Sunday, October 31, 2010

Not just reading, but COMPREHENDING.


That was the theme of chapter three in the textbook.  I appreciated this chapter.  I have noticed this problem a lot even in my classroom - not just reading words but understanding what all the words mean.  I can't imagine how it must be to teach English where that is constantly the problem.  In my math class, students are constantly taking notes, doing examples as a class, but when it comes time to do them by themselves, they freeze.  They can't do it solo.  This is an issue that I am currently struggling with and I feel as if most new teachers do.  Thus I was excited to read the chapter.  Perhaps there would be some useful pointers that I could actually implement!  Perhaps there was some small tid bit that would change the way I am teaching in my classroom.  Sadly, I was yet again disappointed by this book and its lack of focus on how math teachers can implement these strategies in their classrooms. 
            The most useful part of the chapter discussed what skilled readers can do: preview, summarize, use clue words, pointer phrases, etc.  These are all the things that my students SHOULD be able to do.  But most struggle with them.  Another one that I thought of was pulling out the main idea or the bigger picture.  Connecting one topic with another.  I often get tons of complaints from my students regarding the fact that I move onto new things each day.  But really it’s all the same.  There is a theme per unit.  I am fully aware that this is the fault of the teacher, however, I am not sure how to fix this.  We discuss our agenda for the week each Monday.  We discuss the unit before it starts.  I come up with sets so that it can relate to their lives.  And yet its not all good enough because after working on it for 2 weeks, I still have students that don’t realize that when they are talking about slope-intercept form, they are talking about a line!!!!
            And here in lies the problem. What do I do? I feel as if I was not given many, if any at all, strategies to fix this problem!!! Now I realize that my students don’t know how to read the notes they are given (sometimes I truly wonder what the point of notes are…why not just do example after example because none of my students ever reread their notes…) BUT what are my options?  There were suggestions such as think pair share, which I have tried occasionally.  Each of you do a problem, then turn to your neighbor and see if they get the same thing.  But yet again, my students don’t see the point of this.  They aren’t working together to solve the problem.  They first do it individually and THEN they share.  Its that damn big picture issue again!  I need to start visually showing my objectives on the board with each subtopic below…perhaps that’s what I will do this week.  Ready. Set. Go.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Reading in Math.


So one of the grad classes I am taking is about reading in your content area. Yeah I know what you are thinking because I have been thinking it the whole time – “Reading in math? What? How does this class apply to whats happening in my classroom?”  Well I don’t really have an answer for you.  I am still trying to figure that one out for myself.

I just finished reading chapter four in a book we were assigned.  It had some pretty useful things in it but again, I am not really sure how to apply.  Better yet, I am not sure why I need to apply them.  The chapter was giving me various ways to assess my students literacy ability and ways to get to know them, which would have been better read at the beginning of the year.  I suppose I am just stuck on what I do once I assess my students.  Yes its true that there are basic sentences to read in my class.  Yes you have to read word problems. And yes you have to be able to read the test.  I still don’t see the value of assessing my students reading ability.  There are key words in math that my students pull out.  Even my SPED students can pull them out.  Perhaps its just because I don’t have anyone who is severally behind in reading?

Not sure.  Anyways, the one section that I have been thinking about in the chapter was about standardized tests.  Seeing as I am an Algebra 1 teacher, I have feelings about this age old debate: teaching to the test vs not.  To me they can not be separated.  I HAVE to look at past state tests to see what material is presented and in what fashion and even what language do they use.  But I often catch myself teaching things and not thinking about the test.  I teach because its important for the kids to know certain things if they are in algebra, but at the same time there is this test that they must pass to move on.  Its definitely a balancing act but not a one of the other situation. 

That’s about all I got out of the chapter at this point.  Perhaps I will learn something new in class on Saturday?

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Six Months Later: My first visit home.

Last weekend I went home for the first time since May.  I wasn't sleeping the nights before my trip because I was so excited.  I became very lax in my classroom.  Nothing seemed to matter except getting home.

Describing my feelings when I arrived in DC is just impossible.  I was overwhelmed with just seeing a city for the first time in so long.  AND it was raining. I haven't seen rain in months.  I missed the food.  I missed the general culture.  Then i got to see all the people that I love!! It was the perfect weekend.

But what I found most interesting was talking to my friends from home and college that just graduated.  Everyone was struggling in their own way.  No one really had it "easy."  It was oddly comforting.  Yes I may be in a foreign land with no friends or family.  I have some really low days - I mean low.  BUT so does everyone! Everyone is exhausted.  Everyone is struggling with this new lifestyle that seems very monotonous at times.  I guess I had never really thought of it before.  It gave me a new perspective on life.  The Delta can be a bit of a bubble.  You just forget that life goes on elsewhere!

When it was time to leave I wouldn't say that I wanted to go back, but I wasn't as devastated as I thought I would have been.  I sort of just accepted it and moved on.  Sadly that didn't last long...

I had Monday off which meant it was four day work week.  LONGEST WEEK EVER.  It was homecoming week and the kids were off the chain.  Every day this week all I wanted to do was jump back on a plane home.  The kids came back to school particularly horrible.  But the craziness of homecoming week just made things worse.  Good thing I had an easy unit to teach, but waking up and going to school each day was a real struggle.

Oh wait, and I am sick.

Five weeks until Thanksgiving :)

Friday, October 15, 2010

Functions, Functions, Functions!

I thought it was perfect that we used functions as examples in class the other day because I am teaching functions right now! On Monday I plan to use the Fun with Functions activity as a review before a quick quiz.  Hopefully my class will be able to handle the activity especially just coming off of homecoming week...

Anyways, in order to implement this activity, the key will be to deliver clear and concise directions.  Its basically a matching game but there are different parts to mix together.  It can get very confusing and I can see myself giving directions and then 5 minutes later having 20 children yelling at me saying they don't understand.

The benefit of this fun little activity? its not book work! Lately when my class pisses me off, I set them to work in the books. THEY HATE THIS.  I on the other hand love it.  Not copies and minimal management issues.  So this will be yet another opportunity for my kiddos to prove me wrong and show me that they can handle fun activities.  Plus I am giving a quiz the same day and this will be a good review.

let's see how this goes!

Friday, October 8, 2010

"Repeat after me!"

It sounds simple but it is easy to forget.  In class a few weeks ago we were told to remember to get the students to repeat instructions back to you after you have given them.  I remembered people telling me this over the summer, but as with a lot of things that we were told this summer, I seemed to just forget.  Anyways, following class, I started to make sure that I asked the class to repeat back what I just said.  In recent days I have been doing more interactive activities (mainly to keep me sane...) and I have started to make sure that I have my class repeat my instructions.

So why is this so important?  Because it does not matter how fun I make an activity, my students never listen to my instructions the first time.  Is this really an issue found only in the Delta? No of course not! The average student, hell the average American does not hear what you have to say the first time you say it.  Thus by repeating the instructions back, I am ensuring that the students are listening and perhaps if you didn't hear it the first time, then maybe you will hear it the second time.  Trust me, there is nothing more annoying than giving directions 10 times.  But also, repeating instructions help you to see if the students are actually comprehending what you are saying.  Perhaps there is a step that you left out or that was not clear. Then you can correct it before you let everyone go and everyone has the same problem.

It sounds silly, but yes, remembering to ask the children to repeat back the instructions was one of the most helpful things I learned from class the other day.