came for the worksheets, they were stuck. I knew that this review needed to be more of a reteach.
I broke up the class into two teams and a scorekeeper. For round one, I called out a number for the students to round up or down, they would circle their answer, and then raise their hand to signify that they were finished. The team member that raised their hand first got a point; ties meant that both teams got a point. The prize for cooperation, good sportsmanship, and teamwork (not points) was that they didn't need to do the worksheet.
With every competition-style....anything.... in the classroom runs the risk of tears and arguments, that I knew and that I experienced, but through it all, I knew that the learning and understanding was still there, so I pressed on.
In round two they practiced adding their ballpark estimates and in round three they added the ballpark estimates and the actual numbers. In the end, we all agreed that they now have a better understanding of ballpark estimates than before the game show. ...And they were all pretty jazzed to not have homework. :)
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