Over Teaching?

What does this mean?

As a sit on my couch on a Saturday night and write my lesson plans for the week, a comment made to me during PTCs keeps running through my head.

I had a parent say to me that her daughter (who, mind you, is 15 years old) made a comment that I was over teaching. I was shocked to say the least, but my response back was this, "I teach to the mid-level student, you daughter is slightly above the mid-level student. I follow the curriculum in the book, and I do examples that support that curriculum".

I usually discuss content definitions/theorems and then do 3-5 examples depending on the content. I make the students think about the next step in each problem and then tell me what should be done. I want it to be more hands on, but I have been told to pick up the pace, so I am doing the best I can with the time restraints given to me.

Now, I ask you...what is over teaching?

Week in Review

Well this wasn't as busy as a week as I thought it was going to be...but I am writing this before it is officially over, so we'll see. And I am only getting to write this in the middle of the day because all my Geometry classes are taking an end of the chapter test.

I started off this week writing a blog about staying positive, which I am having a really hard time doing. For several reasons:

a) some of my students, and some of their parents

b) confidence in my ability to be teaching this subject

c) my desire to be wanting to teach this subject

d) the demands of my job not related to the classroom

As I started the week telling myself I was going to be positive. I was able to put a few things into perspective and I think it helped. Even coworkers have made comments on the change in my attitude. I know that October is a really bad time of the year for me. I let the decrease in day light really effect me, and I don't start to make a change until it is too late. I upped the amount of vitamin D that I take and I tried to recognize when I got down.

As this week went on I realized that I am doing ok. Of course, there is always room for improvement, and I know that. And I keep going back to advice that Miss Calculate got from one of her readers, Emily..."You want to be the best teacher that you can be, and that won't happen if you spread yourself too thin. Remind yourself that you only need to get half way to perfection this year, the rest can happen next year."

My connections with students are improving. There is a more carefree attitude in my classroom. There is more laughter. I had a boyfriend in grad school that went to Africa for a time a few weeks. He came back with a piece of cloth that the women there wear. On it was written in the native language (I can't remember which country he went to, so I can't remember the official language) "Your laughter puts me at ease". And even though that relationship is long over and we have both moved on with our lives, on completely different paths, I still have that piece of cloth in the bottom of a tupperware bin, not because it was from him, but because it was really cool! And I still think about it occasionally. This being a perfect time to talk about it. When my students are giggling, when I can giggle...there is so much ease in my classroom.

We started parent-teacher conferences last night. I was really nervous, for several reasons.

a) I didn't want to take to the parents that I have talked to several times via phone or email. I mean what else do I have to say?

b) I didn't want to talk to a mother of a boy that I recently suggested that he move back to Algebra, even though the boy als0 felt he could be more successful if he went back (this student took Algebra as an 8th grader, and was a freshman in Geometry)

c) I was worried that there were going to be conversations with parents about my need to differentiate, in both directions

d) I was afraid I was going to hear that students really disliked my class.

At the end of the night here's how I felt.

1) I enjoyed the way PTCs were set up at our school. Rather than teachers being in their rooms by themselves, secluded from the heros that would sweep in if you were getting chewed out by a teacher, we were all in the commons together. All the round tables of the school were put in there and teachers were only separated by 4 feet or so. Which was awesome. I could watch the interactions happening at the other tables. And I felt safe if an of those "crazy" parents decided to try to corner me.

2) I saw those parents that I have communicated with via phone or email walking around...they didn't come see me. Which is FINE with me! But I was prepared to say several things to them, to defend my teaching style, methods, and philosophies. To let them know that I am well aware of their students copying answers out of the back of the book for homework, and that was probably why they were doing well on quizzes/tests. I was also prepared to invite them to my classroom to join class any day if they had a question about what was actually happening in my classroom.

3)I did speak to the mother of the boy that went back to Algebra...she was totally on board!

