Hey I miss sixth grade!

I've been teaching 7th grade for nearly a year now... and I miss sixth grade! It's truly a big change. The students are so much more "savvy" and "sophisticated". It's hard to handle. God bless you 7th and 8th grade teachers! You are a blessing to your students!

I hope to return to 6th grade next year.

When a Student Leaves

Recently, a popular young lady in my homeroom has left our school. She was popular not because of any clique but simply, I believe, she had a warm heart and a happy personality. She left for personal reasons and I wish her the best.

It'll be interesting to see any change in the class. Up until the last day, the excitement of giving themselves "permission" to express their joy about her friendship overshadowed any sentimentality. They shouted her name in to microphone and cheered her entrance and, eventually, her exit. Their giddiness nearly reached a point near delirium. The class chatter was at an all time high. That was Thursday. As a gift to her, I showed a powerpoint slideshow of her and her friends, set to fun music. Everyone enjoyed it very much, and I thought it was a nice way to happily reflect on all the sunny days she had given us. I made it a point to not allow the music to become too, too somber. That just isn't her personality.

Fridays are always hectic because it's a short day and there is no lunch. This afternoon, cleaning up after the students had left, I reflected on the waning of the chatter, the slow tidal turn of the class' emotion.

Eventually her departure will affect her classmates. Just how deeply is yet to be determined. I am aware that this may come has a slow motion shock to some of them. I am prepared to catch them.

I am looking forward to Monday.

Once again, Math Saved My Life

I remember for a long time PAINFULLY trying to make my 17 or 23 or 27 quiz questions equal one hundred points. The theory went that it'd be easier to translate to a understandable percentage.

Well.... DUH.

I don't have to do that. In hindsight, that was ridiculous. But a new teacher, under the gun trying to do everything ALL at once and everything the RIGHT way sometimes can't think too clearly. Or see the obvious.

NOW

No matter how many questions, I show a percentage correct (for communicating to students: "See, if you get only 15 correct out of 30, that's a 50%.... which is a FAIL..."). I divide the number correct by the number of questions on the test. DUH. DUH. DUH. You try it. What a simple relief. This will work for any number of questions.

Now let's talk about points.

I make the test and quizzes worth points and fairly close in point value. This is a better way to ultimately ensure an equitable representation or distribution of grading points. Depending on your philosophy. You might think the test is the ULTIMATE. So, you make it worth a 1000 points while your quizzes are worth 20. But huge swings of grades can degrade (pun intended) a student's desire to do well. A little like dating a manic-depressive. Ouchie. So for me, quizzes are 20 points while a test is worth 40 points. This helps those students who also put a huge amount of stress on THE TEST and freak out and have brain-freeze when it's test day. They do exist. If you do weekly quizzes like I do, then good quizzes combat the evil brain-freeze reaction....which, in turn, is a better representation of that student's ability in the subject. So I feel like I've done myself and the student a huge favor.

Anyway, I take my magical percentage and multiply that against the total points possible. Voila! I now have the points they earned on my quiz. They also have a percentage (due to years of social training), which is easier to understand than "You earned only 17 points on that last quiz. The whole quiz was worth 20 points." (That is gibberish to a student. They are wondering "DID I PASS? DID I FAIL? WHAT are you talking about?").

Hope this helped someone out!
Happy Teaching!