I have been flying by the seat of my pants for the last few weeks and have not had a chance to write, but I’ll give some quick updates.
–The first grading period ended successfully. Only a few of my students are failing so far. I am very pleased. Parent-Teacher-Conferences this month will dictate who I need to have more individual conferences with later in the term.
–The honeymoon is over and some of my friends have reclaimed their stake in the pool of defiant and disrespectful. However, I am yet to be moved. So far my friends and I have been able to come to compromises that work out alright for all involved. I am hoping to not raise my voice this year. This is a personal goal I hope to reach.
–I’ve had easily 20 people come to visit my classroom in the last two weeks. Teachers from the Math, History, and English departments have all come to observe in my classroom along with several District Office personel and the Assistant Principal and Principal. Talk about nerve-wracking. I’ve definitely been on the top of my gain as much as possible.
–With the new adoption fractions moved to the second unit of school. Fractions are always exciting (read painful) to teach. I”m not sure how well I did this year. It’s always difficult.
–I’m struggling more and more with teaching these kids some skills that really are not going to matter much to them in the real world. Yes, I know that math helps with logical thinking and etc, but really, there are more useful things to teach kids that could also help them develop logical thinking skills. I mean, when’s the last time you needed to be able to add fractions with unlike denominators? And when you did it, did you do it by hand or just put it in a calculator? And how many people do you know who are not math teachers who have done this? Honestly, I think those of us who teach math look for ways to incorporate what we teach to justify making the kids do it, but how much could we really cut for some more important life skills?
–Teaching two college classes and working full-time at the secondary level is a bit much. Having to go to job #2 three days a week and spending a lot of my home time grading is no good. I need to teach one more section next term, but otherwise I think I’ll cut back.
–Husband and I decided I would return to Rwanda next year. The university I traveled with is looking to create a more formal relationship with the university in Rwanda. Apparently there is funding available for universities willing to partner with third world countries in order to build up the country. Should be interesting. I’ll keep you posted.
–I’ve been getting up at 4:30 two days a week to go running. I fell one morning, so now I drive to the gym. It’s lame, but I enjoy feeling healthy.
–Off to bed. It’s too late for someone who gets up at 4:30. I’ll try to update on actual content and lessons soon. Tomorrow I’m teaching adding and subtracting positive and negative decimals. There will be review of the rules for combining numbers with different signs. I’ll be trying to find yet another way to teach this as some of my student still think that -1 + 3 is -4.
