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teechinmom
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Name: Phyllis
Country: United States
State: Oklahoma
Metro: Tulsa
Birthday: 6/16/1950
Interests: TV, Sci-fi (especially Star Wars and Star Trek), movies, going to dinner with my girlfriends, chocolate of all kinds.
Expertise: Everything but nothing.
Occupation: Teacher?
Industry: Education
Message: message me
Member Since:
3/18/2006
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| Found out last night that my niece, Erin, finally gave birth to her daughter, Taylor-- 7.1 oz, 19 inches long. Thick black hair that is long enough to put in a pony tail. Cool, huh! | | |
| Wow! I have been teaching regular 7th Grade Math for almost a full school year. Since my last update there have been many ups and downs. I was so scared to go back into the regular classroom with the students that were coming up to the 7th grade. My fears were not unfounded. It's been crazy. Today, in fact, some of us got an e-mail from out P.E. teacher who used to be a professional baseball player in California. He has been working with youth for 25 years. His e-mail was so sad. It was about the 7th grade classes he has. He's lost. He said he doesn't have any more to give. He has tried every strategy he knows to get the 7th graders to cooperate. He said he has never seen a more disrespectful group--ever. So, I now know why I was so scared at the beginning of the year. It has been a hard year. And besides being so disrespectful group of kids, they are so apathetic. They don't care whether they pass or not. At the beginning of the year, and even through to even this last quarter, some of the kids (even the accelerated kids) thought all they had to do was turn in work and they would get a really good grade. It didn't matter in the 6th grade (and I've heard it from more than 1 kid--and I said even from an accelerated kid) if the work was done correctly or not. They still got credit and passed for just turning in anything. They didn't think it was fair that they could get a failing grade on a paper if they turned it in--even if they didn't get any of the problems right! Tonight was parent conferences--student-led parent conferences. They were from 3:30 to 6:30. I had none signed up until maybe 5th period today and the office forwarded a father of one of my homebase students. He wanted to come in. I signed him up for 3:30. The conferences are suppose to be 15 minutes--this one lasted an hour. He had a lot to say to his son. I kind of instigated the longer conference after the boy finished his presentation. Needless to say, Dad was not a happy camper. Then at 6:30, another student (not in my homebase) wanted her mom to meet me. I ended up talking to them for awhile. While I was talking with them and giving mom a view of my "smart board," another student and her mom came in. This is the second year I've had this student in my class. Last year was Math Enrichment, and she couldn't pass her multiplication level of the program. Anyway, I ended up giving her a lesson on absolute value and integer calculation---again. Finally, I got to leave at 7:00. So here I am. Definitely with alot to say. Needless to say, I am ready for the end of the school year. And, my principal just told me she just ordered me a new computer. So, here we go again. | | |
| I'm in kinda a dark mood. So, I thought I'd change the look of my weblog. I wanted something dark in the background. But I didn't know how to get one that wasn't offered in the wizard. Maybe when i get a visitor that knows about xanga, they can help me get as dark as my mood is !right now. | | |
| Well, it hasn't been that long since my last post--April 5. I just posted what my new job duties were even though my class was still called Math Enrichment. Well, we found out Monday night at staff meeting that we were going to be trimmed a teacher next year. When my principal saw me in the office this afternoon and called me into her office for a minute---I really didn't even think about the trim list. I was bringing in a referral on a student, and that's what I thought she was going to talk to me about (sorry for the preposition at the end of a sentence). Anyway, it had nothing to do with the delinquent student. It did have to do with me and the trim list. She walked me in and closed the door.----She immediately said, "You're not being trimmed." However, the newly-hired 7th grade teacher is being trimmed. Therefore, not being able to eliminate 7th grade math, Math Enrichment was eliminated, and I was moved into the 7th grade math position. She said that since I had taught 7th grade math in the past, I would be a "good fit" for the math position. So, there ya go.   | | |
| Well, my job has changed since I last posted. It wasn't suppose to change until next school year but had to be hastened a tad due to unforeseen happenings at school. My class is still called "Math Enrichment" to stay within the legal constraints of class titles with TPS. The difference is that I'm not doing "direct instruction." I've even moved to another room in the school. The computer lab to be exact. All my "teaching" will occur on the computer. My class is broken into two separate curriculums: Novanet (math tutor) and Computer Basics (keyboarding). (I'm an excellent keyboarding teacher, and I know how to break down math concepts to the nitty gritty, I think, and explain in their terms the concept the way they can understand it.) One module delves into fractions. Most people are afraid of fractions. So this software tutor explains fractions in terms of whole pizzas and pieces of pizzas and then more fractions by cutting a box in different ways to color a fraction of them one shade and then a different fraction another shade and then adding the two shades together to get the sum of the fractions. I've had to learn about it to because I knew "nothing" about it before I started "teaching" it. I'm really just a glorified monitor that babysits 6th graders, joke around with 7th graders, and ignore 8th graders (not really). Our sixth grade class this year is out of control--by most of the staff's definition. And I have three classes of sixth graders, 2 classes of 7th graders, and 1 class of 8th graders. The majority of my students are on IEP's, which means they need special education strategies for learning. I feel really bad for those kids that have a form of dyslexia. When doing math calculations, that essential. When writing with dyslexia, most you can get the jest of what's being said. But when you mix up the numbers--that distorts the whole answer. I have one student that can't "carry" right in multiplication. She carries the ones place value in the number and writes the tens place value where the ones place value goes. (as in the number 72--she writes down the 7 and carries the 2. She's gone through Module 1 (multiplication) 15 times and still hasn't passed the test with an 80%. She works really hard, though. But I just can't get through to her. Yes, I talk alot when I'm tired after two days of parents' conferences. More tired because I haven't had any so far. But my appointments come tomorrow evening. The last night of the conferences. Thank you and good night!   | | |
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