because I swear it would be less painful than teaching.
Thank goodness I have pre-posted so much or you all might have thought I dropped of the face of the earth, and at this point if I could find the place where people “fall off” I might just go there and jump!
I teach Geometry, 3 sections, all afternoon. I have taught 3 sections every year since I started at this school and while I enjoyed Geometry as a student as I teacher I hate it’s very guts! In order to take Geometry in out school you must have passed Algebra 1.
Now I know that math is hard and people struggle but this has just gone to far! I sit in a room with 30 kids who have passed Algebra 1. And I STILL see things like 3x -5 leading to 2x. Which leads me to want to run from my room screaming that you. can. not. combine. unlike terms. How had is the concept that only the x’s go together. How many of you have heard the old expression you can combine apples and oranges. Which is a total lie because you do and you get fruit salad, so I always say you can’t combine dollars and socks 2 totally unrelated things (Please don’t leave a comment stating you put your dollars in your socks when you were a kid instead of a wallet, trust me been there, heard that). I had a student come to me today with the equation 2x = 3x -5 which led him to 7x = 3. Where do you even go with that? I had this kid in Algebra 1, 2 feakin’ years ago and I promise you that I am not the one that passed him! We still do the Algebra step by step with the explanation as to why, COME ON, LEARN SOMETHING! These kids start solving simple Algebra equations in like the 5th grade now. Sally if 2x = 14, what does x equal. So now 6 years later I am still answering questions about stuff that they learned were supposed to learn while P0Keman was still cool!
Then not 30 seconds later I have a kid ask me how he is supposed to find the length of segment HK. When I just looked at him dumbfounded that he had even asked that question and then slowly pointed to the rather LARGE diagram RIGHT. NEXT. TO. THE. QUESTION. that had segment HK CLEARLY labeled as 27. Then he gets mad at me because he couldn’t be bothered to LOOK at a PICTURE!
Ohhhhh, I am so tired. I still have 2 sections of this crap lesson to teach today.
Lord, help me please!
I’ll be sending some prayers your way. I honestly don’t know how you do it. I have had the same issues with Daphne this year. Algebra was not hard for me. I’m not sure why it mystifies her so much. I think, like your students, that she doesn’t take the time to really read the question and understand what she’s doing. Frustrating!
Comment by Stephanie — November 20, 2008 @ 2:21 pm |
Algebra was and is still hard for me beyond the basics…but then I didn’t have a real teacher teaching it to me until college classes…I think my brain was just too darned old by then. However, I am still determined to learn it.
I’ve heard that Danica McKellar has a book called Math Doesn’t Suck geared toward middle school girls. You can buy it on Amazon. There’s also a website: http://www.mathdoesntsuck.com/
So, my dear Sassybug, do not poke your eyes out. Take a deep breath, exhale and then say a quick prayer before the next group comes in the door. And I’ll be praying for you, too.
Comment by Lynda — November 20, 2008 @ 4:11 pm |
Well, I flunked my first sememster of Honors Geometry- yet passed with an A+ during summer school. I dont know what the difference was other than one day during second semester, it just “clicked”
Comment by Rebekah — November 21, 2008 @ 8:29 am |
i love all the people who have such sunny outlooks. i wish it was that easy for me. however, let me tell you that there is even more to sassy’s story (and the story for all teachers right now) than we would ever have time to blog about. we are being asked to not only teach children the basics of reading, writing, math and science, we are being asked to teach them how to behave, how to treat other students, how to take care of things – the list could go on forever. i can tell by your posts that you are all great parents who are involved in the education of your kids. however, that is not the norm anymore. seriously, we have kids who come to kindergarten and don’t talk at all (others who don’t know their own names) and the parents feel like the responsibility for their child is suddenly lifted from their shoulders and now the teacher is to blame for the lack of everything these children have had. don’t believe me – spend some time in a regular classroom (not a private or charter or magnet school, a plain jane public school classroom). we are disrespected and abused. we have to try to teach 20 kids who are rude, disruptive and don’t care as well as the 5 who actually want to learn something (5 is optimistic). and when we can’t teach them everything a parent (or government) thinks they should learn, we are told we aren’t working hard enough, that we didn’t try enough different things, that we aren’t engaging these students. and, we have to live in a society that every day tells us that we don’t really work (because it’s not physical labor) and to stop complaining, we only work 8-3 and get summers off. i call a big bs.
Comment by mrsgee — November 21, 2008 @ 10:47 am |