thoughts on the teaching

i don't think teaching takes any skill. it takes natural intelligence, surely, and some knowledge of whatever subject. and it requires patience. without patience there's no chance. but as far as taking any classes on teaching, or stuff like that, i don't think it's necessary. sure i would be more efficient, and i'd definitely be able to get more done each class. but right now, i'm just winging it, and it's going pretty well.

of course i could be a huge fraud. at some point maybe i'll find out the other teachers have been working wonders with their kids, and i'm incredibly behind and all my kids will fail the mcas. but i don't think that'll happen. and if it does, it couldn't really happen til the year is almost over. heh.

it's really coming along. a lot of the kids have shaped up. unsurprisingly, many of the most disruptive students chilled out a bit and it turns out they're among the brighter kids. i guess they realized i'm sticking around, and they really do need to pass this class.

i haven't assigned detention or written anyone up in a while. i haven't called anyone's parents either, although i probably should, as followups and for parents interested in their children's progress. a lot of this lack of me disciplining students is really me relaxing a bit. i haven't checked on the kids that ask to go to the nurse, or the ones that come in late and say they were at the office, or this or that event that took place during my class. of course some of the kids that i had to discipline right at the start are backsliding, and i'll have to tighten the leashes on them. that can't be the correct adage, but i don't know. i was thinking of running a tight ship, and tightening the noose, but none of those really apply. whatever. i suspect there's some sinusoidal wave function that shows the discipline from me vs. acceptable behavior from them. something like predator prey.

i'm required to stay one hour after school once a week for extra help. i've offered to stay any day of the week that students ask, besides tuesday (that's departmental meetings). my mom keeps telling me it's unnecessary. so does my dept. head. whatever. i'm young and - not naive, but something else - earnest, maybe. i'm sure i'll get sick of doing it, and when i do i'll just stop. let the kids see how nice it was back when i cared, and that sort of thing.

i have a little box of golf pencils, and blank paper, and i have extra worksheets in case the students lose them. i've been letting kids make up homework at any point instead of sticking to strict due dates. i give extra points to the kids that actually hand it in on time, but... i don't know. i'm more interested in them doing the homework eventually as opposed to not doing it and then forgetting about it because there's no longer any point to completing it (gradewise, which is all that matters to them). i have a standing offer for kids to go over all the questions they got wrong on the quiz for half credit. i want them to learn that shit, as opposed to giving up on what they didn't get.

at some point i have to lay down the law and say, you don't bring pencil and paper, you don't take notes, you'll end up with a bad notebook grade. you lose your worksheet, you don't hand it in, you'll end up with a bad homework grade. you don't study, you get a bad quiz grade. as of now, though, they have had a tough year. they had a long term sub for the entire first half of the year. they had mr. cotton for about a month before he resigned, and then they had subs for another month before i started. some of the kids didn't have an algebra teacher last year, either. i don't mind making allowances. but i am going to have to stop eventually. i am not looking forward to that period between when i stop and when they realize i'm being serious. there will be many bad grades and unhappy students for those couple of (days? weeks? probably weeks) . i'm going to have to do it eventually though.

i'm looking for some sympathy here. who thinks special right triangles are easy? if you have a 45-45-90, the legs are x and the hypotenuse is x root 2. if the hypotenuse is in the form x, then the legs are x root 2 over 2. if you have a 30-60-90, the shorter leg is x, the longer leg is x root 3, and the hypotenuse is 2x. if the longer leg is of the form x, then the shorter leg is x root 3 over 3 and the hypotenuse is 2x root 3 over 3.

it's so goddamn easy! yet i've had to teach it, if i count every time i've taught it to the entire class, and to each individual student (some students 5-6 times), i'd say over 100 times. i've had to explain this concept so many times. but there's really nothing to it. i've gone over why and how those proportions work out, using the pythagorean theorem, and they "don't get it." i've told them to just - not even memorize, but to write down - the proportions and accept that they work, and they "don't get it." what's not to get? someone teach me how to teach it to these kids.

what sucks is there is no skipping over this section. it keeps coming back. those goddamn triangles are everywhere. oh man, the standardized tests love them.