09/03/08

1st day of School

We began school this Wednesday which was my first time teaching. I wasn’t nervous about it, however I was a little concerned that I would have enough to talk about for the entire hour. Fortunately for me, I teach all math classes so when I finish early I can assign homework and have the students begin working on it in class. The first class I taught was Advanced Math (pre-calculus) to the Juniors. This was fairly easy because we were just doing some review so I went though the material pretty quickly. It wasn’t fifteen minutes and I had covered the rules, expectations, and the lesson. None of the students had any questions so I reviewed some of the homework problems that were not reviewed in the chapter (problems they should remember from Algebra II). After this I assigned their homework and gave them some time to work on it. There was a moment that I thought to myself, “I don’t think I am going to like teaching, but would prefer to do something else here next year.” Maybe it was a split second panic because I doubted that I would be effective, however that didn’t last much more than a few minutes into my next class.

The second class I teach is Algebra I to the Sophomors. 10th grade is a little behind on math which is why they are not in Algebra II. This class I found to be very easy to teach; mostly because I spent about a month and a half going over abut 90 lessons and doing all of the problems so I am pretty familiar with the material. Added to that, it is a much easier level. We began going over fractions which is just review for them so it went very quickly. Once I finished I gave them their assignment and some time to work on it in class. This was nice because I didn’t want to be struggling on my first day!

After Algebra, I go downstairs and teach 6th grade math. This class was added to my schedule once I got here. I was the most concerned about this class because the age is so much younger that I didn’t have a grasp on what level they are at. Their book starts out with addition of three and four digit numbers which they found to be incredibly easy. As I was going through the lesson I found that most students were working ahead in excitement. Then they would be sitting their grinning like they just won a big bucket of candy. The one concern I had was that some kids were incredibly fast, however a few had some questions that seemed like they weren’t getting the material. I would walk around and ask them what their question was with a little concern as to why they didn’t get this after the first day which was very basic review. I would look down at the little concerned face and in a really quite voice they would ask, “Is this the right answer?” To my relief, they were getting the problems right, they just wanted me to check their work! This might be my favorite class because the kids are at the age that they are ecstatic about getting the problems right.

After 6th grade, I go back upstairs to my classroom and teach Geometry to the Seniors. I was wondering how this would go because I didn’t spend much time going over the material this summer since I spent to much time in Algebra making sure I had the basics that I didn’t know if I would be effective at it. Fortunately, this material has started out fairly easy and the students are all getting it. I had only gone through one half of the lesson and gave them the homework assignment so they could begin. I told them to go through as much as they could and the next day we would spend time finishing the lesson and going over problems they had with their homework.

Once I am finished with Geometry I have a 45 minute planning/break period followed by a 45 minute slot where I work in the office doing accounting work.

My last class of the day I teach Algebra I again but this time I am teaching the Freshmen. This was fairly easy to teach because I was just re-teaching the material from the first Algebra I class. This class goes by pretty quickly because it is only 40 minutes long where the others are 45 to 50 minutes. I am guessing we will have plenty of time at the beginning, but I’ll have to watch this later on to make sure we can get through the more difficult material.

Looking back, this day went by pretty quickly and was much easier than I had expected. We’ll just have to see how things go once the material gets more difficult.