So I have been wearing a fanny pack to school to teach every day since the beginning of school. I take every opportunity I get to joke about it! I even wore the fanny pack to parent night. No one asked about it, but I found myself wondering what the parents were thinking.
I had two girls tell me I was one of the best dressed teachers at school! (I don't think that's a result of the fanny pack!) I also get to be a teacher sponsor for a HUGE student council event. I have a team of 12 students and we compete in field day like evens for high school students. I joked with the kids that asked me to be their sponsor that I didn't think anyone would ask me because I was wearing a fanny pack. They laughed and said, "Oh, we asked you because you wear a fanny pack!"
On a more serious note, the first test of the semester is coming up, and if I'm honest, I'm really looking forward to the break. It's nice to be able to sit for a day. It's incredible how much running around I do in my small classroom. I'm nervous that the kids aren't going to do as well as I want them to. I think it will be the same situation it's been every year. The kids that are really trying and putting the effort in will be successful on the test.
I think these are the reasons I feel a little worried/stressed about the upcoming tests:
1. I haven't given the kids homework answers. Some of them may have been doing every single problem wrong, and they don't even know it. I know there are answers to half of the problems in the back of the book, but we're giving review problems that cover algebra 1 topics on a worksheet, and the students don't have any way to know how they're doing on those problems.
2. When talking with some other teachers after school, I feel like we're still in the "I do" stage of the gradual release of responsibility. We have a test in 2 days, but I still feel like I need to show them how to do some problems? Is that because the problems are harder/different or because the kids aren't ready?
3. I only walked around to look at homework twice this week. I know other teachers have done spot checks much more often, and I wonder if that will negatively affect my kids or give them the impression that they can get away with doing less homework. They know I'm going to collect it all, and give completion points for every assignment at the end of the unit, but I wonder if any of my students will wait until the very end of the unit and try to do them all.
4. I wanted to contact the parents of all the students who don't have a calculator yet or haven't done their homework yet, but setting up that email and getting all their email addresses is a huge task. It takes so much longer than it should... I should make it my goal to send some of those emails during the test days at the end of this week.
One thing I'm feeling really good about this week is my inner feeling of confidence in differentiation. Tomorrow I'm going to give it a shot. I have an anchor activity. It's nothing fancy. Just 3 warm up questions and a short review assignment. Yesterday I had the kids fill in a self assessment to rank their understanding for each topic on the test. I have 3 short questions I'm going to address at the beginning of class that I believe everyone will benefit from seeing. Then I'm going to put kids who said they had high to medium understanding in groups of 2 or 3 together. Then I'm going to have the kids who ranked themselves at a very low understanding in a group with me so I can help the kids who need it most. We also have an amazing Math Resource Teacher who might come into my classroom during at least one period where I have a couple students who could really benefit from some extra help, so in that period, she might be able to work specifically with that group while I help the rest of the class as needed.
I had two girls tell me I was one of the best dressed teachers at school! (I don't think that's a result of the fanny pack!) I also get to be a teacher sponsor for a HUGE student council event. I have a team of 12 students and we compete in field day like evens for high school students. I joked with the kids that asked me to be their sponsor that I didn't think anyone would ask me because I was wearing a fanny pack. They laughed and said, "Oh, we asked you because you wear a fanny pack!"
On a more serious note, the first test of the semester is coming up, and if I'm honest, I'm really looking forward to the break. It's nice to be able to sit for a day. It's incredible how much running around I do in my small classroom. I'm nervous that the kids aren't going to do as well as I want them to. I think it will be the same situation it's been every year. The kids that are really trying and putting the effort in will be successful on the test.
I think these are the reasons I feel a little worried/stressed about the upcoming tests:
1. I haven't given the kids homework answers. Some of them may have been doing every single problem wrong, and they don't even know it. I know there are answers to half of the problems in the back of the book, but we're giving review problems that cover algebra 1 topics on a worksheet, and the students don't have any way to know how they're doing on those problems.
2. When talking with some other teachers after school, I feel like we're still in the "I do" stage of the gradual release of responsibility. We have a test in 2 days, but I still feel like I need to show them how to do some problems? Is that because the problems are harder/different or because the kids aren't ready?
3. I only walked around to look at homework twice this week. I know other teachers have done spot checks much more often, and I wonder if that will negatively affect my kids or give them the impression that they can get away with doing less homework. They know I'm going to collect it all, and give completion points for every assignment at the end of the unit, but I wonder if any of my students will wait until the very end of the unit and try to do them all.
4. I wanted to contact the parents of all the students who don't have a calculator yet or haven't done their homework yet, but setting up that email and getting all their email addresses is a huge task. It takes so much longer than it should... I should make it my goal to send some of those emails during the test days at the end of this week.
One thing I'm feeling really good about this week is my inner feeling of confidence in differentiation. Tomorrow I'm going to give it a shot. I have an anchor activity. It's nothing fancy. Just 3 warm up questions and a short review assignment. Yesterday I had the kids fill in a self assessment to rank their understanding for each topic on the test. I have 3 short questions I'm going to address at the beginning of class that I believe everyone will benefit from seeing. Then I'm going to put kids who said they had high to medium understanding in groups of 2 or 3 together. Then I'm going to have the kids who ranked themselves at a very low understanding in a group with me so I can help the kids who need it most. We also have an amazing Math Resource Teacher who might come into my classroom during at least one period where I have a couple students who could really benefit from some extra help, so in that period, she might be able to work specifically with that group while I help the rest of the class as needed.
Comments
Post a Comment