MUCH better!

There... now I'm three weeks into teaching. I think we're starting to get into the swing of things. The kids (generally) understand and abide by my classroom expectations. I like all my kids (even the ones who drive me crazy) so far... and I've been impressed with some of their work and efforts!

Today was a nice day, overall. In my 4 math classes, we covered least common multiple (LCM) and greatest common factor (GCF), then had a quiz. We'll see how the kids did on it... I gave out little treats to the students who had done their homework all week. My goal is to somehow motivate those who haven't been turning it in thus far...

In my reading class/homeroom, we're reading Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi. It's a really, really good (albeit depressing!) book, and the kids are getting into it. (I have to decipher a lot, though, because it's pretty eloquently written!) There was a HILARIOUS part today, though... A portion in the book was talking about hoeing and cultivating the land. One of my sweetest students raised a timid hand into the air.

"What does it mean 'hoeing'?" she'd asked, innocently enough.

A lot of other students stifled laughter and looked to see my reaction.

I replied, "It's probably not what you're thinking..." and everyone started laughing. I couldn't help it: I burst out laughing, too.

"A hoe is a tool," I went on, and I tried to draw a picture of one on the board. Unfortunately, the hoe looked more like an exclamation mark, so I had to describe it in great detail. Eventually, I think they got it.

One student remarked, "Man, they had a lot of weird tools back then!"

I contested, "Well, they still have hoes today."

The class cracked up again, several repeating the line. I had to laugh again; they got me! I had to follow, "I don't mean women, I mean the tools." Oh, man! I turned bright read (as several students pointed out), and laughed so hard my eyes watered!

My 7th period (math) class is funny, too... I almost always laugh with them in that class. Lately, I've been sharing some laughs with my other classes as well. So far, all the classes are good at getting back no track after we're goofy for a minute. It's nice!

Finally, my dreaded 5th period class was pretty good today! It's an "academic special" class, meaning it's like art or P.E., but with an academic area. I teach a section called "Math boost" to help improve the students' basic math skills. Usually, it's a nightmare for reasons I don't want to get into... but today was good! We did some multiplication & division work, then I showed them how to work a sudoku puzzle. Most of them got really into it. (I'd done sudokus with 3 other classes, one my first year teaching, and the kids generally like them a lot.) The class seemed to appreciate the break in monotony, and it was nice to have an enjoyable, enriching activity to do with them. We then went to the computer lab, where they work on a wonderful little program that both assesses and assists them in their weak areas. Lovely!

Yesterday was a rough day (partially my fault, due to lack of overplanning), but my counterpart helped talk me through it at the end of the day.

Overall, I like the school here. MUCH better than my last one!

Also, I'm starting tutoring on Monday! It'll be 1.5 hours a day after school, 3 days a week. It's hard to turn down the $35/hour, but I hope I'm not too exhausted after that... We'll see!

For now, I wrap up here and head on to play a double-header softball game! Ciao!