A Good Day

I enjoyed today because it is one of the days I look forward to all year long. I'm idiotically happy whenever I get to teach students how to convert mixed numbers to improper fractions. I still remember how much fun I thought this was when I learned how to do it in junior high school. Yep, I didn't learn much of anything about fractions until junior high and until after seveth grade. My classmates and I were the victims of New Math.

I was okay with New Math for the first 2 years I had it. We did a LOT of set theory, and I do think it has made me a greater thinker than I would have been without it. Maybe I'm just smart and it hit me where I had a talent, but it made sense and wasn't at all painful. Then seventh grade came and HOLY HECK.

I've blocked out most of my seventh grade memories, but I'll always remember how desperate I felt. All of my teachers were secondary teachers--no more gentle souls tottering around in sensible shoes. My teachers were men (!) and aggressive young women's libbers. They were subject-area teachers and didn't seem to notice that seventh graders were 12 years old, not 17, and not ready to write essays. No one had taught us how to write essays and research papers and we were suddenly expected to--complete with footnotes, typewritten on my dad's old Remington, with ibids and ob sets. (Forgive me, Latin-teaching daughter. It's been more than 40 years. I'm sure I messed that up.) The entire experience was unnerving, but the math was horrendous.

We had to learn Math In Other Bases. If you can't wrap your head around why this was a problem, let me give you an example. In base 2, 1 + 1 equals 10. It made absolutely no sense to me, nor did base 5 (4 + 4 = 13. Really.) I couldn't have been more gobsmacked. I developed an aversion to math, limped through high school and graduated with 1.5 math credits. (If you wanted to get a diploma without doing much work, the 70s were a wonderful time! Even my dumb ole brother graduated. In fact, he graduated a year early by taking senior English at summer school after his junior year.)

Back to the math--why is it now my favorite subject to teach? I went back to college when I was 36 and had to take the required teacher math courses. Angst time! However, maybe 36 is the magic developmentally-ready-for-math-age, because I excelled. It all made sense, including the chapter on math in other bases. Emboldened by my success, I took even more math courses and found a favorite professor who cheered when I would solve problems in a creative way.

And, because I struggled so mightily with math when I was 12, now I have sympathy for my students. Some math (long divison, for example) is just hard. Buck up and learn to do it, and I'll be here to help you all that I can. But some math is so easy that it's fun to do, like converting mixed numbers to improper fractions. You multiply to the left and add to the right--we step to the left and slide to the right as we say it. At least I do. And today, everyone was riding along with me on my high, and everyone--every single one--was able to do it by the end of the lesson. Some won't have it tomorrow, but they'll pick it up again and feel happy that they've learned they can be competent about math.

Maybe tomorrow I'll tell about my colleague who told my Title 1 math students today that she's a better math teacher than I. ("It's not true!" Braided Boy said. "I never understand anything she's talking about and you explain things to us.") Or maybe I'll let it go and just consider the source.

Snow Days

We've had 8 snow days, including the one yesterday that was supposed to be a make-up day for one of the other snow days. So, actually, we've had 7 snow days and one snow holiday. Three days are "forgiven" because our school days are thirty minutes longer than the state requires. (This actually adds up to way more than 3 days, but 3 days is all they'll give us. They have a "don't ask because we won't tell" policy about this. Of course, "they" is the powers that be.)

So we now have 4 days to make up. And TESTING is JUST AROUND THE CORNER. You can practically SEE IT COMING.

Really, we're all stressed. Our curriculum map is in tatters. I'm so behind in math that I doubt I'll ever catch up and heaven forbid that I don't teach each and every SPI to mastery because my butt is now on the line (see previous post where government screwed teachers by tying evaluations to test scores).

The solution? Not four Saturdays. Not extra days at the end of the year for students because that would be past the almighty TEST DATE. We're going to add 30 more minutes to each school day.

Yikes.

I like this idea and I don't like this idea. I'm afraid my class won't want to have an extra 30 minutes of structured math time (because that's what it has to be--I can show a video and take care of Social Studies, but I can't get them to where they need to be in math without a lot of time on task.)

It's going to mean more planning--dedicated lesson plans for those daily 30 minutes. It's going to require some additional resources. It's going to require that third Diet Mt. Dew. Be still, my caffeinated heart.

I have about 2 weeks to get ready. On your mark, get set, GO!

A Long Day

My husband woke me at 5 o'clock to a dark and somewhat cool house. The power was off, and he was leaving for work. He knew there was no way on earth that I would ever wake up without my alarm clock. Unfortunately, 5 o'clock is about an hour too early. And I hadn't gotten much sleep--less than 5 hours, in fact.

