Mrs. Evans Blog

Today I felt very productive when I accomplished more than usual during my planning period. The sad thing is, we still need to finalize the questions we're going to ask our kids to answer during the first class period tomorrow during our meetings before school. No matter how much work a teacher does, there is always more work to be done. Only part of our work actually involves teaching kids in the classroom. This part of our job requires being an entertainer, public speaker, sales person, behavior therapist, coach, cheerleader, and, oh yeah, teacher. To prepare for this part of our job we need to be creators, artists, organizers, writers, and researchers. This part of our job is just the planning that we have to do outside of class time (usually on our own time in the evenings and on the weekends) to even have something to teach/present to the class during the short time that we see our kids. Now lets consider the extra work of grading. In any other field, I'm faily confide...

This last week and a half I've tried inserting little fun things here and there. I'm by no means suggesting spending the first 15 minutes of class sharing funny stories and doing stuff that isn't at all math related, but I'll give you an example. Yesterday I started my power point by asking, "Would you rather... have a Corvette or a Camaro?" We took a vote and spent 20 seconds discussing what color we would want. The very next slide was about going on a road trip in our favorite car. We had to use the segment addition postulate to figure out which trip we would want to pay for the gas for. It was a simple way to make sure they understood the concepts of adding the parts to get the whole and checking their understanding of tick marks and congruent segments. The car discussion took probably less than a minute, but it gave every single student a chance to share their opinion and talk about something that they couldn't be wrong about. After that, we were able ...

I should probably knock on wood as I still have one period left : ) This week has been great. I have had to be strict already, though, so classroom management really does start immediately. You have to be ready to be consistent and lay down your expectations from the very beginning. Time has been an issue. A wiser teacher than I shared this with me. There are problems and there are issues. Problems have solutions. Issues don't. Time is an issue that will never be solved. We prepared a calendar that we were sure would be just fine. We thought we would be able to get through everything, but we ended up spending almost the entire class period reviewing. We spent the first 10 minutes doing Bell Ringers and checking homework. Then we spend 5 or 10 minutes going over the Bell Ringer questions. Then we spent the next probably 20 minutes going over homework problems. Is there a better way I could have handled the time spent checking homework today? I feel very strongly that I needed to...

Thoughts: I get nervous when preparing for the first ever lesson of the year. I imagine it sets the tone for the rest of the year. I worry if I have a boring first lesson if they'll make up their minds that my class sucks right off the bat. At the same time, if I can give them consistency, and explain something well and make sure they really understand day 1, then even if it's not the most exciting, they will appreciate that I'm able to give them the information they need to be successful. The first Geometry lesson is all about points, lines, and planes. A lot of the section is notation and identifying. That also involves comparing and just visually recognizing what it is you're looking at and how to interpret it. I want to focus quite a bit on comparing and contrasting. The other part of the lesson is things like "2 points make a line" and "2 planes intersect at a line," while "2 lines intersect at a point." To teach these things I don...

Hi Readers, I may not have any readers anymore, but I really liked the chance to reflect and put my thoughts into words. That means this blog will continue with my thoughts on math teaching! This year I am nervous that I will not grow from last year. I know this is ridiculous. I have already processed and learned so much that I cannot help but be a better teacher. What I need to focus on first and foremost is just that learning is happening in my classroom. If anything (whatever the intentions) is keeping learning from taking place, then I need to put a stop to it right away. By handling situations that stop learning the same way every time, I should have a very successful and enjoyable school year! The 3 P's: Prepared Participate in Learning Promote Learning (this means do your part to help OTHERS learn as well) Consequences: 1. Warning 2. 15-30 minute detention (A week to do) 3. Class Removal 4. Special Circumstances may warrant special consequences. I must remembe...

So today is my last day on the job here at Hy-Vee. I felt bad about being gone for an entire week and returning for just one day, but I feel like I've been able to once again jump right in, and hopefully I've been a benefit to have today. The team has been working on planning for upcoming trainings. We have been working all day in a team of four, and after an entire summer I can more clearly see each of our strengths. There is definitely some benefit to working with the same group of people to allow everyone to learn how they work together. I like the idea of keeping students in the same groups for a while so they can also reach this level of teamwork where they learn how they work together and what each of their strengths and weaknesses are so they can produce better products and learn more. I know that there is also benefit from giving the students opportunities to work with different people. In the business world you seem to have a close team you spend a lot of time working ...