For the past 12 or so years, I have taught math at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Our school has 1500+ students (all male). The average class size in my math class is ~ 27, and I teach 5 classes/day.
I primarily teach PreCalculus, Honors PreCalculus, and AP Statistics. Students are placed in classes by ability, rather than age, so I can have freshman through seniors in one class.
About 8 years ago, I attended Exeter Math Institute, and got hooked on Problem-Based Learning. I love the problems, the collaborative group dynamic, the discussion that is generated, and engagement.
However, my students were still making the same mistakes, over and over again. I couldn’t figure out why they couldn’t see the patterns of their mistakes/learning. And that’s when I started researching Meta-Cognition … and I was hooked.
Writing has brought my students:
- a way to have a non-threatening/non-intimidating dialogue with me
- a chance to catch and correct errors in a timely manner
- a ready-built study guide for exams, especially semester exams
- a way for my students to assess growth
- a way for the self-proclaimed non-math students to have a sense of accomplishment and success (while still learning and doing math)
- the chance to share “Aha” moments with me
- a tool to foster, develop, and build meta-cognition
If there’s something you want to know more about, questions about how my class works, or if I’ve screwed something up, please reach out.
Cindy Reagan (@cljreagan; creagan@ignatius.edu)
Write Angles in Math 