Why can't all students just listen when I ask for their attention? Have I not earned their respect at this point? Don't I look at them and listen to them when they're speaking to me?
It's not like everyday is frustrating, but today I found myself particularly annoyed. I watched Eduardo talk over my instructions as he distracted Jordy from listening. "You know you could get three times as much accomplished in our math class if you actually worked at the level you're capable of?" I snapped at Eduardo. Occasionally I just get pissed off watching a kid who's so brilliant waste so much time. How could you not be frustrated? It's not like Earl Woods sat back and watched as his son chose not to practice and improve his game. He coached him. He encouraged him. He worked with him. Why can't Eduardo be more like Tiger?
The most frustrating part of teaching at this moment is that I put all the blame of an unsuccessful class on myself. Who else should take the responsibility? I know we're trying to establish a collaborative learning community, but at the end of the day whether or not students are fully engaged in learning is my job. My mission. I guess I'm just in a bit of a teaching funk. The kids are tiring...they get to you. Armando's inappropriate comments and unprofessional behavior, Carlos' inability to get started with an activity half the time unless I hound him, Jessica's changes in mood, Bonnie's visible disinterest in acquiring an education. Constantly having to be the leading voice, the cheerleader with the megaphone, the rock. It's exhausting. Why am I the hardest working student in my classroom? I already know the most math.
Teaching is such a roller coaster ride. Some times I'm so excited to be in the classroom that i have a smile plastered across my face while other times the ride makes me sick and I feel like throwing up. It's amazing how much you can go through. For anyone who's ever gambled at a blackjack table in Vegas you know exactly what I'm talking about. One minute you want to strangle the dealer for the crap cards he's throwing your way and the next minute you're offering him a steak dinner. How can we move things to a more consistent place? All good, all the time. I'm not sure that's possible. Maybe it's more like Abe Lincoln's quote. Something like "you can please some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time."
Teaching is a business who's product is people. We're not manufacturing widgets...we're facilitating the development of educated minds. What a task! No wonder it's so volatile.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Josh - Dice Games and Math Class (2-26-08)
It was a great day I had yesterday, but at the same time I was mad at two classmates. I got into an argument with Armando and Mahkena. I had realized that those two tried to get me off track of my work. So I relaxed and stayed cool. I began to work on my class assignment by myself because I wanted no more problems.
In the assignment we had to work with skittles. The idea was to pull out a skittle and tally the color you pulled. After that you were to count the total number of tally marks you had. Then you counted the number of tallies for each color and write that number under the experimental frequency section. Last, divide the experimental number by the total tallies to get the observed probability of each number.
At the end of class there was a little game between Carlos and Benito. It was a game to see who can roll a 3 before the other could roll two 7's. It was amazing to see how Benito rolled those two 7's pretty fast and won the game before Carlos could roll the 3.
In the assignment we had to work with skittles. The idea was to pull out a skittle and tally the color you pulled. After that you were to count the total number of tally marks you had. Then you counted the number of tallies for each color and write that number under the experimental frequency section. Last, divide the experimental number by the total tallies to get the observed probability of each number.
At the end of class there was a little game between Carlos and Benito. It was a game to see who can roll a 3 before the other could roll two 7's. It was amazing to see how Benito rolled those two 7's pretty fast and won the game before Carlos could roll the 3.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Student Voice (2-15-08)
Jessica's Perspective
In Mr. Singer's math class I feel as if I am in a learning community that cares about math and their class. Mr. Singer is a very good math teacher. He explains the math problem in a way that you can understand it. I help my partner Angel with scaling and proportions. I feel as if I have made a big change. I went from a student who didn't care about other people's learning to a student who loves to help her fellow classmates. I can't wait to see how the "Power of 17" changes and grows to be a better class.
The following are three student's written responses to our DO NOW from last Wednesday (The DO NOW is just the question or problem that starts each class period). The question posed to the class was "Why is it important to examine one another's work and to present our thinking to each other?"
