I teach humanities to middle-schoolers. That means I spend my days trying to make groups of about twenty-six 11 year-olds care about reading strategies, grammar, writing fluency, and history. If you've never done that, you should try it sometime. It's very ... entertaining.I have to say though, that this weekend, it's math that is fascinating me. Specifically subtraction.You see, this week included one of my top-ten favorite days in the school year.The orchestra field trip.
Wait.
What?
Why does a reading teacher care about that? And what has a music field-trip to do with subtraction?
Well... let me explain.
At my school, all students take music. There are three choices - band, vocal, and orchestra. Since my students are the "babies" of the building (meaning it's their first year with us), they get to choose more freely, based on their interest and curiosity, not talent (or lack of). Which means they are pretty evenly split. Typically, about 1/3 of my class signs up for each musical discipline.
So, when the orchestra takes their annual field trip, I loose about 1/3 of my class for half the day.
Why is this a good thing?
Because of subtraction.
You see, in teaching, size really does matter.
With only 16 kids instead of 25 in my morning group, I was able to work with EVERY STUDENT IN THE ROOM for a few minutes that morning. Instead of trying to help a collective group of 11 year-olds extrapolate their personal struggles from a general lesson, I could get right to the issue and set each of them a task to help him/her move forward with what he/she needed. The kids who were "getting it," could work on enriching their understanding - and could check in with me if the going got too tough. The kids who weren't got more time with me to revisit and review the core concept. Even the kid who sometimes makes me want to crawl under a desk and hide learned something that morning.
He proved it, that afternoon, when the kids who were present in the morning got to "teach" the lesson to those orchestra kids who missed it (who caught up pretty easily because they were motivated). He was so proud of himself!I think it was that student who prompted me to write this post. Because for him, even more than for me, size mattered. With a smaller class he got the attention he needed to actually learn something.
As citizens and voters, we need to remember that. One or two extra kids might not seem like a big deal, but they are. They add up quickly. That one kid who needed a little extra help? He might be yours.
