my rollercoaster ride

This week was full of ups and downs.

I have been struggling with my algebra classes. Overall my students are doing fine, I'm just not happy with the flow of class and how I present material to them. I have two algebra classes, one high group and one low group. I feel like both classes are bored and struggling for different reasons.
I did try a group activity this week on graphing. Each student graphed a quadrilateral with one vertex in each quadrant. Then, in groups of four, students had to guess the vertices of the quadrilateral. It kind of worked like the "who sunk my battleship" game.
Considering this was the first time doing something like this, I think it worked pretty well. I do have to figure out how to hold all students accountable for participating in activities like this and what to do with the groups who finish early. I ended up with groups who were finished way before the others, so they just ended up talking.

I have survived this school year without any major mess-ups until this week: I passed out the benchmark exams with the answers on it! The benchmark exam was decided by the district and it was out of a workbook. There was two pages on one page, so when I photocopied it I had to enlarge it. I failed to notice the small capital letters next to each question; however my students noticed! Thankfully I was able to collect all of the tests, and we had a good laugh over it. Also, thankfully I had a lesson planned that I could teach, since they weren't taking the test!


The past couple of weeks I have been dealing with some nasty emails from a parent. The principal responded and completely backed me up. At times I feel very disconnected from my school, but it was great to have the support from my principal in these situations and I am very thankful for it.

I guess I feel thankful today.