I.T. to Teacher

Grading lab reports.  It's enough to make me wonder what rattles around in my students heads sometimes.  Next I have to grade tests.  I cringe to think what those hold in store.  The other teacher and I have already been talking about adding "because it was hard" points to the test and lab.

There's a student in one of my classes who is smart, he understands the material, but he doesn't follow directions.  I hate giving him C's when he gets the right answers and knows what he's doing, but he doesn't show his work.  I've told them time and time again to show their work, and most are finally getting it, but he hasn't been.  Hopefully he did better on the test.

I hear from another physics teacher that some of the students in my AP Physics B class are completely lost.  I know things have been going quickly, and it's a hard topic, but I didn't think they were lost.  It's probably because they don't ask questions, and aren't used to having to read the book.  I haven't had a single AP student come by my room outside of class asking for help.  I'll have to emphasize that they should.

I have a couple of good stories.  Hopefully I'll have time to post them this weekend.

I had intended to be posting more often than this, but, as those who are teachers will understand, since school started I have been busier than I have ever been before. Things are going well. Here are some highlights, and our featured story.

I told all my students the first day that I am a first year teacher. The other new teacher in our department isn't going to tell her students that. I think the difference in our class levels (she teaches grade level, and I teach PreAP and AP) is reflected in the students maturity level (or what passes for that in high school). So far it has been a good thing for my students to know I'm new. My students can laugh with me when I make silly mistakes, or new teacher discoveries. They enjoyed it when I found I could use multiple colors on the overhead. Also, they know that I probably can't answer them if they ask what's going on next week. Right now I'm running about 12 hours ahead of my students. Hopefully that will increase soon.

Today I had my first lecture that fell apart. It's my AP Physics C class. Last week we talked about derivatives, and I found that all but four of my students had learned derivatives before. Great, that means they know integrals, too. I only need to plan a review on integrals to refresh memories and introduce them to the four who are just starting calculus. So we go over a problem for a while until we encounter the place where we need to use integrals. I begin my integral review. The students are very involved, scribbling notes and asking lots of questions. I'm pleased, until I realize there are too many questions. I'm getting questions from the students who were looking bored during the derivative review.

"Strange," I thought.

So I ask the class, "Who has had integration before."

....

"Anyone?"

....

Uh oh.

"Hmm," I say. "Ok, I was not expecting that."

I find out that they learned derivatives in the couple of weeks before school ended last year, and they'll be learning integration this year. I tell them that I had prepared a review of integrals, and was not prepared to teach integrals, but we'll see what we can do. There's about 45 minutes left in the period; plenty of time. I launch into integrals. Indefinite integrals go well. We're integrating, we're taking derivatives, things are going well. Then I try to transition into definite integrals. That didn't go so well. After fumbling through the beginning of definite integrals (remember, I haven't had calculus in 8 years and hadn't planned on doing definite integrals today) I start to confuse them, and in the process end up confusing myself.

Enough of this.

I stop things and tell them that we're going to approach integrals from a different perspective right now, and I'll have something better prepared for next time. I start showing them integration from a graphical perspective. That should be easier, right? That didn't work so well either.

RING!!!

Saved by the bell! "Get out of here! I'll figure something out for next time."

In the end, even though my lecture completely melted down I was pleased with how it went. I never felt totally lost, I never panicked, I never lost control of the class, and I never lost their attention.

I know you all are waiting for this so I'll put up a quick first day report.

Everything went well. The day was a bit chaotic since we're cramming 8 periods plus some extra stuff into it. Much of the day was spent passing out paperwork or going over paperwork with the students. My classes weren't bad. They were a bit chatty, but it's the first day and they're all Juniors or Seniors.

Early on I found I was finishing all my stuff early so I would just go through the roll again and try to remember some of the names. I didn't do so well at that. Oh well, I'll have plenty of opportunities to practice. After lunch I started asking for an interesting tidbit about them when I went through the roll the second time. That killed a lot of time. On a day with nothing physics to do I was happy just keeping them busy and paying attention to me so they weren't chatting with friends.

I really felt like I was subbing again. Handing out papers, going over papers, following instructions provided to me, and keeping the kids busy is exactly like subbing. Tomorrow should be a much different day.

