Okay, this one’s only a single rainbow, but either way you can thank the crazy GA weather for inspiring this uninspiring metaphor for teaching: So it’s like this: Teaching is exactly like this hastily taken photo of a rainbow I saw today leaving work. There’s a lot of rain, it’s cloudy, bleak outlook… and then…
read more »(I wrote this blog knowing that I would be writing the next post about my post-institute experience, hence the “easy part” title. I wouldn’t have said Institute was the easy part back in July) Since starting TFA, I’ve been asked by prospective Corps Members what Institute is really like. My honest response is that it…
read more »To teach several different algebra concepts, my school uses manipulatives called algebra tiles. See: http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=algebra+tiles&cid=9798463280773607865&sa=X&ei=6hOJTq6SBseXtwfjovku&ved=0CEYQ8wIwAQ Basically, there are 3 different shapes of tiles with side lengths set up so that the tiles each have areas of 1, x, or x^2. The back of each tile is colored red to indicate -1, -x, or -x^2. This…
read more »I started with my new students last Monday. We went over classroom procedures the first day and then jumped into some new content the next day to keep on pace with the other math teachers. Now, instead of offering morning help sessions whenever anyone wanted, I am now specifically saying that help sessions are available…
read more »Well, the first nine weeks are almost over, the first round of parent teacher conferences are coming up, I’m nowhere near where I want to be as a teacher, and I’m an even worse blogger. In the interest of organization, I’ll start with the lows and then transition to the highs, but to be clear…
read more »So, yesterday (Friday) was the day when all of the classroom switching was going to happen. We weren’t allowed to tell the kids what was happening (a bunch of teachers were switching rooms and the kids were getting new teachers) until the end of the day when the school would send a home a letter…
read more »Here is a situation where two pieces of public policy that were both well-intentioned and well-thought-out create a toxic situation when combined. According to federal No Child Left Behind policy, when a school doesn’t make Adequate Yearly Progress for a couple of years in a row, students at that school are given the option of…
read more »I found out at the end of the day on Friday that I will be moving to a new classroom down the hall and I will be teaching an entirely different set of students than the students I have been teaching for the last 6 weeks. My school overestimated enrollment for this year, so we…
read more »More ups and downs last week. A couple of OK days, and a few bad days. I’m still having some classroom management issues. I went to go visit a veteran math teacher’s class last week during my planning period to remind myself what effective classes are supposed to look like. There were lots of kids…
read more »For some reason, the 10th anniversary of September 11th has really affected me. I guess it’s because I’ve been repressing, to some degree, the actual event for the past ten years. It’s never been truly comprehensible, and I do agree that we as Americans have to move on and live our lives–not doing so would…
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