Student Teaching - Week #6

By Kathryn Williams -Taft High School

Teaching Week

WOW:  My College Algebra students seemed to need a little bit of humorous motivation, and when I stumbled across this website it seemed perfect. I modified it to better fit the needs of the students in my classes (and to have more standard American English grammar), and this is what I came up with:

How Not to Pass a Math Course

1.      Talk instead of working in class--your current socializing is more important than your future.

2.      Don't worry if you're failing at mid-year.  You still have half a year to learn a year's work.

3.      Do as few problems as you can--after all, practice only counts in sports and music.

4.      Leave all assignments to the last minute.  Then you will spend less time worrying about them.

5.      Never bring your textbook to class.  If you do, someone might expect you to do some work.

6.      Only study for the classes you like.  You are planning on failing the others anyway.

7.      Never bring a pencil to class.  Then you can't take notes and will have an excuse for not knowing how to do your homework.

8.      Never arrive on time to class.  Then when you are lost during the lesson it clearly isn't your fault.

I waited until the end of the period to give them this, and then I had the students take turns reading each point.  It went best in fifth period, because the students are a little bit rowdier (thus more energetic).  The funniest part was that the student who never brings his pencil to class volunteered to read number six after someone else had, so I told him he could read number seven.  As he was reading he laughed so loudly and said, "This is me.  This is totally me!"  The whole class laughed and we had a great time.  It was good because the students were willing to laugh at themselves over the situation and so I was really pleased with the way they took it.

POW:  This week was my first week of being full-time.  It was a lot of fun, especially starting with the new classes.  My students in fourth period kept trying to make me nervous on the first day that I taught them, and it was really great because it didn’t work.  I wasn’t nervous at all.  I could tease them right back because I was so much more excited to teach them than nervous to teach them.  However it was a full week and being full-time is a lot of work.  I also gave all the College Algebra classes (I teach three of them) a test on Monday, so I had to find time to grade them early in the week.  I didn’t want to feel as though I had to grade all seventy of them on Monday night (which would have taken me five or six hours), but I also knew it would be hard to get any more graded on Tuesday night because we had an extra long seminar this week.  I ended up finishing them by Thursday, which was not as early as I would have liked, but I still had to do some planning every night, too, so it was not like I was slacking.  It was a really long week, and I put a lot into it, but it was also rewarding.  I am very grateful for a weekend to recuperate and hopefully get some good planning time in for the upcoming week.

The Rest of the Week

Teaching full time is a lot of work, so I don’t really have too much exciting from the rest of the week, although one of my roommates also had a crazy week.  Her internship is with an organization (SCUPE) that held a conference this week for people throughout the US.  She stayed at the hotel where they were holding the conference all week, working from about 7am until midnight most days.  She had to do so much because she was helping run this huge conference—what a great experience!  On Thursday all the general students when to the conference for the entire day, and then student teachers went in the evening to hear Shane Claiborne speak.  It was pretty good, although I have heard Shane Claiborne several times before.  I really enjoyed being able to see a little bit more inside what my roommate has been working on so far this semester.  

Peacemaking in a Culture of Violence

2011 Congress on Urban Ministry