Week 34 – Good Teaching Is Hard

Week 34 – Good Teaching Is Hard

So my last update talked about how I started teaching circles at the end of last week and into this week.  Did a few things that worked and few things that really didn't. WHAT DIDN'T WORK This YouCubed activity was sort of a bust with all three classes.  First class cut out their own circles and that took forever.  The other two classes just cut out circles that I had already printed out for them.  The general idea was that they cut them into fourths, arrange them into a rectangle, and find the area of the rectangle.  They would then…
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Week 33 – Trying To Stay Ahead At The End Of The Year

Week 33 – Trying To Stay Ahead At The End Of The Year

Yet another week where my weekly reflection is falling on the Tuesday of the week after.  Didn't realize how much I could forget over the weekend. JUST TRYING TO BE READY FOR THE DAY As most teachers know, the end of the year is a bit harder to stay ahead of the game.  In the perfect world, I would have summative assessments made before we start a unit and take a backwards design approach; working with the end in mind.  That's not happening now with my geometry units in either my 6th or 7th grade math classes.  Didn't get to those units…
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Week 32 – Actually Getting To Geometry This Year

Week 32 – Actually Getting To Geometry This Year

Man, this is the latest I've done a weekly blog reflection.  It's Tuesday of the following week.  I remember about mid-week last week I thought 'I should really include this in my blog' but I forgot what I was referring to.  Dang it. This year I'm actually getting to my geometry units in both my 6th grade and 7th grade math classes.  I didn't get to them last year due to being in a new school, wasting a lot time with the inefficient way I did classroom economy, and still learning the art of a discussion-based classroom.  Needless to say,…
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