i think she really means it…

My First Business Trip

Friday, August 8th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | No Comments

I just got home from my first ever “teacher” business trip.  I have been working with the Introduction to Algebra math program and UCLA over the past 3 years, and this year I was asked to help train some new teachers in Stockton.  It was a good experience.  I haven’t quite decided if I *like* teaching teachers (they can be worse students than 8th graders!), but it was a good challenge for me.

I will return to Stockton next week for the second half of the training, and then head over to Compton for a week with a new group of teachers.  Way to end my summer with a BANG!

From the business side of things, our hotel was nice (it was the first time I ever stayed in a hotel room by myself), and my team (Connie and Phyllis) was a blast.  I was definitely tired of eating out by the middle of the week and plan to take some of my own food next time.

It was a great experience!

Someone’s in the Kitchen With…

Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | No Comments

Mrs. Jones is making a special treat for her students to enjoy tomorrow. Can you guess what it is?

Here are the ingredients.

Step 1

Step 2 (this is Mr. Jones’ job)

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5 (This was Mr. Jones’ idea…isn’t it great!?)

Step 6

Finished…dirt cups!

Nate and I made 96 dirt cups this evening (that’s a little more than 5 times the original recipe!). It was a lot of fun and a great way to show off the new picture plug-in for my blog.

My Totally Awesome, Super Cool Husband

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher, Sara the Wife | No Comments

It’s the time off year most teachers dread…4 more weeks of school! I mean, we’ve already taken the state tests, what more could we possibly teach? Lots! In fact, there aren’t enough days in the school year to get it all in. However, this is also the time of year most students have checked-out. Their brains are full and all they can focus on is summer vacation. Especially 8th graders!

This creates a particularly interesting challenge for me. I teach the 8th graders who hate math (and usually school in general). If I thought the first 10 months of school weren’t challenging enough, June is definitely going to push me to my limit! I’m running low on patience, and my creativity is in short supply. Yet, I still have 4 more weeks of 90-minute periods with rambunctious teenagers. What ever am I going to do?!

Games. That’s what I’ll do! I’ll find a way to trick them into learning for at least 3 more weeks (it really is hopeless to do anything productive the last week of school!). This week, we’re doing a bit of geometry review. If only there was a bingo game that practiced geometric terms and definitions. Well, there isn’t one appropriate for teenagers (I teach remedial kids, but they’re still 13, they’re not going to play “baby” games). Alas, Lakeshore had nothing worth buying. Like most materials I store in my classroom, I’ll have to make it myself.

Have you ever made a Bingo game before? It really isn’t difficult…unless of course you want to make 20 unique game boards. I mean, you can only cut and paste so many times before Microsoft Word freaks out and asks for the rest of the afternoon off.

Enter my Totally Awesome, Super Cool Husband…

He created a program, a computer program, that generates 20 unique game boards…and he did it in one evening! WOW!! No more cut and paste for me! No need to create 20 different tables and cut-and-paste each square. Now I have a computer program to do all the work and an exciting Geometry Bingo game for my students to play tomorrow.

The last three weeks are definitely looking up…just think of the possibilities! Algebra Bingo, Decimal Bingo, Fraction Bingo, Percent Bingo, Division Bingo, Place Value Bingo…

Thanks, Nate…you’re my hero!

A New Haircut

Monday, March 17th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | 2 Comments

I got a haircut this past Friday. It’s shorter than I had planned, but I really like it. Of course, the first thing I heard this morning from the students was, “Mrs. Jones, you cut your hair!” I explained to them that I didn’t actually cut my hair, but had someone else do it for me. Several of them told me they liked the cut except for one girl in first period. She tactfully informed me that it looked better long. Oh well, you can’t please them all…

The Heart of Teaching

Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | No Comments

For some reason, there’s a small group of students who hang out in my classroom after school 2-3 days a week. Of course, many of them are required to see me for extra help on their homework (per their parents’ instruction), but I find that even after they’re done with the work, they like to stick around and be silly. Despite the fact I’ve been working with students all day (including lunch), it’s hard for me to kick them out. After all, this is a safe place for them to be where they can stay out of trouble and they seem to enjoy themselves. My logical side can’t wait for them to leave so that I can really get some work done. My “heart,” however, often causes me to join in with their goofiness. They help me remember my true calling.

Nothing To Be Nervous About

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | 2 Comments

I had a rather interesting experience today.  A prinicipal from a middle school in Palmdale brought 3 teachers to my classroom to observe me teaching.  They are implementing UCLA’s Intro to Algebra program at their site, and not finding much success.  I invited them to come and observe me and my students and offered to help them in any way possible.  It was quite something to have 3 teachers, a principal, an instructional aide, and a UCLA master teacher sitting at the back of my classroom for 90 minutes.  My students were quiet most of the period and most of them were on task.  I was very nervous, and even had a nightmare two nights ago about the whole ordeal.  I can confidently say, however, that the observation went smoothly.  I am a little passionate about the Intro to Algebra program and the types of students I teach.  Any chance I can get to share my excitement with others, is well worth it!  Even if it means teaching to a bunch of grown-ups.

