Enjoying Bunker Hill Day off!
It's 7:00 AM, and I'm just sipping coffee and watching Eva play, thanks to this bizarre Boston-only holiday, "Bunker Hill Day". I'm parent-on-duty for the day while Spedgrad works on her portfolio ... but right now, she's working on her sleeping!
I stay "late" every Tuesday and Thursday to work with students who want extra help. I tell them I'll go home if nobody shows up by 2:00, but otherwise I stay as long as I have students. In the recent past (coming up on, say, senior sign-out) I've been there until they fly out for the 3:30 bus.
One student ... call her "Baloney" ... is far behind on work and promises me, week-after-week, that she'll come by to do the missing worksheets, but every day, there's a different excuse. So yesterday, she and a friend appear at about 2:10. Baloney insists that she's been working hard, that she has a bunch of completed worksheets with her, but she wants to give everything to me all at once. And she'll be right back to work with me on the other ones. She ... and the friend ... disappear and are never seen again.
Why do I think she was expecting that I would have left promptly at 2:00, and brought her friend along as her witness that she had "tried to find me but I was already gone?"
And the reason I was staying late on yesterday afternoon was kinda neat. The BTR new teacher coordinator had a new math teacher with her, starting next year at the O'Bryant, and she thought that some of my classroom techniques were good ones that deserved to be recognized and passed along to other teachers! I've come up with a typical classroom cycle through my presentations, student work, and then student presentations which, at least, works well for me!
A typical class goes like so:
- students enter, see Do Now on my Powerpoint projector, start work on as it as I take attendance and stamp homeworks (which are put into table folders). The Do Now is a piece of math I know they're familiar with, and acts as either a refresher of what we've done the previous class, or an introduction to the day's new topic. (Eg: DIstance between points)
- MARK: I introduce topic for the day on Powerpoint, and often put up something (a formula or some definitions) for them to copy into their notebooks. (Eg: Equation of a circle centered at (0,0))
- On the old-school overhead projector, I work a sample problem. (Eg: Use distance formula to find equation of a circle centered at (0,0) passing through a given point)
- With the sample problem still displayed on the overhead, I put up classwork problems on the powerpoint. Students work for 3 to 15 minutes on classwork problems as I cycle through desks and help. Last problem is usually a more difficult one as a time eater for students who work quickly.
- I draw calling sticks to see who's got the problems. Students with the right answers work them out on little (approx 2' x 3') whiteboards at their desks and present them to the class.
- Return to me on the powerpoint, introducing more complexity to the topic (Eg: Equation of a circle with center (h,k) , or a new one. Goto MARK. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- Finish with homework assignment.
I stay "late" every Tuesday and Thursday to work with students who want extra help. I tell them I'll go home if nobody shows up by 2:00, but otherwise I stay as long as I have students. In the recent past (coming up on, say, senior sign-out) I've been there until they fly out for the 3:30 bus.
One student ... call her "Baloney" ... is far behind on work and promises me, week-after-week, that she'll come by to do the missing worksheets, but every day, there's a different excuse. So yesterday, she and a friend appear at about 2:10. Baloney insists that she's been working hard, that she has a bunch of completed worksheets with her, but she wants to give everything to me all at once. And she'll be right back to work with me on the other ones. She ... and the friend ... disappear and are never seen again.
Why do I think she was expecting that I would have left promptly at 2:00, and brought her friend along as her witness that she had "tried to find me but I was already gone?"
And the reason I was staying late on yesterday afternoon was kinda neat. The BTR new teacher coordinator had a new math teacher with her, starting next year at the O'Bryant, and she thought that some of my classroom techniques were good ones that deserved to be recognized and passed along to other teachers! I've come up with a typical classroom cycle through my presentations, student work, and then student presentations which, at least, works well for me!
A typical class goes like so:
- students enter, see Do Now on my Powerpoint projector, start work on as it as I take attendance and stamp homeworks (which are put into table folders). The Do Now is a piece of math I know they're familiar with, and acts as either a refresher of what we've done the previous class, or an introduction to the day's new topic. (Eg: DIstance between points)
- MARK: I introduce topic for the day on Powerpoint, and often put up something (a formula or some definitions) for them to copy into their notebooks. (Eg: Equation of a circle centered at (0,0))
- On the old-school overhead projector, I work a sample problem. (Eg: Use distance formula to find equation of a circle centered at (0,0) passing through a given point)
- With the sample problem still displayed on the overhead, I put up classwork problems on the powerpoint. Students work for 3 to 15 minutes on classwork problems as I cycle through desks and help. Last problem is usually a more difficult one as a time eater for students who work quickly.
- I draw calling sticks to see who's got the problems. Students with the right answers work them out on little (approx 2' x 3') whiteboards at their desks and present them to the class.
- Return to me on the powerpoint, introducing more complexity to the topic (Eg: Equation of a circle with center (h,k) , or a new one. Goto MARK. Lather, rinse, repeat.
- Finish with homework assignment.