Can't believe it's day 6 already.
Surprisingly, I had an easy day. It was hectic, but it wasn't because of my restart class. It was because there was traffic in the morning, then my son got sick at school and I had to leave school for about an hour to pick him up, drop him off with mom and come back to school. Also, because I facilitate after school credit recovery classes every Tuesdays and Thursdays until 4:45pm.
I have my two groups for two periods so I always plan on teaching two lessons per day. Today was such a day. I ended up finishing only one lesson.
I am still loving James Tanton and his amazing brain. Today we watched video 1.4: The 1 <- 10 machine. Just like last time, I paused the video every few seconds to ask students what James just said. Two children didn't pay attention and had to wait outside. I yelled, "you are going to pass this class! But if you don't pay attention, you can't! So if you're not going to pay attention, wait outside! Why are you even sitting here?"
Oh boy! I was so mean.
The two children didn't resist and stepped outside since they know now that I call their parents right then and there if they refuse to do what I ask.
After the two students stepped outside, the rest of the class paid attention and attempted to answer all my questions from the video. They were simple DOK level 1 questions. Don't worry. I was all smiles and nice when they participated.
Then they had to represent 25 in binary, base 3 and base 10, using the machines James was teaching them through his videos. EVERY CHILD WORKED! I didn't say all of them got it right. I said they did something. While my children were working, I stepped outside to talk to my 2 students who had to leave the room because they didn't pay attention.
I brought my soft voice and smile back and explained to them that I want them to pass, so they need to pay attention. It looked like they understood what I was saying. I was actually a bit surprised that they didn't walk away. They really waited for me for like 5 minutes so I can come talk to them. I escorted them back into the room with a smile.
Then we learned how to use the machine backwards.
Finally my students had to work on 4 dividing fractions questions that they learned Friday. I gave them 20 minutes to solve 4 questions.
This time, I asked my peer tutor to help anyone who needs help, but I intentionally only worked with students in stations 2 and 5. I used big numbers on purpose to see if the students can navigate through them. I learned that the students know the algorithm and the why for dividing fractions, but don't know their times table so they can't reduce the fractions, ending up with the wrong answers.
I decided 10 percent of their grades on their tests will be memorizing the times table. I will have to test them in person for a few seconds or ask my peer tutors to do this part of the job.
I ended day 5 horrified. I thought that I would have to forget about having a life this semester. I might be wrong.
After learning of my teaching style, my second group of restart students decided to ditch 7th period. I think about 6 students who showed up for 4th period didn't show up for 7th.
Again. Another point where I have to make a decision. I can either call all the parents of the students who ditched and inform my administrators or enjoy the fact that my protestors are gone. I know what I need to do for the children is the first option. But today, I decided to be lazy. It was their first day ditching. I'm going to wait til Friday to report anything.
I know I made the wrong decision. If I really care about the students, I should get them now.
But class was so good without the 6.
Please don't hate me.
I ended the day by calling about 4 parents today. It was all good news calls. I am learning that the good news calls are so important, since I do so many bad news calls. The parents are so happy. Today one of the parents asked, "no problems?" when I only shared the good news. I told him "no problems. Today is a good news day." He was super happy. He said a whole bunch of stuff in Spanish excitedly, but I don't speak Spanish, so that was a bummer.
Have a good evening. There is nothing exciting to share today. I think I will skip blogging on days when nothing special happens and class is being run beautifully. Tomorrow is station rotations so I'll see what happens.
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