Read Direction Much?

I ask you, what is UNCLEAR about the following statement:

"Put the letter of the answer on the line. Failure to do so will result in a score of zero for that problem"

Apparently everything!!! Multiple students received a score of zero on the first page of their Ch 1 test today.

I hate to read directions (that's why I don't bake), but it is a necessary evil of this world. I beg of you to please don't let students get away with NOT reading directions.

The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander

Barbara Coloroso...ever heard of her? If not look her up. She is a educator, who speaks about parenting, conflict resolution, and bullying.

She spoke to our students about bullying, they seemed engaged, but let's see if what she said translates to our school culture.

She then spoke to parents and community members. Again, she had great things to say.

I would write more, but I am so tired from this week. I will write more after I start reading her book 'The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander".

Gettin' Triggy With It...AMAZING!

Amazing. So hope that one day I can be this creative with my class.

Must watch Gettin' Triggy With it

Are you SURE??

Final reviews...I am kind of enjoying this time. Why you ask? Because I can give the students packet of problems and they have to do them. My room is quiet for the most part. I allow students to have side conversations, as long as they are doing math problems in between. I have given the students an answer bank, so as they do problems they can check to see if the answer is there.

Is it bad that I find joy in telling overly confident students that they are doing the problem wrong when they can't find there answer in the bank?

Now I am not mean about it. I try to tell them that they have only done half the problem or that they are missing a piece of information, or are they SURE that that's the height of the prism. But when they start to argue, I get a little defensive. I make mistakes...sure, and I admit them. But I have a few students that just never want to admit they are wrong.

End of the Year Review Woes!

I have NO idea how to review for the end of the year. My heart says, "Make it Fun, make it meaningful, make it so they REMEMBER!" But my head (or logically side) says "PLUG AND CHUG!"

There have been some great games posted on others' blogs lately. Miss Calcul8 has had Fish Pong and Ballon Pop. Bot of which I think are GREAT games. I think I may play Fish Pong in my pre-algebra class, but I am struggling with Geometry.

Why? Don't they deserve to have fun too?

Well, yes, but I don't know that I want to put myself through the stress. I am not up for the arguments that these students can put forth. I am not up to making sure that EVERYONE is participating, and trying to hold EVERYONE accountable. I am not up for making sure that my power point has no mistakes (I guess I could do problem on paper under my document camera) or taking the risk that my computer won't crash (you never know).

Is it harder/more time consuming to put together this review game, or to just make a review sheet? On top of continuing to unpack my apartment, to plan for Sophomore River Trip (I'm head program and more on JRT later), to try to find a summer job, and to try to figure out how to pay for a Grand Canyon Trip I have been invited on, I just don't want to be creative about end of the year review!

The positive...at least I am not searching for a job!

NTOTB

NTOB = New Teenager on the Block

I can't say that I have ever been the new kid or teenager on the block. I have been the new adult on the block, several times in the last decade, but that is sooooooo different than in those formable years.

We have a new student at school. How hard it must be to move to a new school with 30 days left to the school year. I'm going to call this student "Larry".

I received an email from our counselor on Tuesday afternoon with Larry's grades...straight A student. He was being placed into my Consumer Math class. And with only one male in their currently, I was excited that there would now be another one in there.

Yesterday, Larry joined us for class. He slept through a video that I showed on 'Extreme Couponing', and I thought "OH NO, is he really a straight A student". But when I passed out the worksheet on calculating discounts, he was the only student that didn't need some guidance. He responded to me with "Yes, Ma'am" or "No, Ma'am", something rarely heard in our high school. And I'll admit, I got excited.

Well my enthusiasm was short lived. Today, I couldn't get him to do anything for the first part of class. I don't believe he filled in any blanks while watching the video. When I passed out the worksheet for the day, he just sat there. When I approached him to see if he needed help getting started, he said, "Well, I'm just going to fail this class anyways."

This SHOCKED me. He is a straight A student coming into a class that everything is OpenNote. But then he elaborated:

"I don't want to be here. If I fail, I can go back to Florida. I'm never going to play football again, so why does it matter?"

I did speak to him in the hallway and tried to convince him to do the work because if he does get to go back to FL then he would go back with his straight As not with failing grades. And that he would want to keep up his grades so that he can play football in the fall.

Long story short: Larry is a new kid at school. He is lonely. He misses his friends. He probably misses the warm weather of FL on this February-like day in April in Colorado. I can't even imagine how he feels.

On my way home from school today, I saw Larry hitching a ride. I drove passed him and then turned around to give him a ride. I know, as a teacher I shouldn't be picking him up, but I just felt like I needed to.

I think he was surprise to see that it was one of his teachers. I asked him where he was going and if his father knew where he was. He was going to the restaurant (well, ok, its really a bar) a the bottom of the hill to my neighborhood. I asked him why. His response:

"Its the only place I get service so I can talk to my friends in FL". Ok, my heart officially broke.

So to add to the list of new school, feeling lonely, feeling cold, NOW he doesn't have cell phone service!?!?!???!?! (We live in a rural mtn community where only Verizon works).

Again, I can't even imagine. And yes, I have tears in my eyes, just thinking about this kid.

Facebook...a success?

Well, I think I did it. I think I made a Facebook page for my math classroom.

I was able to create a fan page, linked to my personal page. I created a fake account with an email that I don't really use to test it out. My fake account "liked" the page and the newsfeed post appeared.

I'm pretty sure that I am not able to link to my personal page because I am not "friends" with my fake page. When my fake account is on the classroom page, I can't find any way into my personal page. There isn't even a picture of me.

I went to a couple pages that I "liked", for example Kindle. I can't see other users profile pics, only when they post a comment. There are 799, 155 people that like the Kindle page, but I don't know who...this is what I want my classroom page to be like. And I think it is...

So why am I nervous to roll it out to my students...because I am afraid there is a super smart one that will be able to hack into my personal account.

ADDENDUM:

I now have 23 students that "like" my mathmaticious Facebook page. It seems to be working GREAT. My students had a take home quiz this week. One student posted he had about one of the questions...I am sure my response helped more than just him.

A student who was absent yesterday walked in today and said, "I was able to figure out the homework last night, I got the homework assignment from Facebook. It's so cool you have it." (P.S. this is a student that I had major problems with earlier in the school year...not sure what has changed, but she is doing soooooooo much better!!)

So if anyone out there is thinking about creating a page for their classroom...GO FOR IT!!!!! I am glad I did.