Tardy

When I woke up at 7:10am today, I immediately realized something was wrong.

"Wait a minute, I feel too well rested." I looked at the clock and realized, "Crap, I overslept!"

School starts at 7:30 and it takes me at least 35 minutes to get there (40-45 minutes in traffic). I called the office and then rushed out of the house. This was the first time since I started teaching that this happened (except once while student teaching).

Anyways, it was a MAJOR fail on my part. A sign that I'm not getting enough sleep. The night before I passed out for 3 hours, so I was up most of the night working on stuff. I fell asleep again in the middle of the night and woke up again at 5:40, but I thought, "I have 20 more minutes." So I fell back asleep. But I DID check to make sure my alarm was on. I can't figure out if I slept through it or what. If I turned it off, it would have said "off." But it didn't. My phone is pretty new, so I'm not sure if it just gives up after awhile. But I had 2 alarms set!

Luckily, my first period is Freshmen Geometry. Basically the kids who can practically teach themselves. AND my TA (who was in my first period Geometry 9 class last year) is freaking awesome. One of my all time favorites. One of the VP's subbed for me, but my TA stamped homework, collected stamp sheets, and helped them go over the homework. In the end, I got there with 20 minutes left in class, and managed to skip through lecture slides quickly (since my TA had gone through stuff with them.

Praise the Lord. If there's any class I'd want that to happen in, it'd be first because they can handle it. Praise the Lord for my awesome TA. Praise the Lord for 1 hour more sleep.

Although, the rest of the day was unnerving. I gave my first referral today (last year I gave a total of like 1 referral all year), but today I wasn't taking anything. I confiscated a phone. I sent another kid out and emailed his mom. Anyways, it was a semi-crappy day. I think my patience was short because I've been having classroom management issues with 5th period. Trying to be "stricter," but that always makes me feel bad too. Algebra is making me sad. I am sucking at teaching it, but I don't have the energy to not suck.

AND to top it off, I called a kid's parents about her tardies after school. I felt a bit hypocritical, but I have one tardy in over a year, she had three in less than 3 weeks, so I guess I don't feel so bad.

Getting passed through the system

So, we just had our jumpstart test. Basically at the beginning of the year in Algebra 1-9, we do Pre-Algebra review for two weeks (where we all give the same worksheets and go over the same review) and then we test students at the end of the two weeks to make sure they are correctly placed (or if they need to be moved down to Algebra Block, which provides an extra period of math support).

We set the cut off at 21 out of 34 because it seemed like last year people who scored below 21 really struggled in the class (last year's cut off was 18). Turns out if we set the cut off at 21, way too many people would have to be moved to Block. They reset the cut off at 18, but 68 students would still be considered "not ready" for Algebra 1. Unfortunately, Algebra Block has only 30 spots. So we had to make the cut off even lower!

Basically, kids aren't coming to high school prepared for Algebra. It's going to be a rough year. I have such a wide range in my class. We're doing a pilot with special ed, so I have kids who scored between 9 and 29 in the same class. I'm going to need some good differentiated activities/lessons.

Not surprisingly, I have students in Geometry who can't add and subtract negative numbers and don't know how to solve equations with fractions in them. It's frustrating to have to spend so much time helping students work through the Arithmetic/Algebra of a Geometry problem. They are still counting on their fingers...

Somehow kids just keep getting passed up through the system.

p.s. Jinna, that question card idea is good. I will probably try it some time...when I get my act together.

Don't Get Too Excited When They Don't Ask Questions

Sometimes, as a teacher, it seems nice when students don't ask questions. Questions take up precious time, and we always need to move on. Besides if they don't ask, it means they understand everything, right?

WRONG.

A silent class is one of my worst nightmares. The silence generally means one of two things. Either they don't know what the heck is going on OR they don't care.

Any suggestions you have on how to get kids to ask questions would be great because no matter how much I plead with them to ask if they don't understand, they won't do it.

Dear Math

I had my students write "Dear Math" letters again this year, so I could get to know a little bit about them and their math backgrounds. Here's the letter I wrote as an example for them:

Dear Math,

I still remember those games we used to play in 5th grade, where you’d make me feel bad. I wasn’t quick enough for you. I always had to think about adding and subtracting and multiplying longer than you would wait. I wasn’t sure we would ever get along.

I always seemed to get good grades, but I never really enjoyed you. You were pretty difficult to deal with. I remember staying up late trying to figure you out and wondering when I’d ever actually use you.

Things went this way for awhile, but then it finally happened. When I stumbled upon Statistics and Calculus, I realized how much sense you make. I just couldn’t see it before. The more I understood you, the more I liked you. And the more I wanted other people to understand you too.

So I decide to help you out; to try to show other people how awesome you really are. But you sure haven’t been making it easy. Why do you have to be so easy to misunderstand?

The more I teach, the more I realize that I’m STILL figuring you out. You’re so complex. Sometimes, I wish you’d make yourself clearer so everyone could enjoy knowing you as much as I do.

Please be nice to my students this year.

Love,

Ms. Jiang

Several patterns I'm noticing:

- 95% of students feel defeated by math (many used a game analogy where they were losing)

- from my Freshmen Geometry class (the kids who are on track/at grade level), most began losing interest in math/struggling with math starting in Junior High/Middle School Pre-Algebra and Algebra

- 95% of kids cannot spell and do not use spell check and about half of the students write really poorly overall. I had a tough time deciphering some of them. (I don't envy English teachers at all! I'm not bothering to correct their spelling or grammar...in fact, I'm not even handing these back. I can't imagine actually correcting their papers)

Old Habits Die Hard

While second year is immensely better than first year already, some habits die hard. Here I am at 1:30 am working because I took a nap in the afternoon. The vicious cycle continues.

On Second Year

- It really is nice to not be "new" anymore. I think having former students gives me the school version of "street cred" with my new kids. Especially because some of them have friends who had me last year.

- I don't envy the new first year teacher who pretty much got a good chunk of my last year's 6th period (the class I loved, but dreaded). I told my kids to be nice to her, but we'll see.

Baby daddy

After school

L: Ms. J, are you married?

Me: No.

L: Do you have a boyfriend?

Me: Nope.

L: A baby daddy?

Me: (shock) NOOOO...hahahaha

hahahahahaha...in the moment, I forgot that maybe that was an inappropriate question. I was just shocked...and, I'll admit, amused. That's one question I have never been asked before.

This question came from one of those kids that drives me nuts in class, but is such a funny person/unique personality that you can't help but like them outside of class. Part of me hopes he doesn't get moved down to Algebra Block, part of me wonders if it might be better for him and for the class.

Click baby daddy for it's definition according to urban dictionary.