Saturday, April 11, 2009

Watch Dog Math

It was Thursday and the routine begins as usual, except for seeing two of my kiddos and their dad/uncle on the morning broadcast. This means that they will be visiting my classroom for the next hour. (I always hope they take the initiative to help the kids with their work and maintain classroom order...some think that hour is about them entertaining the class.) Luckily, this dad and uncle were on top of things. They made their way around the classroom helping students with their morning math problems. I told them I would be reviewing a lesson on transformations. They both looked at me puzzled..."I am good at math, but I don't know what you are talking about." I told them they could look at the chart we had created the day before to brush up.

When the lesson began, I had the kids remind the dad and uncle what each transformation meant (translation, reflection, rotation). The kids were loving this. They were so excited they knew something that these grown men did not. I stretched out the lesson as long as possible, having the kids wait to give answers until the dad/uncle had theirs as well. It was funny. The best part was when they would get an answer wrong. The kids had a great time and learned even more through explaining it to these dads...but in a more fun way than explaining it back to me.

Sometimes I'm annoyed with the dads that come to be Watch Dogs because they don't know how to interact with the kids and think it's just a day of playing with the kids, even when they are in the classroom during learning time. I don't mind having the dads that know how to make their way around the room helping kids and maintaining order.

No comments: