Mrs. Evans Blog

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 k...

Differentiation is the buzz word in education right now. I think the focus needs to be on EQUITY. I agree that all students do not learn in the same way. I want to do a better job to give each student what he or she needs instead of a one size fits all education. Differentiation is different in math than it is in other classes, however. There aren't different levels of accomplishment in a math problem unless you want some students to simply solve while others can expain and write in depth about why their solution and process works. The problem is, what I'm teaching now, I can't split into levels. All students need to be able to do all types of problems that I present in class. A fellow math teacher pointed out to me today that differentiation in a math classroom often results in tracking. The students that struggle with unit 1 will probably struggle with unit 2 and will probably struggle with unit 3... You get the idea. Often the same students struggle with almost everyth...

I saw an interesting picture that someone posted on Facebook that made me think, so I thought I would share my thoughts in writing. I don't think this blog will have anything to do with teaching, but that's okay : ) Here's the picture... My first thought was, "Would he? I really can't picture kind mild shepherd Jesus holding a gun." I realized I had this crazy picture in my head of a younger skinny white man with a beard looking apprehensively at the gun in his hand like it's going to hurt him. This is a ridiculous picture of Jesus! Jesus was kind, fair, righteous, loving, and sinless, when he walked the Earth, but He was also God. God doesn't mess around. He gives people chance after chance after chance to screw up and be forgiven. He has more patience then I can even fathom for putting up with all of us humans and waiting patiently for us to stop being so stupid and obey. There are times and circumstances, however, when God will use violence....

I occasionally have upset parents. Knock on wood, I haven't had very many, but I found this and thought it would be worth remembering! Conferences are tomorrow and while I always hope the parents will understand where I'm coming from and that I'm doing my best, different opinions, disagreements, and misunderstandings can always come up. To deal with an upset parent, the most important thing you can do is diffuse their anger as soon as possible. This is the strategy that worked for me when I was in the classroom. Once I ascertained that the parent was upset (doesn't take long), my first statement was, "I wish I had more parents like you." This stops them in their tracks since they are expecting you to disagree, defend yourself, or even question their motives. I go on to explain that I wish I had more parents like them who cared enough about their child to come to school (or call) about their concerns. It's amazing how this simple and true statement wor...

I've been swimming through boards on Pinterest with ideas for teachers, and this drastic difference between elementary pins and high school pins struck me... Elementary: "Great for Pond Unit!" "Thanksgiving Pilgrim Fun!" "Snowman Math" "Bald Eagles" "Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record" "Groundhog Unit" "Community Helpers Unit" High School: "Unit Circle" "Using Mileage Problems to Teach Ratios" "Deductive Reasoning Game: Fun Activity for Geometry Class" "Common Core Activities" "Geometry" I found a few things that looked like fun. Upon further reading I discovered they were middle school or elementary school lessons... It would be so different to spend two weeks learning about planets. I wish we could just spend two weeks learning about a topic without having to learn these two formulas on Monday, these two more formulas on Tuesday, these combi...

  So this picture shows one of my favorite things about my classroom!   We can use the desks as white boards, and they erase with just a simple tissue. We've found that students who won't write something down on paper to save their life will do 10 problems in quick succession if they get to use a white board marker and write on their desk. If you have the students do group work on a worksheet, one person usually ends up doing the writing for the whole group. If white board markers are involved, everyone wants to write it themselves! Fun Fact: We can also use the white board markers to write on our windows which are visibile from the hall! Sometimes we write messages to the other math class for fun.

On Friday we wanted the kids to learn about area and perimeter ratios. We had them make rectangles that took up a fourth of their desk. They saw that even those the sides were half the size of the sides of the desk, the area of the rectangle they drew was 1/4 the area of the desk. They did the same thing with a rectangle who's sides were 1/3 the size of the sides of the desk. They saw that the area was actually 1/9 of the actual desk. Then we gave them two rectangles and had them calculate the perimeter and area for both. Then we had them find the similarity ratio, perimeter ratio, and area ratio. Then they had to make a prediction about what the area ratio would be of two shapes with a similarity ratio of 5/6. It was AWESOME to see the kids work together throughout this activity to make guesses, question each other, and think logically for a good 15 minutes. This was really encouraging, but then I had to have them spend 5-10 minutes putting an example in their notes and writing th...