Heat

I mentioned yesterday how terribly hot it was in my classroom. When I went to leave the classroom yesterday around 4:15, my door had swelled so much that it wouldn’t shut. Another teacher who was walking out at the time and I were looking at the door to see if a hinge was loose or [...]

What Kids Remember

Our school has been having an ongoing conversation about field trips and the problems that they cause. I believe that most field trips are important…field trips to the theatres, museums, government and business offices.
Now, there are lots of teachers that think that a day off from their class due to another’s is really unfair to [...]

Summer is Here

I walk into my room in the morning and it is 84°. My room faces south and has large (very nice, actually) windows. I’m not looking forward to the afternoon. I guess I can look at it positively and remember that I’m not on the floor above me, which is worse.

Apples to Apples

Today my IB ninth graders who are in Spanish 2 or 3 have gone on a field trip. So my second hour class has nine kids in it.
I gave them a worksheet on matrices that they worked on, which was basically a review of what we’ve done so far this chapter. But I’m not going [...]

Behavior Issues

During the ten or fifteen lesson:

Two cell phones went off….they were both answered.
Three or four students asked the same question right after the teacher answered them.
Some students came in late, and then expected the teacher to start over again. It wasn’t their fault!“
Students talked to each other about nonsense, and then when they began to [...]

Seniors and Needing Credits

Yesterday, while trying to grade exams for my IB geometry classes, the phone rings. I know that I have four classes worth – about 135 exams – to grade, so I’m nervous about answering the phone. I was already formulating my response to the “Could you cover so-and-so’s class?” question when I realized that it [...]

Another Kid Missing the Last Week of School

On Friday one of my students came up to my desk while I was taking attendance and asked me, “If I get As for the rest of the quarter, could I still get a B-?”
Now, if you are failing a class miserably, first don’t assume that you even can get all As until the end [...]

Translation

Parent:
Hello teachers,

Our son, ********* , will be leaving on a trip to Germany on Friday, June 9th (returning on June 17th). Therefore, he will not be in school after June 8th.

I’m sure he has informed you of this in order to plan for any make up tests or projects.

[...]

Weird Things that I Say

I have to teach triangle congruency theorems, and we all know that you can’t use ASS – angle-side-side to prove two triangles are congruent. But the books never write it that way; they use SSA.
So we construct and talk about why two people could take the same two lengths and one angle (not between the [...]

1 Year Anniversary

Just noticed that my first post was exactly one year ago.
I can’t believe that I’m still doing this. 95 posts and nothing intelligent to say!