let your hopes go and they’ll survive

Seriously the last thing I need is for you to call and yell at me. That doesn’t help anything, nor does it change things. You should think before you talk… I would think you would know that… but I guess I was wrong. You should be happy this is the only thing that’s gone wrong, remember that other one? Yeah… Still better.

Filed under: daily blogging, anger, class, exam, math

observations are overrated

I was observed this morning by my University Supervisor. After the lesson, I felt like I bombed… and honestly it was the worst teaching job I’ve done with my 9th graders so far (out of about 10 days). But here’s what my professor wrote:

You did a nice job and I like the confidence and commanding voice that you use in front of the classroom…. You did a great job of trying to solicit class participation and trying to make the atmosphere more student-centered, but I can tell that this is not what they are accustomed to. Your lesson was creative and I enjoyed it. Keep up the good work….

I had to exclude some sentences as they were personal and were not meant to be public. But yeah, good observation

Filed under: daily blogging, math, observation, student teaching, teaching, toss

unit plan overview

I am teaching the third subunit of the second unit in Mathematics I. The third subunit focuses on rational and radical expressions. The goal of my unit was to make the students feel like radical and rational expressions are not scary, and in fact pretty fun. When I was told what unit I’d be teaching, the first sentence out of the teacher’s mouth was, “Good luck, the kids hate fractions.” I am hoping that I can change the student’s perceptions regarding rational and radical expressions.
The first day I am teaching, we will be working through and discovering rational expressions using polynomials in the Just Jogging Learning Task. The learning task is a great way to let the students discover how to manipulate rational expressions. The students are given something familiar that they have seen before, the distance formula, and simply manipulate it by adding variables. In order to increase conceptual understanding, the students can work in pairs and communicate math to each other.
We have four days allotted for operations on rational expressions. Although the resources I were given were extremely procedurally based, I have added conceptually challenging questions and thought provoking statements in my lessons. I am hoping for the students to not just accept what the text book tells them and try and fully understand the material. To support conceptual understanding, I have reworked some of the Lassiter worksheets and instead of 30 “procedural” problems; the students will have a limited number of problems to do outside of class that will still check for understanding of the material. The first week is wrapped up with a Jeopardy game to review the operations of rational expressions. Although the worksheets and exercises may appear to be conceptual, students will continually be challenged to think why they are doing steps of solving rational expressions, rather than just following the textbook’s rules.
The second half of my subunit deals with radicals. I never really thought about how fun radicals could be. The students and I will be discovering the rules of the radicals through many trial and error steps. We will discover why rationalizing a denominator is helpful, and why simplifying radical expressions can help mathematicians. Helping the students understand why teachers ask them to simplify will hopefully help motivate the students to actually want to learn how to simplify.
The unit conforms to the GPS and NCTM standards by continually challenging the students to reason through their problems. Instead of just listing the excluded values in a rational expression, the lessons challenge the students to know what the excluded values tell us about the expression. I am a huge technology person and wish there was more I could do with technology. If this were my own classroom, I would try and do as much possible with technology. I believe that technology is one of the best ways to keep students entertained and keep their focus in mathematics.
I have been met with some resistance regarding procedural and conceptual understanding. By going into a very successful school that has taught procedural for years, it is hard to justify the importance of conceptual understanding; however I believe that after my unit the students will desire to know why they are performing operations, rather than just performing them. If this were my own class, I would rather create future mathematicians, and not just mathematical robots.

Filed under: daily blogging, class, lesson planning, math, unit

may i congratulate you first?

I am now a certified mathematics teacher in the state of Georgia!  I passed both tests for certification – on the first try! Without much studying! I’m sooo pumped.

I have to keep reminding myself, so I stay cheerful.  I am struggling in Calculus 3.  It’s a constant struggle it seems.   I am not a fan of the professor at all.  I think I am starting to understand but the worst part is I haven’t been able to really focus on the class because I have a Modern Algebra Exam today – which i feel very confident about!  Once Modern is done, I’ll have to turn to my attention to Calc. I’m planning on waking up early tomorrow and really settling down in Calc.

I would say no computer – but our textbook is online… talk about distractions.  Not to mention, the GFCA site opens July 15 – eh.. so I have to finish working on that.  I think I’ll wake up at 9:30 tomorrow.. sounds good.

Anyway, anticipate a post about my new favorite album coming soon. Probably tomorrow night.

Filed under: daily blogging, debate, gace, gfca, math, regina

there’s some things we don’t talk about

I remembered my love for Kina Grannis. Something about her voice is just soothing and amazing.

Today’s Modern Algebra class was exhilarating – classes like tonight remind me why I’m a math major – but classes like tonight make me want to teach college & not high school.

My miss for someone is growing… but there are some things we don’t talk about

Filed under: daily blogging, africa, math, miss, music