Teaching for the Teenage Brain

Brain based learning is a huge buzz word in education at the moment. There’s a lot of information going around about elementary aged students and aiding their development, but it is just as important in high school students. Adolescence is such an impressionable time for brain development and there are many ways that teachers can help their students learn more successfully.

Creating an Optimal Environment

Classroom set up is the foundation of creating an optimal learning environment. There are many different opinions and ways to setup a classroom. These are some of my favorites:

1. Declutter your walls

Too many visuals and things to look at on the walls can often be distracting to students. Placing your decorations strategically makes a huge difference! I prefer using a few posters and content on the walls so that the students are subconsciously seeing and learning the material.

2. Adjust your seating arrangements.

Figure out what is best for you and your students. Do they work better in groups or individually? Do you want your students to have individual desks but be able to form groups easily? Think about how you run your classroom and what would make the most sense.

Reduce Fear, Increase Engagement

By creating a positive and safe environment, the students will be more apt to participate, ask questions, and be engaged. This causes students to be in a state of “relaxed alertness”, which basically means that they are calm and engaged. When students are in this state of mind, they can be challenged and problem solve in a deeper way. I have integrated so many real world problems into my math classroom and challenged my students to embrace “the struggle.” The minute I say “word problem”, I receive a synchronous groan back. The most important part of math class, in my opinion, is the problem solving aspect and figuring out how to work through problems. I have found that my students fall into a pattern of watching the method, practicing said method, then reproducing it on the test. Because of this it’s been a goal of mine to discuss problem solving methods, collaborating, and making mistakes.

Developing Working Memory

Strong memory skills are not solely innate, they can be developed over time if nurtured properly.

1. Allow students time to process an idea.

Most adolescent-aged students can only sustain their attention and process 10-15 minutes of information. It’s so important to give students the opportunity to use what they’ve learned and apply it independently.

2. Make time for brain breaks.

Brain breaks benefit both processing and attention at any level. Of course, it will look different at the high school level, but there are still many opportunities for stretching, transitions, and other breaks in the lesson.

3. Integrate movement and hands-on activities.

By adding hands-on activities where the students are able to learn and explore in different ways, the students process the information more deeply.

Be on the look out for my upcoming blog posts to learn more about brain-based learning in the high school classroom!

How to Reduce Your Students Anxiety

5 Ways to Motivate Your High School Students

Why I Teach My Students How to Take Notes

I’ve been focusing a lot on autonomy and student-centered learning this year. One of the most critical aspects of this is effective note-taking, so that they can actually use their notes as resources. I mean isn’t that the whole point of taking notes during class?

If you know me personally, then you’d know that I’m not much of a talker. The LAST thing I want to do at school is stand up in front of my students for an hour and lecture. Instead, I do a few example problems on the board, have the students try a few while we are all still together, and then I send them off to do an activity or start the homework. This is also known as I do, we do, you do. There are definitely different opinions about this method and I do not run my classes like this every day. I am all for discovery learning (especially in the math classroom), but there are some days where I need to explain a new concept and the students just need to watch, listen, and take notes.

Watch, listen, take notes

My students are typically pretty good at the watching piece of class. Some days I think if I didn’t tell them to take out their notebook and a pencil, 90% of my students would just stare at the board the whole period. In regards to their listening skills, it’s hard to measure how well they are doing because I’m not inside their brains, but I definitely think that they are hearing what I’m saying while they’re staring at the board. Are they retaining the information? Now that we may never know.

Once they get out their notebooks, this is where my students tend to go rogue. Now don’t get me wrong, I have some students who take excellent notes. They label each section, number each question and write down every definition and equation. Some even use colors! *insert heart eyes emoji here* But, I teacher 9th and 10th graders, so the organized students are few and far between. I find many students taking notes on a scrap piece of paper that they ripped out of their notebook or the back of a previous worksheet. To make matters worse, they then take said notes and shove them into the abyss that is their backpack.

There are three things that I remember vividly about my 8th grade social studies class.

1. Paper wasps. One of my classmate’s older brothers showed him how to make them, then soon enough half the class was flinging them across the room. Paper wasps are just tiny pieces of paper folded up, then bent in half over a rubber band. When you pull the wasp back and release, the rubber band slingshots it at the target.
2. Memorizing the Preamble to the Constitution. I’m honestly not sure why we did this, but I’m sure there was a reason. I mean there must have been, right?
3. Taking outlined notes. In the moment, I most likely did not enjoy this, but I found it incredibly valuable as a high school and college student.

Here is how I learned: At the beginning of the year, my teacher turned the whole whiteboard into a giant notebook. She showed us explicitly how to label each section, what was considered a header and what wasn’t, and how to indent properly. Our homework was often to read and take notes using this method. When we showed her our notes from the night before, she would count our headings and sub-headings to make sure everything was in order.

How I teach note-taking

Obviously this is not exactly how I teach note taking especially as a math teacher, but there are many similarities and concepts that I took from these lessons.

1. Start with a title.

If the students don’t label their notes, how are they supposed to find them? The most important part about taking notes is being able to actually use them as a resource.

