There have been a few days that after my lesson is over I say to myself "well, that sucked". I think that most of the lessons that I think don't go well are the ones that I just have the students practice the math procedure individually. I know that I shouldn't have them doing activities or playing math games everyday and sometimes the best to learn something is just to practice it, but those days are awfully boring. Earlier this week the principal of the school and the head of the math department wandered into my room for an informal observation. They just happen to choose my strongest class (the classes are separated by mathematical ability- but one of my classes just turned out to be the smallest and the most advanced by far). This class is full of students who are comfortable and confident in math and thus they like to just put their heads down and work most of the time. So when the principal walked in to my class it was supposed to be during the work time- where the students work together with the people around them on the given problems. But instead this particular class was sitting quietly at their desks completely their work silently. I was mortified. I wanted them to talk! (I'm sure I'll regret saying that sooner or later) I wanted them to ask questions and be checking answers with each other. But- nope! They just wanted to sit quietly and work. Ugh. I late spoke to the head of the math department about it and apologized for them walking into the class during the quiet boring part. I told her that they were the smart ones who just like to work and she quickly told me not to apologize and that it was quite impressive that all the students were on task and knew exactly what they should be doing. I suppose she's right- can't be all fun and games all the time. And the last time that they were in my room the students were doing group work on a 'top secret data analyst project for the government' - so now they've seen some fun group work and some serious practice time.
Yoda has become part of the Miss P Algebra experience. As my students display 'mastery' (they show me on a test or quiz that they really understand a topic) they earn checks. If a student earns a check on a quiz then their name (written on a brightly colored, 4 inch light sabor) is pinned up on the Math Masters bulletin board- right next a nice 3 foot cut out of Yoda. Thus as they earn more checks and become math masters they earn their place on the board next to Yoda- the ultimate Jedi Master. I'm very very proud of this board! Some of the kids think it's cool, some think it's lame. Many of my students from last year have commented on how they think it's great and how I make math fun and how they miss me (which is very nice to hear!)
I gave my first quiz a few weeks ago, unfortunately I made it way to easy! Most of my students earned As on the quiz and finished in half the allotted time. I'm giving another, longer quiz next week which should be a bit more challenging. The students also have a big project due tomorrow. They have to come up and perform 3 surveys and report their results in tables and graphs (1 histogram, 1 scatterplot and 1 box and whisker plot). I paired them up and gave them a week to do the project. Needless to say, today after school I had more people in my room asking questions and wanting to work than I have all year and I've received about 10 emails in the past 5 hours asking questions. It will most certainly be interesting to see how they do on the project. I think most of them will do alright- the ones who put forth a little effort and time into the project, while the students who just started today after school may not be so successful.
I went on my f
irst field trip as a teacher this week! It was quite the adventure! Consider this: it's 9 am on a wednesday. You're in charge of 40 13-14 year olds. You're going to a park in New York city so the students can complete a wor
ksheet about green spaces. BUT before you can get this 40 rowdy students to the park you have to take them on the... dun. dun. dun... SUBWAY! Oy! We had to get special forms so that we could take 43 people on the subway (we got let in through the door, not the turn style), then we all had to get down there- that was the easy part. Then we had to ALL get on the same subway car and try to ignore the evil eyes and bad looks from the other adults on the train saying 'oh god- look at all these damn kids' as all the students were talking and bumping into everyone else. Then we had to make sure they all got off the car at the right stop and get back to street level. Then we did a head count- AND drumroll... we didn't lose anyone! We had a close call though- one of the students had foun
d his way into another group accidentally, so when we should have counted 41 we counted 40 and almost died. But, the missing boy was found shortly and our heart rates returned to normal. The time at the park was nice. It was a nice day and the kids weren't too annoying. They mostly just complained about the worksheet they had to do while wandering up and down the park. I told them it was better than doing the worksheet in school- right? After about 2 hours we had to pack them all up and headed back down to school- with all 41 kids in tow.On a non-educational note: Zach and I are currently homeless nomads wandering around new york city... Our lease ended on our old apartment at the end of september which was okay when our new apartment was supposed to be ready on October 1st. But then it got pushed back to October 15ht... THEN it got pushed back to November 1st. UGH. So we sublet a place on the upper west side for two weeks now we're subletting a place in the far west village for two more weeks. Fingers crossed the new place is ready November 1st... this living out a suit case thing in one small room with no kitchen to cook in is no fun at all.
