Comparisons

A high school freshman friend of mine from a nearby school district was in his very first high school drama production tonight. He, along with the rest of the cast, did an incredible job with very difficult material (Shakespeare). I was thoroughly entertained. However, before the play began I couldn't help but compare the students at my friend's school to the students at my school. What I noticed was the stark contrast between how old the students look. The students at my friend's school look like high school students. The students at my school, however, look more like adults to me. (This is part of the reason I get so frustrated when they don't act like adults.) I wonder if this difference comes from the socio-economic backgrounds of the students (semi-urban vs. suburban), or if it just has to do with the population of students attending and performing in the show. (From my experience, drama kids tend to be a little less mature than the general population... I can say this because I was a drama kid.) I suppose I'll have my answer when I attend the play at my own school.

Feeling Prepared... sort of

For a couple weeks I've been feeling sub-par about the lessons I've been creating. I feel as though every day is a little bit rushed, and as though I'm making it up as I go. That's not how I usually am. I like being overly prepared. So today I made a big effort to be completely prepared for tomorrow (including writing down all the important, thought-provoking questions I need to ask). As a result, I feel more relaxed tonight. I'm able to enjoy my night because I know that I don't need to worry about tomorrow.

It is nice to know, however, that I'm able to sort-of "wing it" when I need to. Not that I ever actually teach on-the-fly. I always have an agenda in mind. But not knowing all the details of how I would present information was nerve-wracking at first. It's becoming less and less of a big deal.

At the same time that I'm beginning to feel more prepared on a daily basis, I know there are a million little things that I have yet to do. It's taking so much effort keeping up with the daily stuff, that I can't seem to make time to do the once-a-semester tasks I need to get done. Part of this is due to the busy weekends I've been having. Today I got to walk through my city for the first time in weeks. I realized how much I missed doing that. I think I need a weekend at home, just catching up on work and being in my city.

Getting Sick

I'm getting sick. Complete with a runny nose and a cough. But with only 4 school days left until Thanksgiving break, I want to make sure I get to a good stopping point for each of my classes. That means a big push to finish up quadrilaterals by Friday, then review on Monday and test on Tuesday. I think it's possible. But it means my students and I need to buckle down and get some real work done. Since we'll no longer be spending 20 minutes each class on the midterm project, I think we'll be able to do it.

The point is that I feel like I can't take a sick day. It's just not a good time to get sick, so I'm deciding I won't. It's all mind over matter anyway, right?

On an unrelated topic, I needed to hit up staples tonight, and I forgot. Oops. Guess that's a project for prep block tomorrow... Which means I need to go in early again... ugh.

Camera Phones

Today's lesson using the camera phones went REALLY well!!! The kids were so excited to use their cell phones, and they were reasonably good about getting back on time. (Not great... Most were a couple minutes late. But reasonably good.) I set up a new email address through gmail and had them text me their pictures. They look great. My favorites are here.

Did you know that the bottom of an exit sign is a hollow triangular prism? That's how my students got the first shape here. Then there's the rhombus, which I never thought they'd get. And I love the kite that they found on the floor. I also like the picture of the triangles and rectangles together, just because it's kinda cool.

Really Cool Lesson Plan Idea

I've got such a cool lesson plan idea. I want my kids to go around the school and find examples of the special quadrilaterals we've been talking about and take pictures of them with their camera phones, and then send the pictures to me. The question is, will administration go for it? After all, if I even see a cell phone I'm supposed to send the student with said phone to the office to give it up. Also, it's not necessarily good practice to have my students just randomly roaming the halls (even if they do this during their bathroom breaks anyway).

So, I guess the next step is to email or just talk with my headmaster to see (1) if it's ok to do, and (2) what steps I need to take so that my students don't get in trouble during their search. I'll let you know how my conversation goes.

Shakespeare on Classroom Management

A little fire is quickly trodden out;
Which, being suffered, rivers can not quench.
-William Shakespeare
King Henry VI

See? Even Shakespeare understands that classroom management has to do with staying on top of the little things. A couple of my girls decided to create a water gun out of a Dasani bottle today. What a great way to end the day. (In case you're mis-reading the previous sentence, read it again with twice as much sarcasm.) I suppose I should have had my eyes open for something like that... But then again, why? Why should I have to be prepared to deal with a situation like that? I mean, shouldn't these kids know better than this?

Yeah, yeah... they're kids and they're learning to know better. But by the time I was 15 or 16 I know that I wouldn't have pulled a stunt like that in the classroom. (Ok... re-reading that sentence, I feel a couple decades older.)

I've instituted a policy that my students can no longer stand by the door before they leave because too many of them (read greater-than-or-equal-to 1 of them) leave early and disrupt other classes in the hall. This policy has worked well, though they're beginning to come closer to the door each day. I need to remind them that they should be at their seats until the bell rings. So, I'm slowly (very slowly) getting this classroom-management thing down.

One of the "best practices" of teaching involves the phrase, "Don't smile before Christmas." For those of you who aren't up on your teacher lingo, this translates to "Be strict at first because it's always easier to lighten up than it is to gain back some control." This is a ridiculous thing to tell first-year teachers. They don't (or at least, I didn't) have any way of knowing how strict is too strict/ not strict enough. I was a "good kid" in high school. I didn't get into trouble. I never had a teacher have to call home. I never even got detention. So, I don't completely understand what to do or say to kids who aren't like that. My experience gives me no precedence to follow.

What I have learned is exactly what Shakespeare is talking about: if you catch problems early, they can be "quickly trodden out." I've also learned that by cutting the learning into smaller and smaller pieces, students are less likely to become frustrated or bored. So they do their work and cause minimal problems.

Grading

The picture on the right is the stack of work I need to grade this weekend. Ugh... Never again will I leave grading until the last minute.

Stacking Squares... Again.

Today I gave my honors students the stacking squares activity I'd already used with my middle-level students. As I'd hoped, they did very well. I did my best to not give much (if any) information about how to solve the problem. And I'm noticing that they're using many different strategies to solve. We've only spent about 20 minutes on it so far. Tomorrow will be the real test.