Amazing Department

Background

My mathematics department is very focused on student learning and improving student learning which has created a climate of innovation and change.  This focus comes in part from our former superintendent Dr. Wendy Shannon (2000 to 2012) and our principal Mike Duffy (2000-2014).  Dr. Shannon developed a culture of innovation within our school through a focus on continuous improvement, and Mike Duffy holds a philosophy of removing roadblocks to allow teachers to do what is best for kids.  These two forces have shaped our philosophy as a department.  We do not care about teaching, which is focused on what the teacher is doing or saying.  We care about student learning and improving student learning because it is all about our students.

Department Characters

Our department is made up of five very unique individuals.  We all have a passion for improving student learning.  It is these unique perspectives and our great mutual respect that have been instrumental in our students’ successes and our department’s transformations. 

1.      Rob Warneke  (20 years of teaching experience) He is our big idea guy who is very much a processor and synthesizer of ideas; in addition to Rob having those big ideas, he will sit back and listen to the rest of us during our PLC discussions about improving student learning then he will start to talk and sum up all our random discussions in a nice succinct talk with the rationale to support it.  He is also one of the data coaches for our school.  

2.      Andy Pethan (2 years of teaching experience) He was our year-long student teacher during the 2011-2012 school year who we then hired on full time to teach with us.  He is our in-house technology guru and nerd with great ideas and drive.  His non-traditional engineering degree and software background bring an interest in the real world applications of mathematics.  He also developed his own textbook free open source statistics curriculum (mrpethan.com).  He is also one of the digital learning coaches for our school.

3.      Darren Nelson  (19 years of teaching experience) He is the master of the scope and sequence of our curriculum.  If you ask him where topic X is taught, he responds, “Oh that is taught in Algebra 2 lesson 5.3 and Geometry lesson 8.9.”  When it comes to a lot of the wild ideas we have, typically he just responds, “That sounds good, I will try it.”  

4.      Jen Green  (18 years of teaching experience) She is the Energizer Bunny of our department (part of her energy is from her addiction to coffee).  She often thinks of a good idea or hears a good idea then jumps in and tries it that same day in her classes.  She also offers us a different perspective since she is the only female in our department, and in addition to being a mathematics teacher, she is also an English teacher.  She is also one of the digital learning coaches for our school.

5.      Troy Faulkner  (21 years of teaching experience) I am often an observer of the great PLC discussions, partly because I am the only upper level mathematics teacher in our department.   I am very much a task master when it comes to getting our department to get things done.  Sometime I push my department characters, but they are often pushing me.  I have the attitude of let's just get it done but get it done and right the first time.  I am also a data geek and the other data coach for our school.

  

We know each other’s strengths and our own weaknesses.  If I struggle with Y but Jen excels at Y, I have no problems asking Jen for help and she is more than willing to help, and the next week, the roles might be reversed.  That is the way we all are with each other.  Everyone willing checks his or her ego at the door because we have such a strong collective goal of improving student learning and our own teaching in order to get the kids where we want them.

As a department and individuals, we have the attitude of no matter what kind of students you have coming in, you need to modify and adjust so that you can help them learn and you can improve you class proficiency.  We cannot do that alone, but by working together and playing off each other’s strengths, we can do our best at maximizing learning for all our students.  We all have very supportive spouses.

I do not know why we are all here together or why we have such great chemistry, but I am grateful for them and the dynamic we have.  They make me a much better teacher, and I hope I have influenced them in the same way.  My department played a role in our high school winning the National Blue Ribbon Award for high student achievement in 2010, and my department won Intel’s Schools of Distinction Award for high school mathematics in 2011.

Most of my blogs are to encourage others to try something new and different, but this one is to just pay tribute to my great department members and the amazing work we are doing together.

Peer Instruction Improves Student Learning

After twenty plus years of teaching and trying many different things to improve student learning, I just finished my second year (4^th semester) of using the Peer Instruction Flipped Learning model.  The traditional flip helped my students learn more and do better on their assessments than lecture ever did, but the peer instruction flipped learning model has outperformed all other learning models that I have tried and really helped my students excel in mathematics.  I have used common assessments for many years here in my school, so I am able to concretely compare my lecture results, to the traditional flipped learning results, to my peer instruction flipped learning results.

Background
Peer Instruction is where the students still learn the material before class which, for me, means the students are watching my video lessons before class. When the students come to class, I have two to four questions up on the board related to the video lesson they just watched.  Students sit down and answer, or try to answer, the questions without talking with anyone, but students may use their notes frp, the video lesson.  Once students have answered the questions, then they turn to their neighbor and discuss their answer with them.  If they disagree on the answer, they try to convince each other of their answer.  During this process students are discussing/arguing/debating mathematics in my room and getting at their thinking and reasons for their answer.  All the student discussions are great.  I love hearing students deeply engaged in discussions.  They are also emotionally engaged in the learning process since they trying to defend their answers or wondering if they are right.

