Mrs. Evans Blog

I have been teaching exponents to freshman and sophomores for the last week and a half. I had a carefully planned graphic organizer. I planned on spending 1 or 2 days per exponent property and moving on with the year without too much difficulty... Little did I know what I was up against. Apparently, exponents are not as simple as I had always thought they were. I don't think I really cared in high school why the properties worked. I was great at memorizing things that I needed to know, and so I never had a problem or a need to know, "Why." I was a grade-chaser all the way. Well after teaching every exponent property in the unit and giving a 5-question lesson quiz, I learned that perhaps some of my students had learned nothing over the last week and a half... That's not really true. They had partially learned the properties in isolation, but putting everything together was just too overwhelming. I agree, the students need more practice, but if I had sent them home ...

I've been thinking about second chances constantly lately. As an adult, think about all the times you've been given a second chance. I am not a perfect wife, but my husband gives me second chances all the time.  I tried to make cookies once with baking soda that was 2 years expired. They didn't turn out so great, but I have had other chances to bake things and I learned a value lesson about baking soda : ) I tried out for my church praise team and didn't make it. It was embarrassing and for a while I didn't feel like singing or playing the piano, but I can try out again and if I don't get so nervous next time, maybe I'll make it. I'm not banned forever because of one audition. I took the ACT twice when I was in high school, and my highest score was the only one colleges cared about.  My first year of teaching, I struggled quite a bit with classroom management. I needed more time and unfortunately first-hand experience to just begin lea...

I can't believe I haven't written anything since last November! I spent a few minutes today looking over past blogs, and I'm so thankful that I wrote about the things that I did! There is definitely value in reflecting and recording important thoughts and experiences. This year has been going "too" well. I expected my students to be the same as those in Ankeny, but they are not. They aren't all perfect angels, but there is a different level of respect from nearly all of my students. I don't think this has anything to do with me. I think it has to do with clear expectations and clear consequences that are consistently and routinely enforced by teachers and administrators. I've been trying to try new things this year, especially with technology. Every single student here has their own laptop that is theirs for the entire year. I remember trying to come up with lessons using the laptops last year and then hating the laptop cart even more after half of...

First I'll just list some of the notes I made in my study guide while I was reading chapter 4 of Hebrews. 1. High Expectations 2. Teach kids to make connections rather than regurgitate information temporarily... (I was reading about how we can take on God's yoke but it is actually light and easy to carry. Although we are taking something on, we are giving our stress and our fears and our worries to God, and Hebrews 4: 16 says that we should "draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." I wonder if by having higher expectations and teaching kids to learn and problems solve and think critically rather than to learn information, I would be taking away the heavy burden of memorizing meaningless facts and giving the students a new yoke to carry. One that would bring with it responsibility to be logical thinkers and to do what is right based on critical thinking and analysis. Students would give up ignorance and f...

Today it occurred to me that last year I absolutely LOVED teaching Algebra 2 to my sophomores because many of them were pretty good at math and actually mildly enjoyed doing it. I don't feel the same love in most of my Algebra 2 students this year... Today I said, "Screw it, I love doing this stuff!" and it was so much more fun to teach it even if they weren't that excited about parabolas : ) I was! I don't think I've been unexcited about the math in the past, but I just realized that my excitement doesn't really have anything to do with their excitement; I just love math! Also, a bunch of my students have been studying for the PSAT which is tomorrow. I had a few ask for help studying. I helped a girl for a little over an hour today with the problems that had stumped her. It was so much fun! Those practice questions are challenging and require logic, testing, and mature mathematical problem-solving skills. It was fun, but made me realize that I'm...

Today we learned that one of our students never woke up this morning. I've never actually had him as a student, but I have seen many of my students obviously affected by the news. He has a younger brother and sister and I can't help but think about Karen and her family. Even though I didn't know the student, one of my students made the comment that he went to bed last night like it was a normal night. It made me think about my last few nights and how tired and cranky I've been from spending so much time trying to stay caught up on school work and from conferences on Tuesday. It really puts everything into perspective. As a teacher, it's hard to know how to act and how to react. Some classes were going to be taking a test today. As soon as I saw one of my girls crying and a few boys looking as if they had been crying, I knew I didn't want to give them their test. We worry so much about the schedule and so much about our plan, but now two kids have lost their ...

Today was probably the best day so far of the school year! It started out pretty normally. First period was uneventful. Second we had meetings. Then in the first five minutes of third period, I was walking backwards between a row of desks while talking to the students, and I tripped on a backpack and totally wiped out! As one student said later, "I followed the path of a downward opening parabola." I flew up into the air and landed flat on my butt. I did the only thing I could do. I burst out laughing. Some kids actually said they were really nervous because it looked like I was going to hit my head on the white board tray. Dodged that one I guess! So the kids were really nice about it, and we moved on. About 10 or 15 minutes later I see a man walking down the hall way, and it's Jay, and he has flowers for me! It's not a special day or anything, he was just out and about and wanted to surprise me!!!! I introduced him to the class, and he stayed for a minute or two...