I tried to read by candlelight, but that didn't work. (How did Lincoln--happy birthday, Abe!--do it?) Son and I ate pop-tarts and watched a saved Magic School Bus episode on my laptop, before I took him to school and went to work.

At 9:30, I got a Connect Ed call. His high school was still without power and students were being sent home. My husband also received the call, and took off work to go home. He didn't want him to be alone at home if there was no power. They both arrived home at nearly the same time and ten minutes later the power came back on. They had a great afternoon--son playing on his laptop, husband napping on his couch.

And I? I had to answer the question, "When is the field trip?" eighty-seven jillion times because today was the day of our field trip to the dentist's office. When I wasn't doing that, I was answering the question, "When can we pass out our valentines?" Fun, fun, fun!

Actually, I enjoyed the field trip, except for the part when Rotney told everyone that the pink capsules were made from blood so it would make their teeth look bloody. Yuck. Incredibly, some fourth graders will believe anything, if for no reason than the utter grossness of it. When the trip was finally over, they were all very excited to receive free toothbrushes and other dental products, so excited that some readily popped the toothbrush into their mouths to chew on them. I guess that didn't pay close enough attention to the toothbrushing demonstration. . .

Additionally, I gave them the free T-shirts I received last summer from the author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Since everyone immediately donned them, I'm going to extrapolate that they liked them. I thought that since the movie is coming out this week end, they might appreciate them. :)

And the six students who brought valentines to give out made everyone happy. We're not supposed to have a valentines party; they're only allowed to give out cards. Happily, several of the cards had candy attached to them.

A fun time was had by all. :)

Back to School

I guess we're going back to school tomorrow. There's still 3-plus inches of snow on the ground, but the city roads are clear. I guess the county roads are, too, since we didn't get the ConnectEd message canceling school.

It's tough to teach every other other day. Last week, we were in school Wednesday through Friday, having missed the previous three school days. My normally well-behaved class was absolutely bonkers for those three days of school. Too much time off and not enough time-on-task.

Monday came, and my class was back! Working. Not talking incessantly. Ready for the day. So, of course, we had an early release day. Totally pointless and a waste of instructional time.

And then we had two more snow days.

Tomorrow I'll be right back where I was a week ago, trying to corral an absolutely bonkers class.

Seriously, will this be taken into account when my test scores bomb because I wasn't able to teach how to add fractions with unlike denominators? I've been introducing fractions for the past 2 weeks and I've yet to get to lesson three!

I love snow days. I hate snow days.

More snow is predicted for next week.

Adventures in Pencil Integration

From the blog sidebar: "The year is 1897 and Tom Johnson works for a small school district. This is the story of the journey to move into the twentieth century with paper and pencil integration initiatives.

Yes, this is entirely fictional and any relation to "real life" is entirely coincidental."

If you're a tech-savvy person who doesn't like working with people who are actually fearful of on-line grade books, this is the blog for you. The premise: slates are becoming passe'. Adventurous teachers are moving forward (with some trepidation) to using paper and pencils. Students are introduced to "plogs" (pencil-logs). Teachers fret over whether students are responsible enough to wisely use the technology--what if they start drawing???

Go to the beginning of the blog (around the first of the year) and enjoy this fine bit of satire. The author, John Spenser, also maintains Musings from a Not-So-Master Teacher. Both are good reads and regularly up-dated.

Snow Day Today and Tomorrow

Thank goodness for the snow days--I'm sick with a cold--snotty, coughy, feverish, and achy--nice not to have to use a sick day today. I had to take a 3 hour nap this afternoon, and those just aren't allowed at school. :) However, I'm sad about the snow days, too.

We did go yesterday (Monday), and Sweetie Boy told me that this would be his last week at school. I'm so bummed! Sweetie Boy has made so much progress this year, proving that he's not unintelligent, just uneducated.

I wish him the best, and I'm sorry this week is hastening away with snow days. I'd like to enjoy the few remaining days with Sweetie Boy.

I don't think this post is as sensical as I would like. Let's blame the meds.

Pencil Problem seems Solved!

I bought a bunch of pink pencils--bright, bright pink ones. I showed them to the class, and asked that no one else buy pink pencils like mine. I also told them that I could not afford to give them any more pencils. They are welcome to borrow a pencil for the day. I explained that "borrow" means to use for a while and then return to the lender in good condition. They evidently listened, because I still have all of the pencils. I do have to (usually) ask for their return at the end of the day, but I'm willing to do that. No one minds returning them, and I get an unsolicited "thank you" from most students.

This may be the best pencil idea I've ever had!

It's sad, the things that make teachers happy. ;)