I will begin with a confession: I am probably the worst person to be writing a
blog article about cross-curricular ideas.
I collaborate lots…with my fellow high-school math teachers. After all, we are passionate about “our”
subject. At our school, math and science
teachers share the same floor…the top one.
There are some days that once I enter our domain, I don’t step foot in
another area of the school until I exit in the afternoon. I have limited opportunity to mingle with
teachers of other subjects during the day unless the copiers on our floor are
both jammed, and I have to hunt for a working copier. So, I accepted this blog topic as a challenge
to myself. How can I become better at
collaborating across the curriculum?
Perhaps someone else can learn from my (in)experience.
First,
I had to answer the question for myself:
Why should I care about cross-curricular collaboration? I found one answer sitting right in front of
me: my students. Surprisingly, most of them are not as
passionate about the subject of mathematics as I am. In fact, they sometimes ask pesky questions
like “Why do we have to learn this?” and “When am I ever going to use this?”. For some topics, I have my responses ready
before they ask the questions. For other
topics, there are always, “It’s on the ACT” or “It will help you become a more
logical thinker,” but those sound empty even as they leave my mouth. In addition to my students, I found a second
answer around me: my colleagues. Our principal is very good at motivating us
to be team players. We are, in fact, on
the same team when it comes to educating students, so it follows that we can benefit
from each other’s areas of expertise and help each other.
So,
if cross-curricular collaboration can benefit me, my colleagues, and ultimately
my students, how can I make it happen in my classroom? Since I have already confessed to being
deficient in this area, I will admit that I googled it. If you are an elementary or middle-school
teacher, let me tell you that there are loads of resources out there ready for
the teaching! For high-school math
teachers, there are…some. I found a
couple of pretty neat lessons/units, but they unfortunately did not tie into
the standards that I’m supposed to be teaching this year. Some of the most exciting information I found
involved schoolwide efforts with grade-level teams of teachers writing
interdisciplinary units of study. Of course,
this also included giving these teachers days to plan together, as well as
massive feats of common scheduling, not realistic for my current teaching
situation. HELP! Is this impossible at the high-school
level? What advice can I give? Here’s what I took away from my research
efforts:
1. Begin with those closest to you. For me, that would be our science teachers,
and math and science are a natural pairing.
I found that science teachers already teach a lot of math. In fact, it’s the same math I teach! I need to talk to these teachers to better
understand how they apply mathematical concepts. “When will you use this? Tomorrow in chemistry class!”
2. Get to know those “other subjects.” How many of you have read the ELA and
Social Studies standards? Okay, me
neither, but I will, because I have come to understand that it is a necessity
for interdisciplinary efforts. I may
never have the opportunity to team-teach with an English teacher, but I can
find ways to reinforce the standards they teach, if I know what they are,
without adding to my workload. Math
journals, research projects, reading articles related to math, lives of famous
mathematicians…these are just a few ways to get started.
3. CTE!!!
This was an eye-opening suggestion for me. I do not have to go far to find rigorous,
real-life, motivating topics to incorporate in my classroom. I just need to find out what CTE teachers are
teaching as they prepare students for various careers. We have wonderful CTE programs at our high
schools in Wilson County, and they have access to additional resources we may
not have as classroom teachers.
4. Explore community resources. I am sure I have sometimes been a pest when
discussing careers with friends, family, or a new acquaintance. A casual “What do you do?” can become a
grilling session, followed by “Oh? How interesting! What kind of training did that take? How do you use math in your job? What kind of math?”, etc. You get the
picture. However, I have gained a lot of
insight that I can take back to my classroom so that I am ready for “When will
I ever use this?”
5. Explore digital resources. I love not having to re-invent the
wheel! There are lots of tested and
tried cross-curricular lessons out there (admittedly, more for elementary and
middle school). In fact, it can be
overwhelming to sift through it all, so I would suggest beginning with a
specific topic in mind. The biggest
challenge here is the time involved, so I sometimes give myself a goal of
implementing one new concept per unit/month/year.
6. Talk to other teachers! This doesn’t just have to be at your own
school. I have learned a lot by
participating in workshops and forums that involve teachers from other schools
and counties. However, I am probably
going to be more likely to implement a cross-curricular effort with someone I
am in contact with on a regular basis.
Try asking another teacher about what they are currently teaching. Who knows?
It could be the beginning of a great collaboration!
No comments:
Post a Comment