You know it's time for seat changes when every 4th sentence out of your mouth is, "Shhhhhh".
You know it's time to reteach a topic when most of the students got that type of problem wrong on the test.
You know it's time for an ethics discussion when after you hand a test back, a student asks why she got one problem wrong ... and you can see the erasure marks and "revisions" on her test from her freshly updated answer.
You know the school tardy policy is not working when a pack of 15 kids are cutting and roaming the halls yelling and disrupting your class.
It was one of those days. Monday and raining and in the October slump.
Sorry about your slump.
ReplyDeleteI had a fun time with my class today. I've been switched from MathCounts to Math Olympiads, coaching homeschooled 4th-8th graders.
We finished our solution discussion with 30 minutes to spare, so we took a poll of licence plate numbers -they all knew theirs- and discussed all sorts of math ideas:
number of possible plates {123 ABC}
noting that certain three letter combinations are excluded from the pool of possibilities
ham radio call signs and their car license plates, more combinations
radio stations east and west of the Mississippi River
how certaing alphabet clusters are assigned to each county for license plates
which households have consecutive license plates and why
I have three moms who sit in on my class and they were amazed. Do I really sit in traffic and think about these things? Yes, I really do, without even making an effort. My amazement is that so many other people don't notice stuff like this.
Have you read Math Curse? I also liked their Science Verse, which comes with a CD.
That IS fun math. It's also a treat to do those challenging puzzle-y types of math problems with little math whizzes, right? Here's a fun puzzle out of "Mathematics Teacher":
ReplyDeleteWinkin said, "we're all liars". Blinkin said, "only you are a liar". Finkin said, "two of us are liars". If they all either always tell the truth or always lie, who is/are liars?
Ms. Cookie