Scheduling
Krista and I were talking on the ride home, and we agreed that the two-hour delay schedule is PERFECT for our school. The classes were an hour long each, and the students were actually busy the whole time. Normally, in the 90-minute classes, the last twenty or thirty minutes are just a complete waste of time as either the students finish their work fast and nothing else is planned, or the students have just checked out for the day. But, on the schedule yesterday, the teachers had enough planned and the students were on task the whole time. I wish every day was scheduled like that!
Distractions
I've noticed that particular students will just keep asking me questions to keep from doing work. I do my best to not answer their questions and encourage them to do work, but it's kind of hard when that's all they're doing. I think one way to avoid this would have been for me to take five minutes at the beginning of class to introduce myself and for them to ask me (appropriate) questions then if they wanted. My CT didn't do this, though, and I think I'm just more of a distraction in class because of it. Hopefully this trend will die down, especially when I'm teaching!
Intro to Sec. Math Class
On Thursday, the Intro. to Secondary Math class had a worksheet about subtracting whole numbers to complete. The front side involved no "borrowing," and the back side was all "borrowing" problems. I worked with one student on this worksheet who had problems doing 8-7 without counting on his fingers. I suggested that he draw 8 objects and take away 7 of them (there were no counters of any kind in her classroom...). It seemed to work with him, and he used that method when he needed to throughout the front side. When we got to the back of the worksheet, I showed him the "borrowing" method with base-ten block drawings (again, no base-ten blocks in the classroom). I had him model the first number of the subtraction problem, try to take away the number of ones in the second number, realize he couldn't, trade one ten for ten ones, and then complete the problem from there. He said that method helped him to see it better, and I told him I would actually bring some base-ten blocks in for us to work with the next day they have school (whenever that may be). I felt pretty proud of myself because I actually used something I learned in a class (Elem. and Middle Math) to help a student! I think this class will be a great outlet for those activities, as a lot of the topics they will be covering are actually the same topics we talked about in that class. Should be a fun time, and I can't wait to get started with that class!
Snow day problems
The problem with missing three days of school in a row (especially a Monday-Wednesday) is that students do not remember what happened on Friday. In the Algebra I, Part 2 classes on Friday, the students reviewed for a quiz they would have coming up on slope-intercept form and writing equations of lines. When they came back on Thursday, they started to finish their review sheet, and my CT pretty much had to reteach the entire thing. She told them they would have a quiz on the material the next day they had school, but I really doubt the students will remember anything, let alone study, for this quiz. As cool as it is to get off of school for a day, it really hurts the learning process and makes planning difficult as well.
I agree, having to work with one school day a week because of snow is frustrating. Not only do they not remember anything, but they also are off the walls rambunctious! You should see if your CT will let you do a journal writing activity or a quick 5 minute "get to know me" activity, as I found that really helped for me. It gave the students a few minutes to write to me about themselves and then gave me a few minutes to answer the questions I asked them and I found they reacted to me a lot better. There were less meaningless questions asked throughout the day and they also weren't afraid to ask me questions because I told them I majored in math and they all commented on how smart I must be...
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