Issue link: http://latinschool.uberflip.com/i/1141600
Understand our strengths and show resilience by using feedback to overcome our challenges." – from Latin's Statement of Teaching and Learning News & Notes AROUND SCHOOL 8 Mistakes Welcome Faculty member Danika Amusin noticed a marble jar in her 4-year old son's classroom. He explained that the kids get to put a marble in the jar every time a teacher notices them being particularly kind to another child. e reward for filling the jar is a pizza party. Her son's teacher was using it as a way to incentivize a behavior — in this case kindness — so it would become a classroom habit. As an upper school math teacher, Amusin was also trying to build habits. In her case, it was finding a way to get her eleventh grade students to share their mistakes with their peers so they could learn from them as a group — something that takes vulnerability and courage. It also creates incredible learning. Based on research done by Stanford University mathematics education professor and author Jo Boaler, the deepest and longest learning comes not from correctly replicating a procedure or fact conveyed by a teacher, but from reflecting on mistakes that have come up in the process of problem solving. is is the main focus of Amusin's honors precalculus classroom, which is entirely student-led. Students do six rich, exploratory problems for homework, which can often be done in more than one way or might have more than one answer. ey then bring their work to the classroom and present it on the board to discuss as a group. If no one is willing to share his or her errors, then everyone misses out on opportunities for learning. Inspired by her son's teacher, Amusin wondered if a marble jar could be a way to encourage her students to share their mistakes. Fortunately, pizza parties are great motivators for 17-year-olds as well, and the students immediately embraced the idea. ey volunteered to bring in marbles and decorate the jar, and have now taken full ownership of the exercise. Sharing mistakes has now become a habit.