Skip to main content

Discouraged

Last week was a definite high. Things were going great! My observation went well, I was excited for the projects that I was leaving for while I was going to be out, and the substitute teacher that was scheduled to cover for me knew the language *and* the math! It was all looking good!

I arrived back at school to find my plans weren't completely followed. I know this is not unusual, but in preparing I thought I was ready for everything that could happen and that I had thought of everything...organized, etc. I guess not.

My Algebra 1 class that was solving 2-step equations like crazy on Wednesday bombed a quiz that they took on Friday (which they were supposed to take Thursday...but that's another story entirely). I felt like I needed to start from scratch again, and that everything from the week before was lost.

I had no Algebra 1 class today, so no chance to redeem. Tomorrow is a new day, though. We're going to correct the quizzes and then move on. We can't be solving 2-step equations forever, but we need it as a foundation!
Labels:

Comments

  1. NancyOctober 14, 2009 at 6:13 PM

    I've been following you on Twitter for a while now (I'm @stewartn), but I haven't read your blog before and I didn't realize what you did. I'm looking forward to following your journey, as I am on journey that is not completely dissimilar.

    You said, "Tomorrow is a new day, though. We're going to correct quizzes and move on." This is one of my favorite things about teaching - there are so many do-overs. If you don't get it right the first time, you can learn from your mistakes and improve next time. Be sure to reflect on what/how you would change your instruction. I find blogging is a great way to to do that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. JessicaOctober 15, 2009 at 7:34 PM

    @Nancy
    Thanks for commenting! I'm new to the blogosphere as a writer, so we'll see how it goes. What is your journey? Do tell!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Professional Goals

On my way to an evaluation team meeting today (I want to write more about that...but don't feel I can confidentially...one bad thing about being myself online and not having a blog pseudonym), I had a bit of a heart to heart with my boss (principal). You might think, "on the way" isn't very long...but picture 100+ outdoor stairs from the school building to the admin building where the meeting was being held...lol. Anyway, he was asking me how things were going, if I could believe that the year is already almost halfway over, and how time has flown in the 1.5ish years I've been in VA. He also mentioned that I have 30 more years to go before retiring. After that comment, he asked about my professional goals: When you're getting ready to retire, what do you hope to have accomplished/done? At first, I didn't know how to respond. I'm not much for long-term planning. I'm lucky to know and have decided that I indeed will be staying in VA for at leas...
7 comments
Read more

Reflections and Preparation: A Look Into the Socio-Emotional Learning Goals of a Teacher

* taps mic * Is this on?  I haven't been here in years , but there is so much that I have been reading, thinking about, and planning in the past few days.  I needed to get some of it out.  Maybe this will forever live in drafts, or maybe, just maybe, I'll be brave and #pushsend. I crawled out from under a rock and started using TweetDeck on my computer last week.  For years I have missed the #MTBoS community, but have felt that it was too overwhelming to keep up with on top of all the typical day to day activities.  Also, I joined Twitter back when I was one of two math teachers at my school.  That community was my lifeline during my first 3 years of teaching.  Now, I have a workroom filled with teachers in real life with whom I can and should collaborate.  The richness and depth of these workroom discussions are not usually the same as what I found online, but it is still critical to support and develop these relationships. Now comes to the r...
2 comments
Read more

ASL/English Vocabulary in the Math Classroom

My last semester in college, while I was student teaching, I had a class that emphasized different key topics in the field of Deaf Education.  One such topic was vocabulary development.  We all already knew that students who are deaf/hard of hearing have a lower vocabulary than their same-age hearing peers for a variety of reasons not least of which being their limited access to "incidental learning" that comes from listening to other people's conversations/tv/radio, etc.  In our class, we talked about ways to introduce new vocabulary in order to give students a more connected understanding of the new word in its five distinct forms. Picture Description/definition ASL sign (if applicable) English word (in print) Fingerspelling of English word I try to be conscious of this as I teach.  It's very difficult sometimes, and many of the math terms to not have standard ASL signs, so it is more difficult for the students to attach meaning and use the new term through f...
3 comments
Read more