Today one of my students was abnormally out of it. Not paying attention, constantly talking. When I went by their desk they were just doodling. The really frustrating thing is the whole point of the class was to help them pass a test later this week, which this student in particular really needs help with.
When I asked afterwards (one on one) what's the deal, they told me I'm 'irritating'. "You're irritating. You irritate me. I don't like this class. I don't like you or the way you teach."
Yikes. So we talked about that a bit but at the end of the day I'm just irritating. I am filtering all this thru the reality of teen hormone-y-ness. One day a teen loves something and the next they hate it, and they generally operate in absolutes. So we'll see.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
I'm a teacher
Kind of a 'well duh' by this point, but I especially noticed it today. I'm in, I'm doing this. And it's not bad at all.
Hard to get up today, so I got to class a bit later than I'd like. Hurried to stuff in order.
Given the short prep time, class went really well. I felt like I was able to pull in stuff from previous lessons and they got it. Nice split of time between me talking and them working. Some very nice "Aha!" moments for the kids.
And I realized I've got a catchphrase. Like when I was in school there was a teacher who was trying to get us to say that a certain thing in a book was a metaphor for sex but we were all embarrassed to say "sex" in class so she finally goes "It's SEX people, SEX!!". That lived forever.
So for me, when I notice someone is totally not listening to a question I'm asking, I'll say "What do *you* think, Joe?" (Or whoever), and they'll turn around and go "Whaaa???" and I go "ExAAActly". I think I got that from an episode of the Simpsons. Anyway, that "ExAAActly" is my thing, my thing that I do.
Hard to get up today, so I got to class a bit later than I'd like. Hurried to stuff in order.
Given the short prep time, class went really well. I felt like I was able to pull in stuff from previous lessons and they got it. Nice split of time between me talking and them working. Some very nice "Aha!" moments for the kids.
And I realized I've got a catchphrase. Like when I was in school there was a teacher who was trying to get us to say that a certain thing in a book was a metaphor for sex but we were all embarrassed to say "sex" in class so she finally goes "It's SEX people, SEX!!". That lived forever.
So for me, when I notice someone is totally not listening to a question I'm asking, I'll say "What do *you* think, Joe?" (Or whoever), and they'll turn around and go "Whaaa???" and I go "ExAAActly". I think I got that from an episode of the Simpsons. Anyway, that "ExAAActly" is my thing, my thing that I do.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Been a while
I realize I've kind of fallen off the wagon with keeping this up to date.
So the latest:
We did finals right before Christmas. Evidently this is the first year they've done that: previously they did finals right after break. I am *so* glad I didn't have to deal with that: trying to get everyone up to speed on a semester's worth of material after a 2 week break would be craziness.
They didn't go as well as I would have hoped. At the end the grades for the semester were reasonable: I generally feel like justice was done. But the grades for the finals themselves were pretty terrible.
I am still having trouble getting inside the heads of the kids who are struggling. Math is so basic to me, so common-sense-how-could-it-be-otherwise, that it's hard to figure out what's not connecting for someone who isn't getting it. The only thing I can say for sure is that for many of them, they approach math as a series of mystic runes to just memorize. It all makes no sense, nor will it ever: the best you can do is just remember these crazy formulas and spit them back. This becomes obvious on tests when you see a formula that's just a little off (forgetting to square differences in the distance formula) or used in the wrong place (distance formula instead of midpoints).
And what constantly surprises me with mistakes like this is kids will reach answers that are clearly, unmistakeably wrong (the midpoint of (0,2) and (4,3) is -57) and not even notice.
So I guess the battle is to challenge them to try to actually think/reason about what they're doing instead of just plug in numbers to some formula.
One very nice thing about teaching: the time off. Got 11 work days off over the holidays (so 2+ weeks). There will be another week break in February and a third in April. Then there's the summer. The whole. entire. summer.
I'd told myself when I started teaching that I might use the break to start some technical project (teach myself javascript) and then continue that project in my free time during the second semester. That didn't happen. Too busy relaxing/having fun. And I'm not feeling very motivated to start it now. With time away from programming I am feeling more comfortable saying "I don't like to do that" and not feeling guilty/ashamed of it. Still sorting out what that means for my future career, but at least I am coming to terms with it.
I almost feel like this is a 12 step program or something. "I'm Doug and I don't like programming and that's OK". (We love you Doug).
So the latest:
We did finals right before Christmas. Evidently this is the first year they've done that: previously they did finals right after break. I am *so* glad I didn't have to deal with that: trying to get everyone up to speed on a semester's worth of material after a 2 week break would be craziness.
They didn't go as well as I would have hoped. At the end the grades for the semester were reasonable: I generally feel like justice was done. But the grades for the finals themselves were pretty terrible.
I am still having trouble getting inside the heads of the kids who are struggling. Math is so basic to me, so common-sense-how-could-it-be-otherwise, that it's hard to figure out what's not connecting for someone who isn't getting it. The only thing I can say for sure is that for many of them, they approach math as a series of mystic runes to just memorize. It all makes no sense, nor will it ever: the best you can do is just remember these crazy formulas and spit them back. This becomes obvious on tests when you see a formula that's just a little off (forgetting to square differences in the distance formula) or used in the wrong place (distance formula instead of midpoints).
And what constantly surprises me with mistakes like this is kids will reach answers that are clearly, unmistakeably wrong (the midpoint of (0,2) and (4,3) is -57) and not even notice.
So I guess the battle is to challenge them to try to actually think/reason about what they're doing instead of just plug in numbers to some formula.
One very nice thing about teaching: the time off. Got 11 work days off over the holidays (so 2+ weeks). There will be another week break in February and a third in April. Then there's the summer. The whole. entire. summer.
I'd told myself when I started teaching that I might use the break to start some technical project (teach myself javascript) and then continue that project in my free time during the second semester. That didn't happen. Too busy relaxing/having fun. And I'm not feeling very motivated to start it now. With time away from programming I am feeling more comfortable saying "I don't like to do that" and not feeling guilty/ashamed of it. Still sorting out what that means for my future career, but at least I am coming to terms with it.
I almost feel like this is a 12 step program or something. "I'm Doug and I don't like programming and that's OK". (We love you Doug).
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