Things are moving right along at school. The first grading period ended Friday and I have to have grades posted by Monday noon. I’m ready to post grades and finalize them, but I have one thing pending that I have to check on Monday morning, then I’m good to go.
I’ve been playing with my time on the weekends, to try and get more free time so that I can decompress from my work week a little more. What I’m discovering is, I just have to go with the flow. I’m doing better with getting papers graded and recorded before I leave school for the day and it’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been more than a day or so behind. But the weekend is my planning time, and some weeks take more planning than others. Last week, for example, we covered problem solving strategies, which is one of my favorite topics. Kids can get overwhelmed and bored with it, though, so I used my mad skills with PowerPoint to make the lessons both clearer and more interactive. The downside was that it took me much longer than usual to get my week planned out. Was it worth it? Definitely. But it’s just another example of how I can’t really make a schedule for myself and expect to carve it in stone.
This week, I don’t expect my planning to take much time at all. All I’m using my projector for will be the daily warm up and TAKS prep problem, and to display the answer key to last night’s homework. The rest of the lessons will need to be me at the front of the class, working problems on the board.
I’ve made it a full six weeks. If you count the two weeks of orientation before school started, I’ve been at work for two months now. It feels strange to me, still. I still hesitate to say that I’m a teacher, even though I’m nearly bursting with pride at the accomplishment. Am I a teacher? Hmmm… That’s not an easy question to answer. I do teach, but I’m still learning the craft. I make LOTS of mistakes, and spend quite of bit of time trying to figure out how to fix them. But every day I’m getting closer to knowing that I am a “teacher” in the truest sense. My school mentor keeps telling me that I can’t do it all in my first year. While I agree, I still try to do more, to improve on what I’m currently doing, to streamline the processes that happen in my class, and to ultimately get better at what I’m doing. Can I become the “World’s Best Math Teacher” my first year? No, in fact it may never happen. Can I aim to be a good teacher my first year? Absolutely, and I plan on it.
This week, I also met my alt. cert. mentor for the first time. She did a formal observation of the second half of my last, and worst-behaved, class. I bribed them with candy if they would behave for me. Oh, yes. I went there. And I told on myself, too. The funny thing is, that class has such character, and I would love to just sit and chat with them for hours. But I have a job to do, and we have math to learn, so I have to work very hard to curtail their tendencies to socialize. My mentor said they behaved beautifully for me and that I obviously have a good grasp on handling them. She said they wouldn’t have responded so positively to the bribery if they didn’t trust me to follow through and respect me enough to comply. If the kids don’t respect you, no amount of bribery will make them behave. Overall, she was happy with the lesson and how I was presenting the material, she was impressed with the PowerPoint I had put together, and she had a few very minor things that might help me get more participation from more students. Her suggestions were interesting and at least one of them I have already started to use, so the observation was helpful all-around.
She also asked me where I was at in the certification process. I told her that I had finished the training, completed the professional development hours (though I still need to fax the log over to the office), and have started the on-line review for the PPR. I expressed concern that I was woefully behind because I’d wanted to have the PPR taken by now. She assured me that I was WAAAAY ahead of most of her other mentees (which, considering how last-minute most people are, does NOT comfort me), and that I shouldn’t worry. She also said that I did exactly what I should have for the first six weeks: I concentrated on teaching.
So, my mind is at ease this weekend as I plan on my topic for next week: converting fractions, decimals, and percents. Judging by the groans and looks of panic I got from my students when I told them what we were doing next week, this should be a fun unit.
