This is what looks like outside. I am far too comfortable to get a picture of my front door, but you get the idea.
It is indeed sad that my first thoughts were 'Oh boy! I can finish grading' when I heard of the news, but so it goes.
I am indeed going to spend my day grading, and cooking, and also taking care of poor Joe who is now sick with the stomach flu I had last week.
In other news, things are going pretty well. I am going to be teaching an enrichment class on Thursdays about topology and the shape of space ala Jeff Weeks (math professor I met at a conference).
It's going to be neat, with the eventual goal being that students understand what a hypercube, klein bottle, and a tesseract is.
I'd even like to throw in some set theory, i.e. proving that different sets of numbers have different cardinalities. How cool would it be for an 12 year old to know that the real numbers are 'more infinite' than the natural numbers?
My regular classes are going...I think my management has improved, but there are some aspects that are dragging, which I'd like to change, chief of which is reaching the 25 - 28 students I have in each of my classes. I can't help but feel I'm failing some of them due to my lack of differentiation.
The problem is, I don't really quite know how. The blue books that I used last year were an awesome way to differentiate, but that took a ridiculously long time just for one class of 4th grades. There's no way it's a viable option for my 90 students.
Shrug*, I have started differentiating to some degree with quizzes and leveled worksheets. This seems to be helping but I know does not fit the true definition of what it means to differentiate.
On a completely different note, I've already started thinking about some of the changes I'm going to be making for next year.
- Having a file cabinet where each student has her own file. She will put all important work in there: tests, quizzes, etc. This will come in handy, in turn, during parent/teacher conferences and also will be super helpful if I know that student needs help with a particular project.
- Setting up a binder system. This year, I asked students to get a 3 subject notebook. Each tab represented a particular spacing. However, it's turning out that students are running out of space, misusing the spaces that they have, and generally having a hard time with it. Constant use also means the flimsy cardboard around the notebooks are falling apart. My goal is to have each student get a plastic binder (no rips/stains/tagging = win), where they will divide it up similarly. If they run out of space, I simply give them more paper.
- Rental system: You want a pencil or a pen? Sure, but now you have to clean my desk. I don't really lend students anything this year, but I am also not teaching them responsibility. This system would help facilitate that.
- Better use of I Can logs: Our school is using Learning Targets to help students self-assess where their knowledge is at. My grade team created these really great I can logs to help students with these targets. However, I don't think my current model is that great. The goal ultimately is that these learning targets let students know way, way in advance what they need to study/look over before a test or a quiz. A student should not find out where they're at a quiz/test, but should know coming into it.
- Parking Lot system: Sometimes in class discussions, there are some really great questions/conversations that crop up. Unfortunately, they are tangentially related to what we are doing that day. Instead of letting these rich conversations/questions bite the dust, Kiri suggested I have students put their questions on a piece of colored paper, and stick it underneath a 'Parking Lot', where we'll get to it later. This acknowledges that their discussion has not been lost, and is still meaningful, and also helps me, the forgetful teacher that I am, remember what on earth we talked about that day.
So on and so forth, I have more ideas, but I wanted to put those down at least before I forget.
I am a bit apprehensive about March, as it looms forward. Four weeks, no break (except lady luck's blessing today). It's not that far really, it just seems so ominous.
All right, I am going back to bed. Hope all is well if you are reading this,
Sara
