Adventures of Becoming a Math Teacher

I'm currently researching

Thu, 06 Dec 2012 14:46:22 -0800

Parental involvement in education. And of course all the articles agree that parents being involved in their student’s education will improve the student’s chance of success.

But I’m also finding in all the articles that it’s essential for teachers to make parents feel like they can be involved and communicate with them a lot.

This is something that I hadn’t really though about when I first decided to become a teacher. It was just all about the students, but students bring with them what their parent’s have (or HAVEN’T) taught them.

I need to figure out a way to interact with parents. I suppose email is good. Parent teacher conferences. Hmm.

Each student learns differently

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:42:59 -0800

If there is a spectrum of learning in the classroom, then there should also be spectrum of teaching to help ALL students succeed.

I'm reading an interesting article

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:29:45 -0800

About the differences and effectiveness of process vs. skills teaching.

Process is letting the students do the work and check against each other. In this method, the teacher is less authoritative. It works best when students already have a solid knowledge base.

Skills is directly explaining everything with a lot of structure. The teacher is more authoritative in this method. It works best for students that do not know much about the subject.

An old man walked across the beach until he came across a young...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:01:42 -0800

An old man walked across the beach until he came across a young boy throwing something into the breaking waves. Upon closer inspection, the old man could see that the boy was tossing stranded starfish from the sandy beach, back into the ocean.

“What are you doing, young man?” He asked.
“If the starfish are still on the beach when the sun rises, they will die,” the boy answered.
“That is ridiculous. There are thousands of miles of beach and millions of starfish. It doesn’t matter how many you throw in; you can’t make a difference.”

“It matters to this one,” the boy said as he threw another starfish into the waves. “And it matters to this one.”

high lights of observation today

Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:08:10 -0700

thatspookytrickster:

i went back to the elementary school today!

as i was walking up to the class, a boy from the class next door saw me and said

Boy: That’s really cute.
Me: What is?
Boy: Your shoes! What is it?
Me: Oh, it’s from YoGabbaGabba.
Boy: Foofa?!
Me: Yeah!

once i got to class, i saw at one of the tables in the back. tanya went up to me and said hi, then went back to her table. a few minutes later, she brough her bucket of books and supplies to my table and sat next to me. she showed me what she was working on and wrote some words on her little white board. interestingly, she writes from right to left instead of left to right. and it’s all just nonsense either way. it was cute that she was so excited to show off to me though.

LITTLE KIDS ARE SO CUTE

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 13:45:43 -0700

I observed at an elementary school for the first time and WOW what a bunch of cuties!

There’s 12 students, 3rd-5th grade, all with disabilities. But to be honest, if you didn’t tell me that, with 90% of the kids, I’d have a hard time telling that they a disability or if they were just over active little kids.

A few of them stood out to me. Jason, a 5th grader seemed very opinionated. He helped some other students with their work. Iyone (pronounced ion), a 4th grader, is the class clown. William, a 4th grader, acted out the most. He did some of his work, then went to the corner which was furnished with a book shelf, rugs and a huge pillow. For most of the time I was there, he wrestled with the pillow. Bibiana (obviously a filipino name), a 4th grader, was working on the computer and got through a bunch of lessons. Probably the best behaved in the class.

Mrs. Oliver told me that (especially in the 4th graders) there’s a very wide spread of abilities. Tanya (who I think has autism, based on her tendency for toewalking and hand flapping) can only write her name correctly about 40% of the time. William however, (the trouble maker) is the closest to grade level out of the group.

Wow little kids are just great and I… well it’s too soon to say, but perhaps I’m considering teaching lower levels than high school?

WOW

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 08:27:21 -0700

I had TOTALLY given up on Bridgeway Elementary already, but the principal totally called me back yesterday! She emailed the special ed teachers, and one of the teachers emailed me back!

I think I’ve secured my second setting.

"You have to have a tight grip on the reins, then at the end, loosen up. If you do it the other way..."

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:05:40 -0700

“You have to have a tight grip on the reins, then at the end, loosen up. If you do it the other way around, everyone will hate you and call you an asshole.”

- My dad

Observation day 1 RCHS

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 13:06:51 -0700

Ms. Brian is younger than expected but very nice. Her students have intellectual disabilities and learning disabilities. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but there’s no visible difference between these students and typically developing students.

When Ms. Brian left the room, the students shot a bunch of questions at me about who I am and why I’m here. One of the girls, Yazmin, reminds me of Nahomi

THANK YOU MS. CAMPBELL!

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 14:20:45 -0700

The vice principal that I met with just this morning, set me up with a teacher to observe! I’m going to start observation next thursday (since i have two tests this thursday)

"Rather than blaming the students for educational failure, adults in the school should examine and..."

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 17:54:43 -0700

“Rather than blaming the students for educational failure, adults in the school should examine and change their own behavior.”

- Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Education Reform by Jean Anyon (via cherikkou)

Getting closer to observation

Fri, 21 Sep 2012 20:40:53 -0700

I set up an appointment to see the assistant principal on Monday morning at River City High School. I turned in a form to set up an appointment to see the principal of Bridgeway Island Elementary School.

And I called Solano Middle School because I was getting desperate and no one picked up and the voicemail was full.

