2 s-ratings

I had a post-ob today with my principal, and I also got an S from her. She said even though I'm new, a lot of my work shows the maturity of an experienced teacher. So nice! I still feel totally lost with my classes sometimes though.

Speaking of which, I totally lost the CTT class today. They did so well last week but not only forgot everything over the weekend, but they even regressed. I don't know what to do with them! Ah well, only one more class with them and I'm free to think about it until Monday.

woohoo, i'm s-rated

i had my post-ob conference on thursday and my AP loved the lesson. the only thing he wants me to watch is how i phrase my questions, which i can easily work on.

friday was a weird day. we had a school wide activity in the afternoon and my principal kept looking at me. she can be prone to stare at times, and it made me feel like i was doing something totally wrong.

but on the plus side, i got homework from every student in my CTT class except two of them! they were exceptionally good on thursday and for the second time this year, actually understood everything and wanted extra work to challenge themselves. let's see what monday holds...

i took my first sick day yesterday. i guess i just can't get used to working 5 day weeks:) actually though, it was an emergency and i had to take off... even though i was supposed to get observed, whoops!

luckily i rescheduled the observation today and i already know i did fine. i used the same lesson i was observed with on monday by my university liaison. it was a real hit two days ago, and i'm sure it went over equally as well today. the only difference is i was observed with a rowdy class, which wasn't as originally planned.

we got a new transfer student today who came in from a private school. seems like that's going to be happening a lot do to the economy. i asked her what she was learning in math when she left, and her class was about 2 months ahead of where i'm holding. it's only mid-november, i don't know where i went wrong!

feeling better

my week started off today a bit crazy. i'm fortunate to have a great class first period on mondays, so even without a clear lesson plan, they're game for example after example on the board, competing with each other to get the most right and put them up for everyone to see. so that's what we did.

then i have 2 hours of prep. with about an hour left, my school secretary reminded me that i was being observed by my college professor today (during a bad class; i don't know what i was thinking!) so i thought real hard and planned a fun, easy lesson on unit rates and thanksgiving recipes. it went over really well with the kids and the observer loved it.

i also was reminded that i'm getting observed by my AP tomorrow at 9am (the good class.) i'm thinking of using the same lesson, just making it more advanced and competitive for them.

i got my graduate class over with for the week, too. tomorrow and friday are my hardest days. once i'm finished tomorrow, the rest of the week is a breeze until friday. i already have lessons for half my classes tomorrow so i'm almost there. i so wish i didn't plan day to day though. but this week seems like it will be a bit better than last week.

no motivation.

i am so tired. i haven't been planning my lessons in advance for the past few weeks. i just write up something quickly during prep periods, and i'm seeing the kids lose interest because of it.

but right now i'm not really caring so much. i'm a bit overwhelmed with work, school work, and housework. i withdrew from one of my college classes. i was failing and thursday nights were really bad for me. i needed to be home.

i stay up really late every night doing nothing, and it's killing me. i have so much on my mind. i need to snap out of it.

i can get through this... i just can't wait for thanksgiving!

mission complete

I finished grading the massive pile of make-up homeworks that were due to me this past week. Even though I only gave 1/2 credit for the work, my passing rates went up immensely. Right now 64% of my kids are passing my class, up from exactly 50% from the last marking period. 10% of the kids are virtually no shows and about another 10% can't even read or write, let alone add numbers.

that last 15% are just lazy, or really struggling with the material and not putting enough effort into everything else to pass. but i hope i can bring them up and have close to an 80% passing rate by january.

i'm so tired. i don't have a lesson for tomorrow and i'm not about to write one!

just wanna give a shout out to algebra tiles. you rock, man! on monday i worked one on one with a kid who scored a low 1 on the 8th grade exam. using the tiles, within 5 minutes he was able to solve 3x-6=18.