Memorial Day Parade

Every year in my town, on Memorial Day, the town puts on a parade that goes through the center of town, and many locals come to watch. I used to be a part of this parade when I was a girl scout (way back when…). Recently, the Trottier 7^th and 8^th grade band has marched in this parade as a way to give back to the community. I’ve watched them practice marching and playing their music around the school a few times now, and on Monday, they will be marching the real thing. That means they have to not only pay attention to the music, but also keep their marching lines (rows and columns) straight.

The band is rotating through two songs throughout the parade, “We Are Family” and an Armed Forces piece. They were practicing those pieces today in band, as well as the four other pieces they would play for the concert next week. Knowing only how to play the clarinet, I was reading the clarinet music with some of the players and after each piece, I’d give them pointers on how to play some parts of their music better. I hope they didn’t think I was creepy…

The band is sounding very good lately. They play with a lot of sound and the trumpets during these marches (because they have the melody) really stand out. This band doesn’t sound like a middle school band. They’re very good. My old clarinet teacher told me that she taught at Needham High School and commented on how their middle school band had a strong foundation: they got a Gold Medal at the MICCA music festival this year. So did this band, so that’s pretty outstanding. 

Teaching a Lesson. Straight up...

Today, from start to finish, I taught one of the Algebra I classes from going over homework, to teaching the lesson, to handing out homework and helping kids get started on it. Although we are continuing to factor polynomials, today they learned how to do that when the leading coefficient is NOT 1.

Mr. Griffin prepared the answers to the homework from the night before. I just had to project it. The students would self-correct and raise their hands for any questions. I would then answer those questions by taking the problem and thinking out loud to the class of what I would do to approach it. Most of these kids see problems that they can't do as daunting and sometimes give up trying. But when I tell them my step-by-step approach, and what exactly is going on in my head, they're like: "oh that was so easy!"

The lesson was probably my most daunting task. I really wanted to make sure that the kids understood what I was talking about, so that they would do the homework and see each problem's approach. Same rules apply for factoring these kinds of polynomials. Make the trinomial look as simple as possible and then factor. I think every kid understood why I was doing what I was doing, but when time came to do homework, he or she was lazy to guess and check or just wanted to get through the problem faster and was not as fast at thinking as I was.

The one part of the lesson that drew confusion was the difference of squares factoring pattern. They had already learned how to expand a difference of squares pattern, I just told them, that reversing it would be factoring it. A key to notice was that the components of the factored form were square roots of the original, which they had to see in order to do any problem after that. Even though I may have explained it using complicated symbols, it was probably the most general and the best way to get them to see the big picture. Substitution method also helped.

Today was also the day Mr. Kahn watched me teach the class. A little daunting at first, but I didn't notice he was watching me later on in the class. :)

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.