Further conversations from the classroom
YES! I made it through the first term and I'm still interested in going back for another! Its hard to think that only 11 short weeks ago I was walking into my first class, more nervous than any of them. But here I am now, calmly dealing with all manner of situations being thrown at me. Actually 11 weeks is a pretty long time and its gone super fast - just like all my wages... stupid credit cards and overseas experiences!
And so, because winter arrived just in time for the holidays (this is our backyard today)
New Shoes:
I have been thinking for some time now that a pair of ragged, laceless cons, no matter how comfortable may not really meet the required level of professionalism required by a secondary school mathematics teacher. And even though it was fun pretending that I didn't have laces because I don't know how to tie them, (a story which I have managed to continue enough that a good portion of my students actually believe that I can't tie shoe laces), I decided that an upgrade was in order.
I was pleased with the purchase, they are comfortable, not ragged, have laces (though I don't tie them) and I got lots of compliments on my style savyness, even from some students in my Year 10 class. After discussing such things, and in the momentary pause between conversation and getting onto some work, Luke, or student "a" to avoid names, in one of those 'forget to internalise in a moment of silence' episodes, calls out at full volume: "HEY MY SISTER HAS THOSE SHOES"... The entire class, and I have to admit myself also, bursts into riotous laughter and off we go again, another five minutes of calming everyone down in order to make a start. Thanks however, goes to those that were sticking up for me, especially the person who almost immediately called out "YEAH? WELL YOUR SISTER'S A MAN!"Another Assessed Lesson:
This time with my year 10s. We are covering language in algebra at the start of a lesson in which I am being observed by another teacher and and discussing the word 'expression' and where they had heard it before, I got ideas like a 'facial expression' and "isn't it in english too?"; "yes" I replied, "like, ummmmm," - and there was the mistake, I paused long enough for a student to jump in with "like 'got to hell'".
"yes, ah, yesss, that's an expression, probably not one to use in the classroom, but still an expression. Anyway, in algebra..."
And my personal favourite from my Year 9 class:
Students were asked to think about what this graph might represent and then come up with a story about what was happening.We then went about sharing our stories, most along the lines of:
1) the bath is filling up
2) person gets in
3) splashing causes some water loss
4) person gets out
5) plug is pulled
pretty standard stuff really, with the odd extra thrown in about rubber ducks, people walking in to the bathroom by accident, but then I let student b tell his story. Now student b is male, perceptive, good at maths, likes to be smart, in both ways of the word, and had spotted that because I hadn't used a ruler, the line after the splashing was not quite horizontal and, in fact, rose slightly until the person got out of the bath. His story went along the lines of:
1) the bath is filling up
2) person gets in
3) splashing causes some water loss
3a) person pees in bath
4) person gets out
5) plug is pulled
All to the general amusement of the boys and disgust of most of the girls, and after we laughed about it for a few moments I jokingly suggested that I hoped it wasn't him in the bath, to which he replied, "no, no , not in the bath, in the shower, that way it all just goes away down the plug hole"
Well where do you go with that? how do you carefully guide the conversation back to maths? I went with the "okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay" option "moving right along..."
