Math teachers count!

Wow, last two weeks have been incredibly busy.

The school year is in full swing now. My classes have taken their first test, and most of my 8th graders tanked it. Then again, most of them are acting like fools during class and not listen, so that might play a part.

I’ve started compiling a list of who needs extra help during our study hall period, though just this week, I forgot to sign passes for those kids. Rather than planning during my planning period, I had to run around doing that. And last week, I sent kids to study hall when I wasn’t supposed to. It sort of worked out, but my CLT lead and I have had some reworking to do. The idea is that we invite kids to her study hall for math intervention, but it’s a new thing for both of us so we’re working out the kinks.

I’ve come to learn, also, that electronic reminders don’t work for me at all. If I don’t write things down, I forget them. That’s write it, not type it. This is part (most) of the reason that I forgot to sign kids passes--the email that was reminding me to do so got lost in the shuffle. 

This week that we just finished up was my birthday. I guess my main gift was that my crazy class was slightly less crazy, but I did have a student draw me a picture and a different set of students make a little box that represented a class inside joke. It was nice. 

At the end of this week, the kids took a quiz, and my honors classes really nailed it. Most of my math 8′s still bombed it, even though all of the questions were pulled DIRECTLY from in class activities and the HW, and I told them such. Looking at the gradebook right now is really depressing because many of them have Fs. And it’s interim time, so I have to contact parents of kids with Ds or Fs...which is almost half, if not more, of my total math 8 students.

Here are some of the responses to one of the quiz questions. Feel free to facepalm.

This week was all kinds of feelings...

I had to make my first call home to a few parents this week. I was super nervous, only thinking about horror stories of pain in the butt parents. Luckily, both went extremely well. I think many parents just want to be kept in the loop about what’s going on with their child and I’m glad that I was able to do that.

Actually, the reason that I had to call home for one student was because he felt it would be appropriate to shout out “I lost my virginity” during study hall. This kid pretty much consistently gives me some kind of issue, but after multiple warnings, I didn’t hesitate to send him to the assistant principal after this incident. I don’t think anyone expected me to actually send him down, so things calmed down a lot after that. Though, when I actually had him in class the following period, he didn’t seem too concerned about his punishment.

My original “pain in the butt” class is starting to be rivaled by another class, which is something I’d rather not have. I do have a team teacher in that classroom, but even with the two of us, our 5 amigos seem to toss things into a loud, barely controllable whirlwind. I’m hoping that once kids see that they’re goofing off is resulting in a failing grade, they’ll tighten themselves up. At least, I’m hoping most will. Dealing with one knucklehead is (theoretically) easier than five.

I’ve updated the gradebook with both quizzes and a hw assignment thus far and I’ve been fielding lots of parent emails, probably since a large chunk of students have a not-good grade. No screaming, as of yet. The parents just want to know what they can do to help their kid do better, and as long as the student is willing to put in the effort, I’m happy to help.

One of this week’s funny moments...we’re going over order of operations and doing some example problems. I ask a question, pause to see some answers (thumbs up/down), and then answer the question. And then I hear “I TOLD YOU FOOL.” This took me by surprise, of course, but I couldn’t help but laugh.

Me: “Wait, wait, let’s just back up for a second. Who just said ‘I told you fool’?”

All the kids finger point to this one kid in the back of the class.

Me: “Okay, so...we don’t call our classmates fools...but that was kinda funny.”

Even though this week was only a four day week, man it felt tiring as heck.

Wednesday night was Back to School Night. I’ve in no way ever been involved in BTSN--my mom never went to one because she felt like I had my academics under control (and I did). So all my coworkers were telling me what to expect things to include, and it basically boiled down to “They just want to know that the person who is teaching their child isn’t a robot.” And I think I handled that quite nicely. 

Actually, that day of back to school night, I had my class of crazies. I’m attempting to give a short lesson on the Real Number System, and I’m giving an example of how if you add two rational numbers together, you get a rational number.

Me: “Okay, is one a rational number?”

Them: “Yes!”

Me: “Is six a rational number?”

Them: “Yes!”

Me: “What is 1 plus six?”

...Except I didn’t say six. I said sex. Le whoops. We had a good laugh about it. The principal was actually in my class that period giving me a hand with things since that class is so nuts, but she was out of the room at that moment escorting my lunch detention kids to the office. When she returned, we were all giggling a little and then a student was like “Hi Mrs. M. NOTHING happened while YOU were gone.”

I was hoping that this little slip would help me bond with them and maybe they’d somehow be more inclined to listen to me, but that didn’t happen. The following class, they were more out of hand than usual, maybe because the principal wasn’t there. At one point, they were like “Man, we need Mrs. M in here.”

And another student, actually my original Mr. crazy who has now become the student who raises his hand to answer questions, was like “you shouldn’t need Mrs. M in here!”

I almost wanted to cry (in frustration because of that class but also because of his answer).

Highlight of the week though was the following. I made a point at the beginning of the year to put a pride flag in the pencil cup on my desk. I want all students to know that they are welcomed, safe, and included in my classroom. One of my students mentioned to me that she noticed the flag and I told her why I have it. She revealed to me that she’s bisexual and that seeing my flag made her happy.

I was hoping that my flag would serve its purpose, but I had no idea that I’d be made aware of its success so soon. :)