CCHS students experience math on the move

By Gwendolyn Gray 
Special to The Leader-Press

Algebra I students at Copperas Cove High School are experiencing something different for ten days. Rather than have their traditional math classes for 90 minutes with the same teacher they have had all year, they have three mini-classes over the same content presented by three different teachers in the same period.  Students from three 90-minute classes have been regrouped and spend 25 minutes in a lesson before moving to a new teacher. They review a lesson, work with a white board activity, and then do a game activity.
“I like that the rotations help some things click and that it is a different look,” student Ayanna McClelland said.
Students and teachers work hard all year long to master content area in all subjects to be prepared for whatever their post-secondary goals might be.  Before graduation, students faced the STAAR tests in their core subjects.  To help ease the stress, they reviewed the content skills most likely to be tested and changed up the eight-month routine; the students worked with three teachers with some new classmates in one traditional period.
Krystal Meredith, CCHS Math Department Chairman and Algebra I teacher, has used the “three-in-one” prep strategy in her individual classroom in prior years to review for the STAAR test.
“Sometimes a student has heard the concept explained by a teacher multiple times and by their classmates, and it just doesn’t click.  Another teacher says the same thing, shows the same sample, but just inflects something different and the student has that ‘ah-ha’ moment.  If we can give that to our students, then it is really worth it,” Meredith said.
Partner activities, team competitions, white board races, and gallery walks are just some of the activities teachers spent a weekend planning, taking ideas from Survivor, family games like Jenga, and even the current trend of puzzle rooms.   
Algebra I student Samantha Carlton likes the idea of learning new things from different teachers in different styles.  
“I think that people who have different learning styles than the way their teacher teaches get a chance to have that one little thing click in their head,” Carlton said.  “I like that we are learning from three different points of view from different people. “