Factoring Polynomials

I was able to teach today (well, half the time). The first half, Mr. Griffin introduced factoring and then I led them through an example. I realized that the kids here aren’t used to speaking up in class without raising their hands so when I just asked kids to complete my sentences, they didn’t know what to do. There was also the problem of the same few kids raising their hands to answer questions. I know they know, and in a class so large, it helps to have different people speak up in class. Then there are those kids who never talk in class because they just choose not to (it’s not that they are shy, it’s that they just don’t want to talk), even though these kids finish the homework first…so they obviously get it.

By the way, Mr. Kahn, today was one of the three possible days that I had invited you to come in and watch because this was a lesson day, not a review day.  

Anyways, I went through an example of factoring that was a bit challenging for people to see, but when I asked kids to tell me what to do and say what I should write, I knew they understood it. Furthermore, I related today’s factoring lesson with solving quadratic equations using Zero Product Property (actually, the best thing I have done in math). Maybe next week, I can show them completing the square, and the square-root rule, both good things to know before Algebra II next year, although they won’t have to know it for the quiz next week. I feel like I am connecting with the kids better, I’m more relatable because I live in Southborough and I went to Trottier. They seem to listen to me, and I like giving them opportunity to speak up, instead of me just lecturing. I think they listen to me more that way; they’re less bored. I know that when I have seen other student teachers take on the class, they don’t get much of a response in questions because their questions are very statement-like, more rhetorical. I see the kids lose attention in those situations, so I made sure that I wasn’t mumbling and I’d get students to participate as much as I can. 

Fun Running

This has been such a long tradition at Trottier: the Fun Run. Every year, some time in May, the whole school gets together to participate in the Fun Run (oxymoron, for some). The trail consists of a mile loop around the school, through woods, on sidewalks, and three-quarters of the track. I ran this three times in middle school (once in each grade), and finally, in eighth grade I was the third girl to finish in the eighth grade. Those who don’t want to run the mile are given the choice to walk it instead.

Today’s hype is all about the Fun Run. Eighth grade cliques coordinate outfits, or even make shirts, and sixth graders show up in gym clothes. Everyone’s wearing their sneakers today, except the walkers. The school schedule is also different today. We see the classes in a different order (not seeing period 2 and 6 classes), and the Fun Run starts at 1. I’m staying the whole day today because I want to—that’s how fun the Fun Run is. Hahaha.

The one challenge is to keep the kids under control during classes. They are all really excited about the end of the day that they a little more energy than usual, especially the sixth graders who already get jumpy when I walk into their classroom. So today in Algebra I, we’re continuing polynomials, but of course, there are guys on one side of the room strategizing their race for the afternoon, and others encouraging me to run (I didn’t bring clothes though). The air in the classrooms was a little lighter today, although work also did get done. Polynomials are coming into fruition. 

My days at Trottier are getting better. The kids recognize me and respect me more, but I’m also getting to know them better and talk to them on a more personal level. I’m taking the guys through a warm up before the run and talking to them about how good Kevin Garnett is in the NBA playoffs. And all the different cliques of girls are talking to me now too. A lot of them comment on other people’s clothes, but they are a bit more serious in class and ask questions about the classwork. I’m even learning more about the two sixth graders taking Algebra I. One day, one of them brought in a wooden box (without a cover) looking like he just made it in a shop class and he was using it as his pencil case. He laughed when I teased him about it and asked where his other cool pencil case went (apparently it broke). And now they’re telling me about their time at Russian Math School and their summers in India. It’s really cool. 

Trying to explain things that come naturally to me

I taught two classes of Algebra I today. It went quite productively. Mr. Griffin gave the lecture but I helped the kids on their homework. Polynomials. If there was one thing I remember from taking that class, it was polynomials, because basically all the classes I took at Milton needed those skills. So hopefully, because it’s not an ideal time to learn (Spring fever), the kids will remember this.

They were working on Difference of Squares and the Perfect Square Trinomial patterns. It’s hard to teach someone such a basic concept, even harder to teach them what a term was. By the time I am taking Calculus, these concepts come so naturally to me that when someone asks me why I do it, I’m tempted to say, “I just do. It’s just what I do when given this type of situation.” It’s like teaching a child how to read. You just do…

But the explaining Mr. Griffin did at the board in the beginning of class was really clear. He’s good at explaining things in eighth grade terms, saying exactly what he is going to do and how he is going to do it. And he talks loudly and pronounces really well. When his other student teacher (who actually just left) was going over something with the class, she didn’t talk as forcefully or as confidently as he did. I think that separates a teacher with experience and a teacher-to-be. Mr. Tyler lectures in his class the same way that Mr. Griffin does, and I think that kind of style works well for a lot of people. 

