I don't know what came over me. It looked like my district is finally going the right way.
So I volunteered.
"What are we going to do with the students who failed Algebra 1 this semester?"
My colleagues were asking and I wanted to know as well.
Restart classes don't work but leaving them in the same class is also a disservice in my opinion. (Can we not discuss this topic now?)
So this is what our brilliant administrators at my site along with the approval of the District decided to do this year.
Have the Algebra 1 teachers recommend 9th and 10th grade students who failed semester 1 but works hard. Put all those students in Introduction to Algebra 1 and Algebra 1 Support. That would be two classes a day. The goal of the teacher would be to get them ready to pass Algebra 1 next year.
When the department chair asked who wanted to volunteer to teach this class, everyone was frowning and looking away. And when I say everyone, I mean even the ones that I think are great teachers. The ones who I know are so capable.
So I volunteered. Because no one ever asked me to take on a challenging class. Maybe it was my turn to be like the other teachers who I look up to.
And that was last semester.
Today is the first day of second semester.
I am justly nervous because I know my friends might have recommended a child to me because they want the child out of their room, even though that was not part of the plan.
Today I had 29 students in periods 2 and 5 and 31 students in periods 4 and 7.
The earlier group works as I ask. Even though it's the first day, I see many students on their phones.
I was smiling ear to ear the whole time, even as I explain to them that phones need to be out of sight right now.
The second group is mostly from one teacher. Many of them are slightly disrespectful. I smiled more genuinely and listened carefully to their complaints, then asked them to work. Most participated.
Since I will be utilizing station rotations, I divided up the students into six groups and assigned their seats. Then my peer tutor passed out notebooks.
I explained to them, "We all failed last semester, but we are the selected few who have the potential to pass this semester. That's why we're together."
I felt like students' were relaxing. The atmosphere felt different once I said that.
I helped students find Canvas(our learning management system). Then we watched Jo Bolar's "4 key Ideas in Math" video. It's actually titled "Boosting Math". I paused the video after each main idea and had students write them on page 1 of their notebook. The video was also loaded on Canvas. So if students felt like I was going too fast or too slow, they can watch on their own without sound and with closed captioning on.
They really liked the story of the girl whose left half of the brain had to be cut off because of her fits, but eventually she was able to run. And the part where the mathematician thought he was stupid in 11th grade.
We had a discussion in person. Then they had to post their answers in the discussion thread.
The lesson is on Jo Boaler's youcubed site.
I used the very first lesson in that series.
I decided that I will try to blog about what I do every day so I can be a better teacher. Also, I noticed that the curriculum for Introduction to Algebra 1 was basically semester 1 of Algebra 1. That would not really serve the students taking the course. So I want to try something different and see if that helps. But mostly, I want to buy the hearts of these children so they won't be turned off by math once they leave me.
Cuz you see, I love math. But in 7th grade, despite my great affection for my handsome young math teacher, I had no idea what he was talking about in class every day and so I failed. I spent the next two years running away from math. Then I met another teacher and this group of friends that came along with her. I never had the courage to major in math, but hey, I am qualified to teach up to Calculus. AND math excites me now. I just want the same for all my students. I want to #StartOver as a teacher and I want my students to #StartOver as well.
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