Geometry Success

Back at school as of yesterday. I'm a K-6 math specialist which means that I work with individual students who usually need remediation, small groups of students who may or may not need remediation, and whole classes in tandem with the classroom teachers. My schedule is packed everyday with a change of setting every half hour. I find that after 15 years of teaching sixth grade kids all day in the same room that this nomadic teaching suits the Gemini in me. I have a small room which can accommodate up to six older kids or 8 little ones. I like having my own space and I have plenty of cabinets to house books, binders, materials, and math manipulatives. I've brought in flowering and hanging plants and a faerie house that the kids like to watch for an unexpected faerie appearance.

I've been working with two special groups: sixth graders to whom I've been teaching geometry (perimeter and area) and fifth graders who have been studying fractions. The sixth grade group was formed for only several weeks to meet instructional requirements for a graduate course I am currently taking. Two small groups met with me once a week. These students had scored below the standard in geometry on standardized tests. Anyway, I decided to start with a simple polygon, specifically a quadrilateral, and graph paper. We delved first into perimeter which is an easy concept for children to grasp and then on to area. They counted square units before I introduced the formula A=bh. With their new found confidence, rapidly the students calculated the area of pretty complicated straight-edged, right angled figures. Next, we went on to the area of right triangles, and isosceles and equilateral triangles. They grasped the reasoning behind the formula A=1/2 bh and could easily solve numerous problems. They were so proud of themselves and rightly so! In fact, one day a male student poked his head around my door and asked if we were meeting later in the day. When I answered in the negative he asked if he could come in during recess; he said that he was really enjoying what we were doing in group and wanted to continue. For what more could a teacher ask?!

Another day I'll write about the fraction group and some about the excitement the fifth grade students have about algebra. Imagine that!