Results
I look at proficiencies (number of students at or above 80% on tests and finals) in gauging student learning.  When I switched from lecture to the traditional flipped classroom, my Calculus proficiencies rose 3.4% and Pre-Calculus rose 6.5%.  Two years ago (four semesters) I switched to the peer instruction flipped learning model.  My four semester average of peer instruction of Calculus proficiencies rose to 84.9% (a 13.6% increase), Pre-Calculus rose to 85.5 % (an 11.3% increase), and Algebra 2 rose to 95.7% (12.8%).  These four semester averages of peer instruction are great validation for me that students are learning more.  
I just finished my most successful semester yet.  I had great connections with students (see “Relationships Matter in Learning, Jan 16^th 2014” blog post) and really good proficiencies.  My proficiencies just from this fall are:

• Calculus: 89.0% (a 17.7% increase compared to lecture)
• Pre-Calculus: 86.6% (a 12.4% increase compared to lecture)
• Algebra 2: 98% (a 15.1% increase compared to lecture)

Note: I am missing Algebra 2 Traditional Flip compared to lecture due to having a yearlong student teacher during that time and I did not feel I could use his results.  Interested in learning about my  former, amazing student teacher who is now on staff with me? Visit mrpethan.com and see his textbook free, open source statistics curriculum.

Conclusion

I cannot say for sure why this last semester was so good in regard to student learning, but I had  developed really good relationships with all my students.  It is possible that those good relationships made the difference.  It is possible it was just the group of students I had.  

The peer instruction process is effective by itself, but if you couple that with the relationships that develop in the flipped environment, the Peer Instruction Flipped Learning model is a very powerful model.  I would encourage you to try the Peer Instruction Flipped Learning model.  To learn more about how I use peer instruction in my room visit troyfaulkner.com and click on Peer Instruction.

One Small Change = Big Difference in Student Learning

Background:  My calculus class has been going pretty well these last few years.  Last spring I redid some videos on the lessons that students struggled with and that made a big change for that chapter in how student did on their test.  Their learning of the material greatly increased; my test proficiencies for that chapter increased from 58% to 100%.  I define proficiency as the number of students that are at 80% or above on their assessments. 

But over the last four years, I have noticed students’ grades typically dropped in the second half of the class.  On average, students who had below a 94% at the half-way mark would drop on average 3.57% in their overall grade.  Students who had above a 94% at the halfway mark would drop on average 1.35% in their overall grade.  I figured it was because the last half of the course was significantly harder (volumes of revolution, integration by parts, and doing calculus on transcendental functions) and initially dismissed it as something out of my control because of the difficulty of the material.  

The Change:  This fall when I taught the class, I decided I would require students who were below a 97% in the class to do “daily problems” and turn them in every day.  The daily problems were three or four questions that student needed to turn in before school every day except on test days.  This is different from my normal assignments that students do where they have access to the solutions manual and can always check their work, but for these daily problems there was no solutions manual for them to use to see if they were right.  Students would turn these daily problems in before school.  If they got them all right, that was great.  If not, then they would get the problems back and have to do corrections before the end of class.  If students did not do the problems or did not get the correction problems turned in, then they had to “hang out” with me during their lunch and do calculus. 

This change did a couple of things.  It was a reality check for the students to see if they really did understand the material without looking at the answers and for me to know which students were struggling with the material or which students I needed to work with more to help them understand the material.  This was a good check for understanding for the students since this class does not have quizzes and is based mainly on their tests grades and final.

The Results:  So, what are the results of this one small change?  Well, 80% of the students found the daily problems helpful in understanding the material better.  But better yet is what happened to students’ grades from halfway through the class to the end of the class.  Instead of student grades dropping by 1.35% to 3.57%, the students’ grades actually went up by 0.25% to 0.56% even though the material was significantly harder.  Another great thing that happened was the number of “A’s” rose significantly from 43% to 76%.  The number of “B’s” dropped because a lot of students went from the “B” range to the “A” range.  This change also kept a couple of my “B” students from dropping into the “C” range.

Calculus has a difficult reputation, even among math teachers. When I shared my findings with a colleague, he replied, "And Faulkner’s Calc ain't no cakewalk.  Wow.”  His reaction certainly helped validate the positive impact this small change has had. 

Since I am a data-guy, here is the summary data of the big changes:

	Fall 2013	Prior Classes
Change in grade if <  94% @ halfway	0.56	-3.57
Change in grade if > 94% @ halfway	0.25	-1.35

This small change impacting students also had an impact on me.  I was reminded that “change” doesn’t have to be a huge undertaking or a massive “re-do”; small things can also greatly impact student learning in more ways than I could have imagined.  I was reminded once again that the journey is all about continuous improvement, for students and teachers.