I'm very sorry that I will be unable to attend the fieldtrip YPSD students are taking to the State Capitol next Tuesday to see the Engineering Design Expo. Several of my students are attending and seem very excited about it. Talking to them about the Expo is the first chance I've really had to talk to my students not just about college, but about engineering. I deal almost exclusively with 9th graders, so most of them have less interest in careers than in passing a given class - but talking about the Expo allowed me to talk to them more about this. I think the students selected will really enjoy the experience. I also think its bringing a bit higher profile to the partnership (at least in the students eyes) than just having TAs in the classroom. Indeed, in spite of my best efforts to remind that students that I am an engineering student from Michigan, they all assume that I'm a student teacher.
In both my algebra classes right now, we're working on graphing lines. I remember how tedious it was to have to make 20 graphs for homework every night - so I feel a little bad watching it happen to them too.
Due to a heavy courseload next semester, I won't be able to continue as a TA. My last day will be December 13. I'm trying to think of a good way to exit the classroom. I would really like to do something that resonates with the students, shows my appreciation, and also shows my enthusiasm for Michigan. Hopefully I'll come up with something!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Early November (Just Over a Month to Go)
So, I find that time is flying by this semester - both inside and outside Ypsilanti High School.
By far, my favorite part of this experience is connecting with the students. In Mr. Lancaster's class, there is one student who clearly does not like math but loves reading. Since I am actually looking for some books to read, I asked her if she could recommend some. Her face lit up, we talked for a couple minutes, and then she worked much better than I am used to seeing for the rest of the hour. In Mr. Lancaster's class, we are still working on solving equations of the form ax+b=c. Now we have added problems of the for -ax+b=c and ax-b=c. At first, I didn't even notice we had changed topics, but the (slightly) different form of the equations seems to matter a lot to the students.
In Ms. Porter's class today we worked on rates and ratios. I was helping one student with his problem and realized (after several minutes) that I was doing it the completely wrong way. While I have made mistakes before helping students, this was the most aggregious - and I felt bad, as if I had violated the student's trust in me.
Finally, today students got their grades for this term. There seemed to be a lot of dissapointment, but Ms. Porter noted that the students don't transfer that dissapointment into a different appraoch to school. I try to draw this connection to them sometimes - the connection between action and consequences. Last week, they didn't want to do their homework in class, so I asked them if they were going out for Halloween. They said "yes" - and I told them they would be better off working on their homework in class so that they had enough time for Halloween...they still didn't understand the connection though. Same with these new grades - many of them had low class participation grades, but rather than participate today and start fixing the problem, they sat angry and trying to argue their old grades. I wish I could make them see the connection between their actions and the consequences.
By far, my favorite part of this experience is connecting with the students. In Mr. Lancaster's class, there is one student who clearly does not like math but loves reading. Since I am actually looking for some books to read, I asked her if she could recommend some. Her face lit up, we talked for a couple minutes, and then she worked much better than I am used to seeing for the rest of the hour. In Mr. Lancaster's class, we are still working on solving equations of the form ax+b=c. Now we have added problems of the for -ax+b=c and ax-b=c. At first, I didn't even notice we had changed topics, but the (slightly) different form of the equations seems to matter a lot to the students.
In Ms. Porter's class today we worked on rates and ratios. I was helping one student with his problem and realized (after several minutes) that I was doing it the completely wrong way. While I have made mistakes before helping students, this was the most aggregious - and I felt bad, as if I had violated the student's trust in me.
Finally, today students got their grades for this term. There seemed to be a lot of dissapointment, but Ms. Porter noted that the students don't transfer that dissapointment into a different appraoch to school. I try to draw this connection to them sometimes - the connection between action and consequences. Last week, they didn't want to do their homework in class, so I asked them if they were going out for Halloween. They said "yes" - and I told them they would be better off working on their homework in class so that they had enough time for Halloween...they still didn't understand the connection though. Same with these new grades - many of them had low class participation grades, but rather than participate today and start fixing the problem, they sat angry and trying to argue their old grades. I wish I could make them see the connection between their actions and the consequences.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)