4)I did have a few discussion that centered around "what are you doing for my gifted child". One father said to me "Well, I'm an engineer, and I understand this stuff, so why aren't you doing this. And isn't geometry about tiling?" My response, "Oh, I'm and engineer too, undergrad and masters..." Him "Here in Colorado?" Me "No, I went to Syracuse UNiversity. And yes there is Geometry involved in tiling, but this is a proofs based Geometry class, so that is what we are focusing on." And he went on and on about needing to see the book. I said "Go-go gadget ear muffs!"

Another mother suggested that I allow her student to have a journal inclass. "Wouldn't it be great if she could journal about what is going on? I know that you are teaching to the low students in that class...juniors and seniors...she is getting bored." Me "Well I believe it is important for all students to be part of the discussions. Geometry is very unlike any other math, because it is based on proves and the students aren't quite sure on the process yet. Even if she thinks she gets it, there is always another theorem or postulate to learn. I am happy to challenge her more on the homework, but she needs to learn to be attentive in class." So I am sticking to my guns. I am not going to make more work for myself.

5) I had some great discussions with parents about how the kids like my class. I was surprised...but happy. And several students that I didn't expect it from.

All in all the first night of conferences went well, I can only hope that tonight is as smooth.

Lastly, I am feeling really good about my decision to grade on a 5 point scale. I think it is going to make my grading a little easier. And this way I don't need to try to figure out point value prior to the test, I just say "All problems worth 5 pts".

All in all, it has been one of the better weeks. I hope I am not jinxing myself!

Starting Off a Busy Week Positive

I have been struggling a lot lately with my decision to be a teacher. At first it was just the thoughts of "Why did I take a $10,000 pay cut?" or "Man it would be wonderful to go out to lunch to day and have a beer." (which I did often as an engineer). But then it turned to really doubting myself and my ability to do this job.

Three jobs in three years, with no guarantee of having a job next year, starts to play with your mind. The students that make your job even harder, the doing your job during every waken moment...this is the story of my life right now.

Am I meant to be in this job? Do I really want to be doing this job? And then the idea of teaching Geometry...AAAAAHHHHHAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!

Last week I started the week being pretty miserable. But this week I am going to try to stay a little more positive. I know that the problem students are not being a problem because of me, they are a problem for everyone. I know that everyone is stressed. I know that I am doing a good job, per my observation last week, and that I won't ever be perfect, so why try to be. I still know more than any student in my classroom, and really do they know a bad lesson from a good lesson. I need to make more time for myself, and things will get done. Probably not on the time frame that I have been trying to hold myself to...just a little longer.

I need to stop letting students control the decisions that I make, and not to let their comments effect my plan going forward. Of course they are going to bitch about the number of homework problems that I give them each night or that a quiz is 50 pts, "That's more like a test!", although quizzes are 20% of their grade and tests are 40%. These students are not my peers, their parents are not people that I socialize with and are not the ones making the decision about my job.

I know I can survive, but I am not sure that I want to. Do I really want to teach?

New Way of Grading?

Ok, I think I am going to try something new with grading. Not sure that I should be doing this at the end of the quarter, but I don't see what the difference is really.

Here's the idea: Students earn their grades, right? So why have I been taking points "off" on test/quizzes? Why haven't I been giving students the points that they earned on each problem. In the past I have be subtracting 1, 2, 3, etc. points when they make a mistake, but this time around I am going to give them 5, 4, 3, etc points that they earned with the work they have done. Isn't this essentially the same thing?

I have been reading a few blogs lately that focus on Standard Based Grading (SBG) (Miss Calculate, Pt of Inflection, f(t), amongst a few others), and it is not what happens in my school, but I really believe that it is the way to go, and I am hoping that I will be in this position next year so this summer I could work on implementing SBG in a way into my classroom (right now I am just trying to get the content out to the students in a cohesive, understandable way).