"It is important to check and revise each other's work to better the Power of 17!" - Ladon
"It is important because we can learn new ways of thinking. Also, to look at the same problem in a different way. To present to the class helps us get used to speaking and we show that we learn our work and it becomes sticky." - Iaisha
"It helps us prepare for our jobs in the future. We'll have to present at our jobs well if we're going to be successful." - Jessica
In Mr. Singer's math class I feel as if I am in a learning community that cares about math and their class. Mr. Singer is a very good math teacher. He explains the math problem in a way that you can understand it. I help my partner Angel with scaling and proportions. I feel as if I have made a big change. I went from a student who didn't care about other people's learning to a student who loves to help her fellow classmates. I can't wait to see how the "Power of 17" changes and grows to be a better class.
The following are three student's written responses to our DO NOW from last Wednesday (The DO NOW is just the question or problem that starts each class period). The question posed to the class was "Why is it important to examine one another's work and to present our thinking to each other?"
"It is important to check and revise each other's work to better the Power of 17!" - Ladon
"It is important because we can learn new ways of thinking. Also, to look at the same problem in a different way. To present to the class helps us get used to speaking and we show that we learn our work and it becomes sticky." - Iaisha
"It helps us prepare for our jobs in the future. We'll have to present at our jobs well if we're going to be successful." - Jessica
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Iaisha and Mahkena - Collaboration 101 (2-13-08)
As we start to wrap up our unit on problem solving with ratios and proportions I've been trying to put together some culminating activities. Today's task was split up into groups of three to four and solve a challenging problem involving proportional reasoning. The problems involved exit polls, sampling of wildlife, quality control sampling, similar figures and scale drawings. Once the students completed the task of solving their problem and transferring their work to a poster we then moved to analyzing each other's work. Each group rotated through to examine the problem that was solved and the methods the group used to solve it. Some of the groups were totally into this while others just floated through as if they were riding a tube down the lazy river.
Two students in particular, Iaisha and Mahkena, really went after it, more like a salmon swimming up river. Constantly engaging in rich mathematical dialogue I was so impressed as I listened to them genuinely trying to follow the thinking of their classmates. "What was he doing here? Are you sure that was the right step to take?" They were fully engaged in the activity and by far took the most amount of learning out of it. Full Engagement = Full Learning! What a concept. It would have been beautiful if all students could have followed the lead of Iaisha and Mahkena, but that's not reality and I guess we're not there yet. Overall the students completed the task, but it was 2 students who rose to a new level of collaboration. 2's not 17, but today 2 was a powerful number.
Two students in particular, Iaisha and Mahkena, really went after it, more like a salmon swimming up river. Constantly engaging in rich mathematical dialogue I was so impressed as I listened to them genuinely trying to follow the thinking of their classmates. "What was he doing here? Are you sure that was the right step to take?" They were fully engaged in the activity and by far took the most amount of learning out of it. Full Engagement = Full Learning! What a concept. It would have been beautiful if all students could have followed the lead of Iaisha and Mahkena, but that's not reality and I guess we're not there yet. Overall the students completed the task, but it was 2 students who rose to a new level of collaboration. 2's not 17, but today 2 was a powerful number.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Celebration! 17 is Powerful! (2-12-08)
How does if feel knowing that every student in this class is passing with a C or higher? This questions was posed to the class at the start of the period...here were their responses...
- "Thumbs Up" - Mahkena
- "Feels great! Take it!" - Armando
- "Torian's the best!" - Torian
- "Hell Yeah!" - Ron
- "It's a damn good job." - Josh
- "Yey!" - Eduardo
- "I got an A!" - Jessica
- "It feels good, we're doing something right." - Iaisha
As you can see, the students are proud of their accomplishment as they should be. I can't remember the last time I taught a class where everyone was passing and where everyone passing meant everyone was learning.
- "Thumbs Up" - Mahkena
- "Feels great! Take it!" - Armando
- "Torian's the best!" - Torian
- "Hell Yeah!" - Ron
- "It's a damn good job." - Josh
- "Yey!" - Eduardo
- "I got an A!" - Jessica
- "It feels good, we're doing something right." - Iaisha
As you can see, the students are proud of their accomplishment as they should be. I can't remember the last time I taught a class where everyone was passing and where everyone passing meant everyone was learning.
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