Reboot!

It has been quite an adjustment shifting back to teaching in the public school environment. There is a different student mindset when a student has to be there as opposed to a student who is paying to be there. And I've determined that I'm better suited to teaching high school than I was to teaching junior high.

One disturbing thing I've learned about myself is that I prefer PreAP classes. This may seem like a no brainer but I consider myself a "save the disenfranchised" sort of teacher. I want the students that the other teachers can't stand. But it turns out that I'm a pushover and I'm having a hard time standing them myself.

 I'm developing a newfound interest in lesson design for student engagement. I'm toying around with the idea of trying education gamification. I'll keep you posted....

Trucking along!

After a long and semi-productive weekend, I was ready to hit the ground running. I received a great grade on a group report from the week before. By Wednesday, I was starting to get ahead in a class or two, and I wasn't behind anywhere. Thursday morning I got surprise visits to the labs from both of the professors that I TA for.Thankfully, they both told me I was doing a fine job. By the start of Thursday evening, I was starting to believe that this semester might make up for the grief I've been getting the past two semesters. Until...

I bombed my Statistics homework. I know that what I turned in was incomplete because there were a couple of concepts that I was unclear on. My mistake was not finding the time to visit with the professor. When he described his grading process, it sounded like he gave completion grades. He grouped work according to those who understood it all, those who get the gist or it, and those who appear to need help. Guess what group I was in? My feelings were hurt. Perhaps I should have stayed behind and petitioned to have my grade increased. But I felt like he knows what he's talking about and I didn't have the energy to fight. Instead I went to the pity party where I questioned my decision to take this path, wondered what the end benefit is going to be, and doubted my abilities again.

Today is a new day. I've already started on next week's assignment, and I have a good idea of what to do. I'll work on it this weekend and plan to visit him Monday morning to ensure that I'm on the right track. I'm ahead in one class and caught up in the other. I'll have to do work this weekend, but I'll get there.

Two weeks down!

by Rob Shenk

Thankfully, I have survived the first couple of weeks. I started off motivated and ahead on assignments, but I can see that I will have to really work to stay on the ball. As usual, there will be lots of researching, reading and writing. My goal is to try to figure out how to get all of my research in sinc so that I can focus toward a dissertation topic. I'm not as overwhelmed by the math this time. Either my math brain muscles are finally getting in shape, or I chose the right class!
Although I'm leading two precal labs, they are for different professors at different spots in the book. So I essentially have two preps. But I'm enjoying it so far. The students who show up are asking questions and doing work, so that's a good sign, right?
Enjoy your weekend and imagine me sitting in a corner reading and annotating articles while my family and friends enjoy the game.

Back for more

by House Of Sims

Well, I made it through a tough first year, and I'm back to give it another go. I got to campus later than I wanted (and was subsequently late for class introductions), I couldn't find the key to my office, and I got a ticket because I hadn't purchased my parking pass. I hope that these are not indicators of the semester that I should expect.

In spite of the fact that I had all of these ideas for how I would approach teaching developmental mathematics, I have been reassigned to teach precalculus labs. It's been a while, but I think it will be alright. I teach these on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

Two of my three classes are on Tuesday and Thursday nights. My third class meets five Saturdays throughout the semester. Everything else for that class will be online. As you can imagine, I will be exhausted on Tuesday and Thursday nights. And with my luck, all of my children's school programs will fall on those nights, so I will feel like the absent mother.

Wish I could say that I'll catch up on my rest Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I will be holding office hours and getting homework done on those days. A grad student's work is never done! But I'm blessed to be having this experience, so I'll do my best not to complain. It wouldn't change anything, right?