Seriously, the only good administration is ACHS.

Although I haven't worked at any other school,

Thu, 20 Sep 2012 12:14:49 -0700

I have dealt with other administrations at different schools. And by far, American Canyon High School is my favorite. They’re nice, helpful, reply in a timely fashion.

They’re just great, great people over there! For example, I left a message at ACHS yesterday, asking if I could do some observation of students with disabilities and then today, the head of the special education department called me back and said I can come in whenever I want!

Letter of recommendation (2 of 2)

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 12:26:53 -0700

Letter of recommendation (2 of 2)

Letter of recommendation (1 of 2) On my way to becoming a...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 22:49:05 -0700

Letter of recommendation (1 of 2)

On my way to becoming a credential student.

Education of Students with Disabilities

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 22:50:16 -0700

“A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.”

This is why I don’t want to teach college. Once you’re there, you’ve made it. You may not have it made, but you know what you’re doing, you know how to get places even if it may not be that easy.

At the high school level, there are students who simply don’t get it. It’s a game to them. They can just cruise through and it will be fine. And the horrible thing is that their teachers aren’t correcting that thinking. Sure they’ll encourage AP and honors students to do their best, but what about the ones that are failing? The ones that are truly struggling? You can’t just focus on the best students and ignore the weakest ones.

“Two groups of teachers are given separate groups of students. Group A is told that their students are low performers, disruptive and have little chance of success. Group B is told that their students are well behaved, work very hard, even if they are at times below grade level. In the end, Group A students performed very poorly while Group B did very well. In reality, Group A was full of top students. Group B has a history of failing grades and bad behavior.”

And student, with the right motivation can succeed. If you believe that your student will do poorly before you even begin teaching, then that student will do poorly.

I know I can make a difference. And I will.

Time to start using this blog again!

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:02:53 -0700

I’m taking two education classes this semester (possibly three) and I’m really excited about it! I’ve been taking math classes all of my academic career, but I’ve never taken a class that teaches me how to teach.

The first is Health Education. Although the course seems really relaxed and easy, I think it could be really interesting. I’ll have to get CPR certified to pass, so that will be good. Some of the topics we’ll be covering are basic enough, stuff you’d expect, like nutrition and the like. But then there’s safe sex, alcohol, STDs. As a teacher, you don’t really like to think of your high school students doing that sort of thing, but the truth is they most likely are doing it. So it’s good to be able to educate them about the safe way to do so. And then there’s stuff like bereavement (dealing with death) and suicide. As a math teacher, that’s not exactly the stuff that I thought I’d be dealing with, but this is the real world. I most likely will encounter students who have to deal with things like that, and it’d be good for me to be able to know how to handle it.

The second class is Educating Students with Disabilities (note that it is not Disabled Students). Now this is something that’s never even crossed my mind. In my head, there’s “regular” classes and then there’s “special ed” classes. But things have progressed passed that. Sometimes there will be a student with a disability in my class, and I’ll have to learn how to properly teach and TREAT that student. Within just the first class session, we learned about the mind set we should have and the language we should use (person first). And it’s not going to be just the knowledge. I actually need to complete 30 hours of fieldwork working with students with disabilities. This could be absolutely fascinating, but it’s also a bit intimidating.

Either way, this semester seems like it’s going to be a very interesting one.

Tenure

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 00:28:28 -0700

Tenure is great for teachers that are actually good and deserve it.

Tenure is not great for bad teachers. Because once bad teachers get tenure, they’re getting amazing benefits and retirement packages just for being around for a long time, and not actually performing well.

And that’s not even the worst of it. Once you get tenure, it’s practically impossible to get fired. So a teacher could potentially sit in a class room and not teach, and still keep their job and get paid.

A teacher could even abuse the students or sexually harass them, and still get paid! The really bad teachers just get sent away to sit in a room all day and just get paid.

GOD I AM SO UPSET.

I never really thought about having to write a syllabus

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 21:58:38 -0700

I mean I’ve thought about “oh man how will I know what to teach and when to teach it” but not actually sitting down and writing it.

I personally like shorter syllabuses. None of that “I went to college here and received a degree in this” type thing. Pretty short on the rules, because there are some really general ones that are already assumed, like raise your hand if you want to say something. (If you have to tell that to high schoolers, there’s a problem). Briefly explain how grading works because it shouldn’t be that complicated. And not toooo specific on the topics to allow for flexibility.

Other factors that I might have overlooked

Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:12:18 -0700

Sexism

I never really considered this since I’ve never encountered it, but maybe it does have a significant role. Women and girls aren’t supposed to like math (and science, but that’s not what I’m talking about right now). And I don’t exactly know why. But now that I think back, most of my math teachers have been men. Perhaps girls are (still) being discouraged from math. Sort of getting a double bitch slap from society on the whole math thing.

Internet

This is a very powerful influence. Before, it was mostly T.V. and movies that influenced us, but now our peers have a large hand in it as well. And they’re pretty much saying the same thing. “Math sux lol txt it!!” Okay, so it’s not that bad, but people say that they don’t like math and it’s generally accepted. And when someone does say that they like math, they’re ridiculed for it. Like it’s a BAD THING to enjoy math, which is incredibly discouraging!