Many Points

It has been 11 months since my last post.  Last year I really wanted to blog weekly:  let other educators know that they are not alone, that others have the same frustrations, and the same joys.  Even more, that out of those frustrations may COME joy.  It did not happen. I don't know.  Maybe I felt intimidated when I started reading the blogs of others, good blogs, with important things to say, and started to tell myself, "You are not that good.  Your message is not that important." Maybe more than intimidated, I just wanted to be perfect, like others are perfect, and say the exact right thing in the exact right way to make ALL my readers go WOW! Maybe I was afraid no one would read, so why bother. Then I went to a great EdCamp, and a session about blogging and podcasts and I remembered my why! (Oh, if you get a chance, find an EdCamp!  It could change your Teacher life!)  I blog to reflect for myself on what is and is not working. ...

As a learner, learning in and of itself gave me joy.  I admit, I do not understand how it could not!  But, I do understand that, at least for the majority of the students that I see each year, it does not. Well, not at least the learning in the way it comes from the curriculum. SmartBoard presentations, Power Points or Slide presentations, even with bells and whistles, is just the same old same old, with noise. I know that challenge works, my students tell me.  But not the challenge of another long math problem out of context.  In some ways, my students are very savvy.  They want to know why, like we all do, and they want to SEE it, in action, in some real world application where they can work together to come up with an answer. And yes, they would LOVE for me to do the work, at the beginning. I taught a group of students how to juggle this year.  Some did not quite get it, and could only toss and catch two scarves.  Marvelous!  They did...

I started this year with an idea, an idea that learning was going to be fun.  Even bigger, learning MATH was going to be fun.  We built towers and houses, even a website and a game.  Students asked questions, worked together, shared ideas, laughed, and learned math.  We used math vocabulary to describe what we were doing, and my students had fun.  It was first semester. Second semester came, and with it, major changes.  I had to let go of some content and embrace a different paradigm for DAEP school.  I now supervise independent learning for some students, while teaching others.  I may have less content, but I have more record keeping (have I mentioned that I am not very good at record keeping?)  My days seem longer and I have noticed that I have fallen into the trap of "direct teaching" for an entire class period.  This new group of students gives an appearance of not wanting to fall behind, but grades for the previous semester sugges...

A STEM activity and student hands.  Ok, it may not be a TRUE STEM activity, but he is building a house that he is designing.  We get to talk about math concepts like balance, parallel and perpendicular lines, slope and intercepts.  We get to build a relationship and rapport.  He gets to ask for help and I get to give it.  It is fun and afer 15-20 minutes he is ready for Algebra 1.  A once reluctant learner, he is open to instruction and willing to try.   We may be behind the curriculum, but he is ahead of himself in new understandings! A game for brain breaks.  I pull a category card and give each student 2 cards.  They pick their best fit and present it and someone else has to explain WHY it is a good fit.  We think outside of the box.  We put ourselves in someone else's place.  Eventually, we may laugh.  We come back ready to work on a challenging topic again.  This time with more energy. This week I ex...

The end of summer vacation is here.  There are those of us teachers who are rested and ready to go.  There are those of us teachers who are not so rested, and ready to go.  Sadly, there are those of us teachers, rested or not, who are not ready to go.  In whichever group you find yourself, the year begins anyway, and I am going to begin it with a smile. Smiling is so important. I am, in general, a fairly happy person.  I think I smile, a lot.  I have, unfortunately, had a few students ask why I do NOT smile.  That always makes me take a step back and think.  It always makes me wonder what is going on in my head and heart that is begin reflected in my face.  And it always makes me a bit sad. I started this post in AUGUST, and never finished. Funny how time gets away from me like that. I do believe I started this year with a smile, and kept it going.  I made it a point to have fun at the beginning of every class and carry that fun thro...

I started this blog with the original goal of writing something inspiring 2 or 3 times a week.  I then realized that would be a lot of prose writing, so maybe once a week would be a better goal.  And then, life happened.  Family came into town, my older daughter had a day off to play at a museum with me and her daughter, and I had AC issues.  Add to that a backload of laundry to do, bugs to kill, and a yard to take care of, blogging took a back seat. In the process of NOT blogging, I did determine I needed to be creative.  So I branched out, reached out of my comfort zone, and began drawing with chalk/pastels.  I discovered another benefit to my new medium of creative effort:  as I struggled with my vast lack of perfection, I could understand the struggle many of my students face in math. What?  You may be asking what does drawing have to do with student struggle.  I say, EVERYTHING!! Every day I ask my math students to step out of thei...

As teachers, we are required to develop professionally.  Seems a bit funny, I would think that as a teacher one would want to keep learning, growing, developing.  I teach because I love to learn, anything. In 2010, I became a Quantum Learning facilitator in the school district where I work.  I love Quantum Learning, a system designed to help me as a teacher use what I know to be a more connected, more effective teacher.  I get to help other teachers become better teachers!  Not only do I get to model for other teachers, I get to embody more and more all that I love about teaching.  It is amazing!  And the more I learn, the more I want to learn! I just finished four amazing days presenting with four wonderful educators,  I just finished four amazing days with over 100 incredible classroom teachers who are dedicated to improving their teaching, their students' learning, and really, the world. In public education, we are charged with the educa...