Skip to main content

Thoughts After Spring Break

Well, it was easier to come back then I thought it would be. I'm exhausted, behind in the million things that need to be done, and haven't quite fixed my sleeping schedule, but the kids have been mostly great since returning. They came back Monday ready to jump back into learning which encouraged me to jump right back into teaching, so it's been a productive few days.

We aren't learning anything new this week. I think that helps a lot. We're not overwhelming the kids with brand new difficult concepts their first day back to school. We're spending a week doing what we call an "Insert." We review 4 big topics for 4 days. Then on Friday we'll take a test for the second time over these 4 big topics. It will be a chance for many kids to learn the material a lot better and improve their scores from the first time they took a test over this same stuff.

A funny story: Today I watched a kid throw a carrot over a railing and down some stairs at another kid. I confronted the carrot-thrower. He denied everything even though I saw it clearly, he was eating a carrot while talking to me, and had additional carrots in his pocket. (We also have cameras that I'm sure caught everything.) I'm interested to see what he receives for the carrot throwing. Word has it he was throwing stuff at lunch earlier too, and I saw probably 10 different carrots in different spots throughout the hallway later on...

Something positive: Yesterday a few kids were asking me "Life Questions." One of my students has some mad skills at interviewing so he would ask me questions between every few practice problems. One of his questions was what I was most passionate about. I was able to tell them immediately that my faith was the thing I was most passionate about. I couldn't really have the conversation that I would have loved to have with them because I don't want to get in trouble, so I steered it back to math, but those things inspire me because I feel so much more accountable for the character that my kids see in me. (It is a little bit sad that they will be a silent captive audience if we're talking about pretty much anything but math...)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

God - Brilliant Mathematician and Trusting His Power

I've been working on creating a visual to go with Psalm 91 in desmos (a free online graphing software). Here's what I've come up with so far: I tried to show the fowler's snare (bottom left), deadly pestilence/plague/Corona virus (bottom right), the fortress of the Most High, an eagle with wings to give us refuge and protection, and a shield and rampart to represent God's faithfulness which will protect us from the "arrow that flies by night." To make my picture, I've typed in 181 mathematical equations so far. Here are just a few of them so you can get a better idea of what I'm talking about even if you don't totally understand the equations. I was reflecting (for the thousandth time) on how my understanding of mathematics leads me to a deeper understanding of God and his power. When I was first learning how to graph I started by plotting points. If I wanted to graph just one single line, I might graph two or all of these points an...

God and Classroom Management

Ezekiel 20:11-13 "I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws," (God gave clear and consistent expectations. I would bet he made sure they were available in multiple formats so people could both read and hear them.) "for the man who obeys them will live by them." (I have way more wisdom and knowledge, not to mentioned a fully developed frontal lobe. I know the results of those bad choices already, so seriously, listen to me for your own good...) "Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would know that I the Lord made them holy." (Here I imagine God feels like I do when I spend hours planning a hands-on lesson that would make me curious and excited as a student. I bet he looked forward to the Sabbath because he imagined how excited he would be as a human to have this day to rest and appreciate what a great and loving God they have. He wants us to know he loves us and wants what's best for us, just like I want my ...

School vs. Real Life

I read a post on facebook today about things in the real world that students don't learn in school. It got me thinking about how we spiral everything in Geometry and Algebra 2. Here's how it works... We teach a brand new unit for about 2 weeks. During that time, we review something from a particular previous unit each day so that by the end of those two weeks, they have learned all the new material a little bit each day and reviewed all the "spiral" material a little bit each day. Then we give two tests, one over the new material and one over the "spiral" material. By doing this, they will experience all material once as new and a second time as spiral. This will allow them to take two tests over every unit. Their first test score affects their grade, but if they score higher on the second test, they get to keep just the higher score. If they score lower on the second test, we average the two test scores. Most students score higher on the second test becau...