End of Semester One

I had a handful of students come to class upset with me this last Monday. They were upset with me because the email I sent home about the upcoming final test and amount of hw/studying to expect. A young boy from my 4th period told me he had to study instead of playing his video games this whole week. It was a good feeling to know there were parents who push their kids to always work harder. I am really pushing my students to treat the final seriously and study hard, even if their grades are high enough to pass the class without the final.

Upcoming assessments

I decided to email home about all upcoming quizzes and tests this year. I think it has been a great help for that reminder and for parents to know in order to push their children to study more. I actually got some very nice emails back from parents letting me know how happy they were that I did it. They were shocked to see that 'nice' caring teachers still exist. This made me happy to continue.

Homework points

I have started giving homework points for quarter 4 and already I have seen a large change in the amount of students who have been completing/attempting the homework. I have been struggling with getting my students to do homework for the first 3 quarters because I have not been givng points for the work. Many students ask "why do the work if we dont get any credit for it?" I understand where they are coming from because I grew up with teachers who always gave points towards homework.

I do notice a small handful of the 'stubborn' students who are still refusing to do homework. So, I am planning another strategy that I hope to start in each of my lessons. I plan to stop my lesson after each type of homework problem is taught (depending on how long the concept is and breaking points are). I think taking a break from the lesson to actualy do a homework problem together could help the students with questions they might have on the homework, especially for the students who refuse to take notes to begin with. This way they have an example already done on their homework for when they get to similar problems.

I posted, in a previous post, about how I feel with grading and giving points for homework. I understand that it does inflate (or even deflate) a grade. I think in the end, if a students grade is changed drastically by not doing homework then they can receive the average grade that they get on their tests. Grading and homework is still a confusing process to teach to the students. I will continue to prove to them why doing homework is important in earning a good grade.

Saved from "boring" math lectures.

I've noticed that quarter 3 is always a tough quarter. Its the middle of Winter, not much sunlight outside and its also one of our longest quarters. So, I decided to try and incorporate quick and fun activities to the beginning and end of my algebra lessons. I researched a lot of math tricks and mind tricks that I thought my students would love. I first used the tricks as class motivators before my lessons and eventually turned them into incentives to earn for the end of the hour. The tricks, (most of which I find on youtube) have become such a hit in my classes that using it as an incentive for the end of the period has also helped in the classroom behavior in my room.

Nearly everyday my students walk into the room and immediately ask me if they get to do a "trick" that day or what the trick might be about. These tricks have also helped me create a better relationship with many of my students. It has helped me see that many of them love puzzles and all the crazy educational things you can find on the sites. Not only do many of the problems involve students to use a deeper level of thinking, but they also help them with their problem solving skills. We many times take the trick and turn it into an algebra problem and find out HOW it was done. I think this has sparked many of my students to create their own.

Homework and Incentives

I have had a hard time getting students to care about the effort they put into their work. I noticed that homework completion started to become a problem as soon as the points were taken away from it. I've been told that giving points for homework is not the "correct" thing to do. As homework is supposed to be used as practice and how can you grade practice? I have read about grading and what is the "right" way to do it. Grading should be more standards based and not inflated by extra points (such as giving points for homework assignments). I am hoping to tweek my grading system and start the year (2011-2012 school year) with grading only by standards. However, this year I have been changing my mind left and right as to what is the correct way. I have not given points for homework at all this year and now I feel obligated to start for quarter 4. The reason I want to start giving points is because I have noticed almost a direct correlation between homework completion and the percent of students who are earning a grade of D (65%) or lower. One of my classes had 91% homework completion, and a failure rate of 9%. Another class had a homework completion of 47% and a failure rate of 49%. After speaking with many students, they have mentioned that it is hard to feel obligated to do the homework if it is not giving them points. So, instead of giving points during quarter 3, I created an incentive for all of my classes. The class with the highest homework completion was to be rewarded. (I brought in suckers that they were able to have on the last day of quarter 3). The students were excited and proud that they were the "winning" class. It has almost started a competition between all of my algebra classes. I am looking forward to quarter 4 in order to see if this drive continues.

Caring About Education

I feel like I have been more negative this year about my students than I was my first year teaching. I have a quite a few students who dont want to do anything for me this year. Last year, I didnt struggle nearly as much as I am this year with getting students to do work. It seems that no matter what I try, these students would rather fail and just waste their time taking up space in the classroom. Calling home has not been help to the situation either. Some of the parents I've contacted in this case have told me its better to give up than to try and help. Some parents have gone as far as to tell me "They dont care", "They are in my hands". I know I am supposed to keep my students engaged in learning, but its exhausting when you dont see any results. I've heard many students say that they dont have any future goals to work towards, and other students think that what they want in life will just be handed to them. I wish I knew the answer, but for now I will just continue to keep on these kids who constantly refuse.

Tough situations

I had a very busy December so I missed adding onto my own blog for November and December. Time to get caught back up.
One of my goals this year was to communicate with parents more often and not only call home for negative comments anymore. I can say that the amount of contact I have made with parents/guardians this year has greatly improved. There have been a lot of negative calls home because I've got a tough group of kids on my hands.
I have found it hard to talk with a lot of my students parents this year. I had one situation where I called home and the father started yelling at me because I had given his son a detention for being disrespectful in the classroom and for having too many tardies. I could hear the son in the background claiming that everything I had said was a lie. The father was having a hard time deciding who to believe. The father told me that he trusts that his son wouldn't lie to him and I must be the person who was wrong. This really stumped me at the time and I basically froze on the phone. I couldn't believe what this parent was saying to me. I guess I would like to know how anyone else would respond in this type of situation.

I have made a few postive calls this year as well. Its amazing what a positive call can do to a student. I have seen a few young boys this year start as very immature 8th graders and are now very focused on their grades and doing better in class. I hope to be able to make more positive calls, I just need more time in  a day.