When the eighth graders have MCAS again…

At least it only took up time until 10AM. But during that time, I couldn’t go into the eighth grade hallway. So I went up to sixth grade again. It was the different fast-paced section today. I don’t think I’ve seen them before, and there aren’t as many goofy kids. They’re all pretty serious about work, good students. There’s the group of Asian kids in one corner (assigned seats?) and one Asian boy who knew exactly what all the terminology meant in the lesson: Triangle Inequalities and Polygons (we did two today). He was confusing everyone else with all those big sixth grade words.

There’s also a music festival going on today for the jazz band. I actually learned about this from a few sixth graders in my math class this morning. (I didn’t see Mr. Clark yet) The jazz band looks like they’re holding a “competition” of some sorts, where music instructors in the area rank them to other middle school (and maybe even high school?) jazz bands in the area. The kids wore their concert dress to school, and the sixth graders, in honor of their friend and classmate who recently passed away this year, wore green ties (the student’s last name is Green).

Jazz band meets an hour before school starts, as with math team. I don’t think I could get up earlier than I did at Milton to go to school for an extracurricular, definitely for the after-school stuff. Plus, in the afternoon, there’s time for announcements at assembly, and almost everyone at Milton stay after regular classes end anyway. But I guess these kids go to sleep at 9:30 every night anyway, although my sister stays up late every night to do her homework even in middle school.

Fortunately, for me and for the kids, today is the last day of MCAS for everyone. The rest of my time here should be normal (unless the school puts on some special event that changes the schedule around). But classroom settings will remain normal in those times; I just might see them in a different order.

Eager Beavers

There’s a really big difference in the sixth grade classrooms, in terms of class participation. It may be because that middle school aura of “being cool” hasn’t hit yet, or the incentive of Hershey’s Kisses, or the more chances to answer questions, but the kids raises their hands and they raise them high. In this classroom, there are two kids in the corner of the classroom (they have assigned seats) talking to each other how easy it is, and how much extra credit they should do to get their grade over 100%. And then there’s the goofy kids in opposite corners singing call and response to each other. During classwork, they collaborate and help each other a lot more, or I see that because they actually get out of their seats and walk over to another person and hover over their work because they’re too short to see over their own work. That’s probably why…

They’re also more receptive to me. It may be because they just talk so much more so I have more chances to talk to them. This class is hard working, but they’re still kids. And as of now, they haven’t given up on trying in school, and I hope they don’t. They’re just more excited than the average eighth grader—a lot more energy, a lot sillier, and shorter because they get out of their chairs to help the person next to them. And in the hallways, the eighth graders don’t say hi to me, while the sixth graders do. Funny how social standards change in two years? 

Sixth Grade Math

I’m not sure what to call sixth grade math because it’s even below Pre-algebra (which is seventh grade). Introductory Algebra, maybe? Mr. Griffin’s eighth grade class was finishing up their movie during MCAS week, A Beautiful Mind. I remember watching that movie when I took his class, and I also remember using John Nash as an example in my SAT essay. So that was definitely a useful movie to watch. It was also really good…

So instead of watching that movie with the eighth grade I went into MRS. GRIFFIN’S (yes, they’re married) classroom in the sixth grade. A much younger group, a lot more energy packed in these little sixth graders, and a different level of “maturity”.  It’s a lot harder to get this group to stop talking because they’re so energetic. Mrs. Griffin uses the “hands on your head” method, meaning, when she says, “hands on your head,” all the kids put their hands on their heads and pay attention.

She also really takes advantage of this new installation at this school, something like the SmartBoard. I forget what exactly it’s called. But she can project handouts in color on this screen and connect documents from her computer. And just like a SmartBoard, she write on it with a stylus if need be. When I was in sixth grade, she used to have to write everything on the white board, erase it, and then rewrite. Now, this process goes a lot faster when she uploads a document from her computer of all the vocab words she used to write down, onto this big screen. Ages have passed since projections and Vis-à-vis markers, which was what I used to learn from.

Anyway, the sixth graders focus a lot more on vocabulary than calculations like the eighth graders do, building the foundations of terms for Algebra. I have to mention that these two girls I’ve known since they were really small (like one or two years old) were in this class, and I haven’t seen them or talked to them in a long time. They’ve grown up. Ready for Davis (and Carter) to be like that, Mr. Kahn?

The class starts out with a gift from another student teacher—lollipops. That already gives the kids a huge sugar-high in their little bodies. And then they take notes off that SmartBoard thing from a document Mrs. Griffin had already created. Finally, she gives out the packet of homework for the next chapter and the class starts to work on the in-class worksheet, as well as the nightly homework. That’s when I come in. The kids in this class don’t ask for help as much (they’re just labeling lines, rays, segments, parallel, perpendicular, and intersecting) but because they have this free time and because they have a lot of energy, we became “friends,” more like they would show me weird and random things they think of. Like this one kid coordinated with another student in a short period of time and sang a short jingle/song for me. No worries, they still got their work done, but I thought it was hilarious. So this is what I was like in middle school…