Sure, my practicum is finishing but I'm still rolling in with some things to think about. I was just watching a youtube clip about The Storytelling of Science, and a question was asked about being an astronomical theorist (or something like that) and the person not being good at math. 

Neil Degasse Tyson said this (or something like this)... "Math is a language that you need to learn to understand. Chinese starts off as an impossible language, but if you move there and live for five years, you start picking it up. The same is with math. Don't say you can't do math until you put in the same amount of effort as that". 


That's how to teach it. Math is a language, an impossible code... and it needs to be broken open. It will be hard, but eventually, you get kinda good at it. 

I hate multiplication. 

I know as a teacher, I should be really excited about how great it is for students, but I think that I have a carryover from my own school days. 

Today, while observing my TA quiz her students on multiplication, I had the creeping feeling of dread come over me as she randomly quizzed her students. In my head, all I could think about was "please, don't pick me!" How has that carried over for so long? What makes me still dread the idea of being asked 8x6? (48 I believe)

Part of it is because I never did pick up on my multiplication table. I always struggled with it, and I always wish that I had done a better job of memorizing it. But should that give me cold dread? 

i think that it was probably because of the being called on in elementary. The cold dread is similar to how I felt back in grade 4.

I need to come up  with some ways to teach students so that they can learn their multiplication without having to experience what I still do. Mutliplcation is important, but so is the lack of fear. 

Snow day! Almost... Today, due to the bad weather, we had a total of three grade sevens show up at school today. At least that beat the attendance of the grade 8's and 6's, which only had one student show up each. 

So today's reflection is about creating positive lessons in the time off that you have. It's a great opportunity to catch up on marking, lessons, and planning in general. 

For me, I need to focus on working on closure activities. It's one of my toughest areas as I either lose track of time or give students extra time to get stuff done. I do the occasional exit card or activity, but I need to be CONSISTENT with my approach. Even just seeing that students are on the same page and ready to continue would be beneficial to teaching. 

I think that I also need to STOP ASSUMING that students have learned the material, but to collect it in a meaningful way that can prove where they are learning. I guess formative assessment is a lot more difficult than I thought. It's more than just wandering around a room... 

Something to work on I suppose! 

I taught a good lesson. As a teacher, it's important to not just critique how you could have improved things, but to reward yourself when you have a positive experience as well. 

I taught a lesson in my poetry class about riddles. I started off with reading some riddles from the book "the Hobbit" I think that this did a good job of tying in some good literature along with the actual unit., I didn't just read the riddles, but also read parts of the book to get students interested. 

This lesson just had good flow. Students were interested, they were engaged, they got their work done. Can a teacher ask for more?

Even though these students are fairly shy, all of them even told their own riddles at the end of the class. 

Sucess! 

These reflections are turning into a bit of a rant. The latest thing that irritates me as a teacher is interruptions. Today I had plans to return student tests and go over them with the students. We had problems with two particular questions and I wanted students to have the opportunity to get it done ahead of time. 

Instead, the school announces that we have a surprise guest speaker coming in to talk to the students.  This happens to land right on the block I had set aside for these students. 

The next time I see these students will be Wednesday. I have to have final marks in for report cards, and I wasn't planning on giving extra class time for students to complete their work. Now they have a shortened week to get their work into me. 

Im also frustrated because this puts that particular group behind everyone for a class. Unless I slow the other classes for review, this one class will be behind. 

I guess as a teacher, the important lesson to take from this one is flexibility. I will have to adapt this class so students are adequately prepared and on the same page. I also have to be prepared for the constant interruptions that can occur within a classroom. 

A little heads-up would be nice though! 

One of the key phrases used when discussing teaching in the classroom, is not to teach content, but teach students. 

I recently gave a test to the grade 7 social classes which I thought was fairly balanced and fair. In consisted of true and false, multiple choice, fill in the blank, and two paragraph questions. 

The first part of the test went fairly well, with most students understanding the content and getting answers correct. It was fairly obvious to see which students had been coming to class and which had not. 

When I looked at the paragraph portion however, I was shocked to find that most of the students hadn't bothered to answer the questions. Out of the eight marks for the two questions, the highest mark received was only a three, and I only gave that mark out two or three times. 

At first I wondered if it was because the test was unfair or that the students hadn't understood the content. But both questions had been discussed at length in class, and students had already created assignments in class that showed they knew what to expect. 

The part of the issue that really bugged me, was that most of the students had turned their tests in early and claimed that they were finished. Was it just laziness? Did they really not understand the content?

So the first social class I get, I have decided that I will review the material, and give students an opportunity to turn it in again. They will not be given class time, but must find time out of class, either at lunch or during an option to get it completed. This also puts the responsibility with the students. 

Attendance at this school is a huge deal. Students miss classes every day of the week, and I have several students that have been missing a month at a time. 

How do you adjust your class for a student that's missed three weeks of classes? 

I think one of the hardest parts is collecting evidence from these students to show their learning. The fact is, they haven't learned anything because they haven't been in class. But you still have to assign grades... 

I also have serious questions about how you can pass students and move them along to the next grade if they don't know any of the material from their current grade. How can you hold them back? If a student misses three days of a month, they miss about a month of school a year. When you keep following that trend through their school, they end up falling way behind other students in other schools, and have a difficult time in catching up. 

There are tons of strategies to try to get students into schools.
-Buses come and pick them up
-Breakfast programs
-Monetary incentives for attendance.  
-Calls home

But at the end of the day, the student needs to get themselves up and out of bed on their own. Are they even capable of making that decision on their own? It's even tougher when you think that the parents are often the ones holding students back by not driving, not getting them moving, or being too lazy to take them to school themselves. 

The power of the weekend... maybe the teachers greatest strength and weakness. 

I think that weekends are a great way of setting up the week. They allow you with the time to look at where you are at in your unit, and what's left to do. After meeting with my TA last week, I had to chop away about 6 planned lessons to get ready for report cards. 

The weekend allowed me to sit down and plan how I was going to collect evidence for upcoming report cards. Because I had to cut away some of the lessons, I had to think of new ways to show student understanding. Being able to sit down and actually look at how and what you're going to teach is a fantastic resource. 

I know that some people find it easy to relax on weekends and only do work at work, but I think that having an opportunity to actually sit down and reflect and plan without the stress of a class working in the background. Being able to sit and visually set up your expectations actually creates a better classroom due to the lack of stress. 

At the same time though, I think that it's vital for teachers to take part of their weekend for themselves. It's a chance to recuperate and relax, and get some energy back that may have been missing by the end of the week. 

Keep it simple.