Week ?

So its been a while since I've written here.

This week, I only went in once, since YPSD had a half day today for parent-teacher conferences. However, Tuesday was a pretty good day for my development as a teacher. In Ms. Porter's class, I read out the homework answers (as I occasionally do). Usually, I turn the class over to Ms. Porter to answer questions, which she does by working the problems out on the overhead. This time I just stayed up there and did the explaining myself. I probably should have checked this plan with her in advance, but I did enjoy doing it, and she didn't seem to have a big problem with it. A few observations on this:
1. As well as I know algebra, its harder with 25 9th graders watching you.
2. Its hard to write in striaght lines on overheads
3. Its also hard to know when the class understands. There's a delicate balance in determining how much time to spend waiting for the students to answer questions and knowing that its just time to move on.

Additionally, there was a student in one of the classes - we'll call him L. L is normally a bit talkative, but generally productive and engaged. In class on Tuesday, he was behind in his homework and not participating. It wasn't until the end of class that we discovered the reason - he had lost his cell phone. This raised, at least in my mind, the interesting question of how much time a teacher should spend trying to figure out what is bothering their students, versus letting it go and expecting the students to come prepared for class regardless of what may be bothering them personally. I mean, these kids are only 14 - but they are in high school, and should be learning to handle things like adults - and adults don't get a free pass at work because they lost their phone. However, L clearly got less out of class than he could have that day, and an earlier awknowledgement of the problem may have helped that.

4th Week

Today I had what was probably my most gratifying experience thus far.

There is one student in one of my classes who, based on his grade in the class, I can only assume was struggling. I would never have guessed this based on my interaction today, however. Before we checked homework, he pulled me over for a question on one problem, so I got a good look at the rest of his homework, and it look GREAT. Lots of effort, lots of right answers.

Toward the end of class, he asked me what college I went to (Eastern or Michigan). Then he asked me about applying to colleges and scholarships, and we had the opportunity to have a good, if brief, discussion. I tried to focus on how, since he just started freshman year, if he improves his grades now, he could go to a great college and find scholarships. This is what the partnership is about - giving students the insight and skill to go to college, and it was nice to see the first glimmer of that.