Ok, so back to my new way of grading. I am going to try this:

• 0. Has not demonstrated any skill or understanding (i.e wrote nothing down)
• 1. Hasn't completed much work on the problem (tried to start the problem, but really there is no conceptual understanding of the problem)
• 2. Has completed a little more work on the problem but, still lacking the conceptual understanding of the problem, and is making mechanical errors (i.e. computation errors)
• 3. More understanding of the concept, but using wrong thing to solve the problem (i.e, used Alt. Int. angles when they should have used Corres. angles, or said that corresponding angles are supplementary when they are really congruent).
• 4. Has demonstrated mastery of the skill, but is making mechanical errors ( i.e. Set up problem correctly but did 3y = 108, y =39, or forgetting to carry a negative through.
• 5. THe problem is done correctly, correct set up, correct explanation, no mechanical errors, all formulas shown correctly.

Students can earn half points. An example of this would be the student did the problem correctly but did not write any formulas down (I am HUGE on writing the formula every new problem you do).

I am sure I will get some fights from the students on this because of not really understanding (the same students that complain a quiz is worth 50pts, saying that is like a quiz, but quizzes are worth 20% of their grade and tests are worth 40%, also the same students that would complain if I put $1M in front of them). But I am going on the fact that students EARN grades, and I shouldn't be taking points away from them.

I ask you, readers (if there are any out there): Is it ok to change to this way? I really think I am not doing anything differently, just adding points instead of subtracting. Opinions?

Trying to be more hands on...

So earlier this month I attended the regional NCTM conference in Denver. I am very lucky that a regional conference ended up being so close to me, but not so lucky in that I ended up having to pay for it myself and that I was the only person to attend from my district. But I pushed to be able to go and I am soooooo glad that I did. There were so many great things that I am little by little trying to implement in my classroom. I saw a great response by a reader of MissCalcul8; this reader told her that "this year you only have to get half way to perfection". It is my new mantra!!!!

Ok so on to the idea that I am going to try tomorrow. I went to a great hands-on workshop by Gary Kubina (I tried to google him but not much came up, so no link), it was called 'Hands-On/Minds-On Geometry". One of the activities that he did was called 'Planes & Lines'. You were given two lines (straws) and two planes (index cards) and you needed to model certain situations, such as, 'a line intersects a plane at a point', 'two parallel planes', 'two planes intersect in a line', etc. It was AWESOME, why didn't I think of this when I was desperately trying to get my students to understand a 2-D picture was a 3-D situation. So I am going to try it tomorrow as we start to talk about Parallel Lines & Transversals.

Here is how I am going to implement it (my students sit at tables of two):

Each table will have 1 ziplock bag with 4 index card, with holes punched in two locations (2 per student) and 4 straws (2 per student).

Using the items in the zip-lock each student will have to model the following situations, they may not have to use all four items for each situation:

• A line intersects a plane at a point
• two lines are skew lines
• two planes are parallel
• a line is parallel to a plane
• two planes are parallel
• two planes intersect in a line
• two lines intersect in a point
• two lines intersection a plane in two distinct points, the two lines are skew

I think there are some classes that are going to love this. Then I think there will be some kids who wouldn't be happy if there were a Million dollars in the bag too.

Here's hoping it goes well.

Struggling with In Class Examples

I am struggling with in class examples. I am not sure what to do. Here's my problem: Algebra examples are easy for the kids to copy because it is usually an equation/expression or a short prompt. Geometry examples tend to be much longer and my students are not quick with the quill if you know what I mean. So what do I do? I have been getting phone calls from parents (ok just one parent) saying that I have not gone over concepts prior to assigning HW, which I know is not the case and typically spread a lesson over two days to make sure that we spend time on examples.

I would love to be able to give each student a copy of the ppt slides (I do this so that I don't have to write every example, and project it directly to my white board. I am toying with the idea of giving each student a half of sheet of paper with the prompts. But in this time of budget crunches...can I really use all that paper.

I don't do the book problems because I have found that students don't pay attention or process the information as well because the answers are right there, so I use the additional examples from the Teacher's addition.

What do I do?

NCTM, Denver 2010

WOW!! 2 fun filled days of math. I learned so much. Hoping I can find the time to get everything up here, but since I have posted since the end of August, maybe winter break will be a good time.