That's it for now. I'm working on an AP lesson for tomorrow, and I'd like to sleep some too.

Well, the power was out at my house a couple of nights ago and I needed to print my syllabi out so I went over to my Sis-in-law's house to use their computer. While I'm printing stuff out my 3 year old niece was watching and asking about what I was doing.

RM: "What are you doing?"
Me: "I'm printing out stuff for my students."
RM: "Wow, you have a lot of students."
(I was printing a dozen pages or so)
Me: "Yep, I sure do."
RM: "How big are they?"
Me: "They're about 17 years old."
(not a satisfactory answer)
RM: "How big are they?"
Me: "They're a little shorter than me."
(ah, that's what she wanted to know)

She thinks hard for a second. Then she runs to her room calling over her shoulder: "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

She runs back with a paper balloon tied to a length of yarn.

RM: "Here you go. You can give this to your students. They will like it very much."

I bet they will. I put it on my front wall.

So much has been happening, but since part of it was buying a house I haven't had internet for almost 10 days.

First of all, yes, we bought our first house. My lovely wife is a very trusting lady who didn't see the house in person until after we signed the papers. Good thing she likes it or you might never have heard from me again. Something I'll enjoy is the 1.5 mile commute I'll have. Quite a change from the heady days of IT when I'd drive 50 miles each way.

Speaking of commutes, tomorrow is the first day of school. I've been in various trainings for the past 5 weeks, have had several days to get my room ready, and now they expect me to be able to handle actual students! Everyone has been asking me if I'm overwhelmed yet. I'd say partially. I think I'm overwhelmed because right now we're looking at the whole year: creating syllabi, lesson plans, rules, procedures, and on and on and on. I think once we're past that and focusing on a few days or weeks at a time things will seem much more manageable.

My department is very good. I like everyone in it and no one takes things too seriously. I wouldn't be able to

Excuse me. My dog just gave me the "look at me" growl. She's sitting on the floor next to me looking at me expectantly and pawing my leg every time I return to typing. It's too early for her to be begging me to go to bed, she was just outside, ... aha, she wants to play. I'll be back.

work as well with them if they didn't like to have fun. The female:male ratio isn't too extreme either. In my department it's only about 1.5:1.

I have to say, I haven't spent this much time thinking about artsy stuff, looking at paper and markers, or cutting anything in a very long time. My room is pretty stark right now. I put up my one poster, a picture of Yoda that another teacher gave me, and a paper balloon. "A paper balloon?" you may be asking yourself. Seems kind of random doesn't it? I'll make my next post about it.

Today I was at Office Max/Depot (can't tell the two apart) and I found dry erase overhead pens. I can't tell you the last time I was excited about a pen, but these should be cool. I'll be trying them out tomorrow.

Ok, enough randomness. Check back for a first day report.

A lot going on lately, but not much teaching related. I've been spending a lot of time getting ready to buy a house. We're supposed to close on Friday, and I've been running around trying to get the appraisal number out of our appraiser. It's been a challenge, but I prevailed today! That should be the last hurdle.

By the way, don't use Apex Appraisals in Houston unless you like unless you like changing requirements and insinuations that you're trying rip them off even though you're following their directions. It may be a fine company, but the guy I've been dealing with should not be working with people.

I have been working on my syllabi for my AP classes. It's easy enough to figure out what to teach; the AP book tells you what's going to be on the test. What's hard is trying to figure out the best order to teach it in, and how long each part will take. I could go the traditional way and progress from Mechanics through E&M, but they've just finished a class like that. I could start with E&M and then do Mechanics. I could also mix the two since many of the motion and force related Mechanics formulas are very similar to formulas in E&M. I like the idea, but I think it will take too much work on my part right now since I still don't really know what I'm doing. Maybe in a few years.

Now I need to work on lesson plans. Only 2 weeks until I see the kids.

The thing I keep telling myself is that I will screw up, things will not go the way I plan, and that I will survive. Next year I get to start fresh with better ideas and more experience.

I keep thinking of a quote that was probably said by some famous person somewhere, but I remember it from the Wheel of Time books.

"No battle plan survives contact with the enemy."