More Teaching Fun

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | No Comments

I taught “proportional reasoning” yesterday. The concept that if “9 pencils cost $1.89, how much do 12 pencils cost?” Also, if “6 pencils cost $2.20, how many pencils can be bought for $1.10?” Not at all exciting information, and with today’s technology…who really uses such methods? I mean, I am trying to build my students’ number sense and ability to understand and manipulate numbers (and even do some of it mentally), but I’ve always dreaded the “proportional reasoning” days. After discussing the 99 cents store, and Von’s weekly “10 for $10 deals,” how much more real life can I get (I don’t really consider buying 12 pencils for $2.52, “real life”)?

Since I wasn’t real excited about my kids sitting around yesterday completing problems on worksheets, I created a game out of it.  I made up “The Mystery Bag Game.”  How it worked was like this…  The students took one proportional reasoning problem from the worksheet and worked as a team of 4 to solve it.  They had to work together, show their work on an overhead transparency, and explain their method to the class.  The team who did the most outstanding job got whatever was in the “mystery bag.”  It was a long shot, but I thought it was a little more intriguing than completing math problems all period.  And, there was the added bonus of the students teaching each other.

It worked!

My students loved it!  They were so excited about the chance at the mystery bag, I got more work out of them than I have in weeks!  The best part…I sat at a desk at the back of the room and let them do the teaching.  It was amazing!  First period did so well, I gave away all of the snickerdoodles I made the night before for the “mystery bag.”  I had to scrounge around my classroom for prizes for my other classes (which turned out to be a few snickers bars and some rolls of lifesavers).

I made another batch of cookies last night.  We’ll see how my classes today enjoy the game.   Everyday is a new adventure!

The Joy of Teaching

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 | Sara the Teacher | 1 Comment

A weird thing happened yesterday…I wasn’t exhausted from teaching all day, even though I was at school from 6:30 to 4:00. I’ve finally reached that point in the year where my kids do most of the work, and I simply direct!

Over the first few months of the school year, I do a lot of teaching of fraction and decimal operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing). It’s challenging to get these students (who didn’t get the concepts the first 4 years they were taught, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades) to understand fractions and decimals. Especially when they’re taught so out of context. I mean, when’s the last time you added fractions with unlike denominators (or divided them…when DO we use that in real life?)? Some of them are finally getting it. The others, well, we just keep hoping, teaching, and praying!

Yesterday, we played with circumference of circles and discovered a really cool ratio…pi. It was fun to watch my kids measure the diameter and circumference of circular objects and notice that they kept coming up with 3-point-something when dividing the circumference by the diameter. “Are all circles like that, Mrs. Jones?” It was refreshing to see 8th graders having fun exploring mathematical concepts and working together.

The next few weeks will bring lessons on mark-ups and discounts (and we will “go shopping”), understanding interest rates (we’ll “buy a car”), and probability (we will make “spinner puzzles”). In addition, I will be teaching my students how to set a personal goal and work toward it over the next semester (one of the “life lessons” I teach each year). Yep, I have definitely reached the “fun” time of the school year. I wonder if the students have any idea how much their teacher enjoys school…

Whew, We Made It!

Friday, December 21st, 2007 | Sara the Teacher | No Comments

The school bell officially signals the beginning of our Winter Break. I’m so glad it’s here; I need some time off!

I get this way every year. The last week before Christmas Vacation is the most challenging in the classroom (emotionally, physically, and spiritually). I’m so glad it’s over.

I used to think only students counted the days before Christmas, but I now realize teachers do as well. We all need a break…they need a break from me, and I need a break from them! I pray these next two weeks off will renew my spirit and love for my students once again.

A Lesson in Integrity

Monday, December 17th, 2007 | Sara the Teacher | No Comments

What subject do I teach again?

While Math is the subject for which I’ve been hired to teach, I sure hope my students walk away with more than an algebraic understanding of life…

Today in class, I caught a student copying another student’s homework. I have absolutely no tolerance for cheating, and took the work immediately. I made both of the girls call their moms later in the day (privately, of course), and tell them that Mrs. Jones would not be giving them any credit for their homework because they were caught cheating.

For the girl who let her friend cheat, this wasn’t a problem. In fact, she was rather breezy about the whole thing. When I spoke to her mother at the end of the phone call, the mom asked, “So, this has been taken care of, then? The matter has been resolved?” I was shocked! It’s been taken care of on my end, but she may want to have a little conversation with her daughter tonight!

The girl who was copying the homework, however, was a little more moved by the imposed consequence. She was biting back tears during class and struggled a little bit when phoning her mom. I did not speak with her mother, but she was required (by mom) to appologize to me for her behavior.

I pray everyday that God will make me a light in the darkness. I hope He uses moments like this to shine truth and integrity into the lives of my precious students.