This is not the way to start my day!

This has started way to early!

lunch time

Just a few stats…

So our district has just gone nutty this year playing the numbers game, so I decided to do some number crunching on my own with my first nine weeks grades. This will bore most of you but I find it interesting.

 

College Prep Math:

- in 41 days I graded 82 assignments for each student

- out of 26 kiddo’s I had 1 failure for a 96.2 % pass rate!

- last year at this time I had a 83.3% pass rate!

This increase means a lot to me. This class is my baby, no one else teaches it and I can do just about what ever I want. Last year was my first year teaching the class and I struggled a lot in my first semester, I was trying to follow the previous year’s lessons from another teacher. I guess what I am saying is that I feel more confidant teaching this class this year and by the numbers I think what I am doing is working. BTW, this is not an easy class and I expect a huge amount from these kids (if 82 grades didn’t tell you that). I am so glad to see that they are rising to meet my expectations. Having said that these are also the kids that are taking a math class because their parents are making them or because they chose to take a math class, these aren’t calc students but they are a bit above average for our school!

 

Geometry:

 - this one is a little harder to swallow.

- in 41 days I graded 67 assignments for each student

- out of 60 kids I had 16 failures for a pass rate of 73%

- last year at this time I had a 66.1% pass rate.

This failure rate is a bit hard for me to take but almost 75% of the kids passing is pretty good, really good if you consider that we have changed so much this year. I also think this is great considering that due to circumstances outside of my control I am 2 weeks ahead in the material to be covered than I was at this time last year. This time line I think is really hurting our kids and I wish that I could have seen pass rates with out moving through the material so quickly but I don’t think that will ever see the light of day.

 

Are you bored yet? Why is this important to me? With so much going on in my personal life, staying on top with my teaching has been a real struggle. Also due to all of the personal crud, I promised myself that I was going to work harder this year as a teacher, that just because my personal life was falling apart I wouldn’t let it effect my students in a negative manner. These few numbers tell me that I have succeeded, at least a little bit, an they encourage me to keep moving!

I think I was gone too.

So I have my llamas do a warm up every day and we turn them in on Fridays. If a llama is absent I have them write down what days they were absent on their warm ups, this saves me some headaches as it is one less absent thing I have too keep track of and get kids caught up on. Beechy Llama (she is grouch all ‘da time) turned this in today:

 

I think I was absent thurday too.

Seen by a math teacher…

Let me be the first to admit that my grammar and spelling are far from perfect. Often I type up a blog post or an email and when I proof read I find several mistakes. There are rules of grammar out there that I have probably never even heard of but I got an email from the college today that read (exactly):

Hi  I will need a Substute for next saturday. I will be on business leave for a Nation Conference in Portland Oregon. I have arranged for a test to be given on that day.

 

This was from one professor to the entire department. What do you think?

Flash Back: What Day is today?

According to Sesame Street Magazine, October 15th is National Grouch Day – a day for all Grouches to celebrate their way of life.

A Grouch’s mission in life is to be as miserable and grouchy as possible, and pass that feeling on to everyone else. Only then will a Grouch feel in touch with his or her world and be happy. Yet, even though a Grouch may show happiness at anyone’s misfortune (including his or her own), a Grouch would never admit to being happy. Such is the stability of a Grouch’s life: so balanced, and yet so unbalanced. (Source: http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/National_Grouch_Day)

 

 

Someone please give me the look…

So the tech lady just invited me to a chat, she had a computer question. The command I was supposed to tell her is “apple” Shift” “P”. I forgot a letter in the word Shift, I’ll let you guess which one.

 

Maybe this is my sub-conscience trying to tell me something, like how much I loathe these computer tests. 

Another funny

Which one of these is not like the other?

4 warm up questions today were to cross out the item that does not belong:

#7. 5              7              11               14

#8. 5              9                27             63

#9. I can’t type

#10.  B L A C K             B  R O W N                    G R E E N                RED

 

So many time’s today I heard, “Ms. Sassybug, I don’t get how to do the last problems…”

 

Can you do them?

Do you ever wish…

in addition to my wish list I would like to ask you teachers out there. Do you ever wish you could assign yourself a day or two of ISS (in school suspension)?

I wish… 10/14

okay so ms. confessions did this today, an I wish wednesday. I think i am going to give this a try, yeah I know new fad for Sassybug’s blog but maybe it will help me blog more and just get more of this… ick that is residing inside of me out. Feel free not to read if you are tired of my ick…

So I wish…

… that people would stop accusing others of being inconsiderate and then just turn around a be a total donkey butt to that person.

… that my Granny could have stayed in town longer, I really enjoyed her company and to be honest I needed some Granny time.

… that my principal realized all of the demands that are placed on a teachers time.

… that I could just be a kid again. 

… that my students took their school work seriously

… that I didn’t have to turn on the heater in the motning and the AC in the afternoon.

… that my quarter grades were done.

… that I could take a me-cation.