2. Vocab sheets.

This is a concept I saw another math teacher use and I thought it was genius because organized writing such a struggle for many students. They haven’t established an organizational system, so two example problems take up an entire piece of paper. I created these vocabulary sheets to help my students organize their notes a little better and have a “one-stop shop” to find all of their definitions when they are studying.

3. Modeling

This one might go without saying, but if the teacher’s notes aren’t organized and labeled explicitly on the board, then how would we expect the students’ notes to be? Our school has SmartBoards, which is an amazing luxury, especially for math classrooms. I have one or two example problems on each slide in the SmartNotebook application, so I can easily organize, save, and print all of the notes from class. This has been extremely helpful for para-educators, students in the special education program, and students who are absent.

4. Consistency

Students need consistency and structure in the classroom in order to be successful. The same can be said for note-taking as well. As with everything, taking notes is a learned skill and I have found it crucial to set expectations, have note-taking routines, and check in throughout the lesson.

The transition to high school is such a pivotal time for many students and there are many skills that they are expected to have, but haven’t quite mastered yet. Small changes to our classroom routines can make such a big difference in the success of our students in the future. As I reflect on my 8th grade social studies class, I think about the only three things I remember: paper wasps, the Preamble, and taking notes. I may not remember much about World History, but I learned how to create an outline and that skill has been an incredibly valuable one to have.

The Four Most Important Things I Wish I Knew as a First Year Teacher

Let me just preface this blog post with one important point. I am about to bare my soul to the world and this list should not be seen as the end all be all. I am by no means saying that my experience is the only way that first-year teachers feel, nor would I want someone to feel that way. My hope is that when you are reading this, you can either relate to these ideas or learn a thing or two from my mistakes. We are all different people and educators, so not everyone will have the same experience as me. Take this post as my advice to you as you to reflect on your own personal experiences.

1. It’s okay to say “no”

Saying “no” to my students was an invaluable skill that I have learned over the last two years. As I’m reading that sentence back, though, it sounds pretty brutal, but hear me out…

As much as I hate to admit it, I’m a people-pleaser. I care about my students and I want them to be happy, so the people-pleaser in me thought that my students would like coming to class if I said “yes” to everything they asked for. When in reality, it’s not about them being happy, per se, but rather that they feel comfortable and engaged. Let’s face it…math class isn’t the most exciting place to be. However, I have not met a student who truly prefers a classroom that is practically a free for all with no structure.

For example, my first year I used to frequently let me students pick the music that we listened to in class. This eventually got completely out of hand and became a total distraction, so I had to stop playing music altogether. If I had said no from the beginning or came up with a system to pick the music, I would have prevented these daily headaches.

So even though saying “no” to students is a challenging task when they are badgering you (because we all know it’s easy to fall into that trap), setting those small boundaries have been a game changer for my classroom.

2. My lessons don’t have to be perfect

So remember how I said that I’m a people-pleaser? Well, that quality stems from a much larger character trait: perfectionism. I truly thought that every single lesson that I did needed to be amazing and engaging and innovative. Somewhere along the line in my student teaching experiences, I started feeling the need to make everything I did perfect. I worried about any small criticism that I might get from my professor or mentor teacher and it took me a long time (and I mean YEARS) to get over this anxiety.

I first realized this was an issue when my professor said, now I’m going to paraphrase this because I tried to repress this conversation as much as possible, “If you need everything to be perfect, then teaching isn’t the right career for you.” YIKES. That hurt. I had just spent the last 3+ years of my life studying and paying a lot of money to become a teacher. To find out that my anxiety would prevent me from being successful was absolutely brutal. Now, don’t get too excited, this wasn’t the incredible life-changing epiphany that I needed to overcome my perfectionism, but it was a start.

I didn’t truly overcome my need for perfection in the classroom until I had my own. The first eight weeks as a first year teacher were rough because, honestly, I did not know what to expect. I thought to myself, “Oh how bad could it be? I’ve learned all about classroom routines and creating engaging lessons. I’m sure I’ll be fine.” I was SO wrong. That first semester was a huge slice of humble pie and I had to lean on a lot of people for support to get through it.

Looking back, I can’t think of a single day where everything that I had planned or expected was perfect. Some days, what you planned doesn’t even happen. No one finished their homework? Oh well. I guess they will complete it right now, and the fun activity that I had planned will have to wait. It took a lot for me to realize that this is okay! Math class doesn’t have to be fun every day. At the end of the day, if my students know more today than they did yesterday and no one gets hurt, then it’s a success in my book.

3. Don’t let your concerns at school ruin your time at home

Yes, what we do as educators is incredibly important and we affect so many children’s lives every year, BUT our job should not consume our entire life. Aside from bringing home work to grade or staying up developing lessons, since most first-year teachers are starting from scratch, I wish that I had been able to let go of the negative things just a little bit more.

Whether it’s a rude comment from a student or an angry parent, no one trains you on how to deal with these situations. You just have to figure it out and not take anything to heart because the reason for their behavior is probably not that they hate you and only live to ruin your life. One of the best things that my administrators said to me when there was an issue with my student was, “don’t lose sleep over it.” That always made me feel better in the moment and I really tried to not lose sleep over it, but some days it just happens. It took a lot of introspection and therapy to build some thicker skin, but it has been well worth it.

4. My inexperience doesn’t make me a bad teacher

The imposter syndrome that I felt during my first year of teaching was unbelievable looking back now. I truly felt like my opinions didn’t matter because I didn’t have 20 years of experience to back anything up. When in reality, I had some really good ideas and I regret not expressing them as often as I should have.

I wasn’t a fantastic teacher my first year, but I wasn’t horrible either. As I reflect on that year, I realize how little grace I was giving myself. That is the biggest piece of advice that I wish I could have known as a first-year teacher. I am not going to have it all figured out and I am still learning a lot about teaching, but I am NOT a bad teacher.

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Tackle three activities in one period.

Elementary school teachers SWEAR BY math centers. I have seen them successfully implemented in first, second, and fourth grade classrooms. If elementary school teachers can have 6-11 year old students work independently and effectively, then there must be a way to use them in high school as well.

I have been using math stations since the day I started teaching. My school typically has eighty minute periods, which, for high school freshmen, is a challenge to get through every day. I needed to find a way to break up my class periods to keep my students engaged for as long as possible and math centers was my answer!

There are so many ways that centers can be implemented that I could probably write a whole blog post about how to create effective groups at the high school level (stay tuned…I just had a brilliant idea). Depending on the class size and topic, there are an infinite number of activities, but these seven ideas are my favorite activities to use in my classroom.

1. Digital or Printed Card Sort

Card sorts are great because they can be collaborative or independent. The hands on component of the printable card sorts give students a different way to show their understanding and discuss concepts with their classmates. With this specific card sort, the students are taking many concepts from one unit and bringing it all together to see the bigger picture. I love to use card sorts on review days for this reason exactly! You can never have too many ways for students to show their work … am I right?? Depending on the size of the class, I like to give multiple sets to a group that is four or bigger, so that everyone can participate. Collaboration is great, but we all know what they say about too many cooks in the kitchen…

Click the image to access this resource!

2. Math Mazes

The math mazes from All Things Algebra® are the perfect combination of challenging and engaging. These mazes turn a boring worksheet into a fun activity. The student answers the first question, which, if they answer correctly, will lead them to the next problem. If they answer incorrectly, it could throw off their entire path. The students have room to show all of their work, and when they complete the maze, it is so easy for me to check. I can simply take a quick glance at the maze to see if the student has drawn the correct path. The best part about these mazes is that they are available in print or digitally!

3. Color by Number

Math and coloring. Name a better duo… I’ll wait. But, in all seriousness, there are so many color by number activities on Teachers Pay Teachers for every grade level and subject area. I love to integrate coloring into my math centers because it gives my students a little bit of a break in an otherwise busy class period. They work hard during the other two stations, sometimes my students just need to complete a low energy, relaxing activity. I am always so surprised by how excited my high school students get about being able to color.

4. Self-Checking Task Card Stations

Do you love stations, but struggle to keep up with all of your students needing you to check their work? I was in the same boat until I created these self-checking task cards! I love when my students are able to get up out of their seats and change up their work space, but trying to correct everyone’s work at the same time so that they can move on to the correct station was a nightmare. These task cards build independence because all the students need to do is scan the QR code to get the correct answer. From there, they can work through the problem with a partner to figure out what went wrong before immediately going to the teacher. These no-prep cards have been a game changer for my Algebra math centers!

5. Small Group Mini-Lesson

Gone are the days of whole group instruction in math classes. My students used to always get distracted or lost in space during whole group work and note-taking. Doing mini-lessons with small groups of students has helped me keep each student on track and makes the lesson much more engaging. This decoding word problems graphic organizer is one of my favorite mini-lessons that I have. We are able to dig into which words and phrases represent each operation and come up with strategies for solving word problems. With this small group model, the students are much more willing to participate and discuss strategies in a small, low pressure group.

6. DIY Graphic Organizer

If you haven’t noticed yet, I am a self-proclaimed graphic organizer enthusiast. I love the simplicity and explicitness of taking notes using graphic organizers. My high school students are not the most organized (I know, I know, this is a shocking revelation), but taking notes and being able to refer back to them is such an important skill to have. In addition to using them for note-taking, I like to use my graphic organizers as math center activities where the students fill in the information that they’ve already learned to show their understanding of the material. It is always so interesting to see what they come up with for definitions and examples. Click the image below to get your FREE copy!

7. Digital Escape Rooms

Before online learning became an educational norm, I rarely used technology in my Algebra 1 classroom. Looking back at those times, I don’t know how I survived without it! This generation of students is so engaged in online activities because they have grown up surrounded by it. My students have completed escapes rooms in trios, pairs, or individually depending on the level of difficulty. Digital escape rooms are great for so many reasons. There is no prep time, they are self-checking, and honestly way more exciting than a regular worksheet!