One good thing a day

For my first official blog entry for the 2016 MTBOS Blogging Initiative, I’m taking a tour through my week by way of ‘one good thing a day.‘

Monday—I finally got through the re-tests for rational functions that students took the day before Christmas break. I know, that’s not so good given the date is January 11, but that’s not thing. Here it is: I actually met one-on-one with each student that retook the test and reviewed it with them. That was good and needs to happen more.

Tuesday—I had the best idea today and I grabbed my curriculum facilitator (CF) to sell it to her. There is this empty classroom next to mine. There are four walls with two huge white-boards. The other two walls are prime real-estate for more white-boards. There are a couple of tables, chairs and desks in the room, but it is mostly empty except for those glorious walls. [I installed 360 degrees of white boards in my room earlier this year,

360 degrees of White Boards!

but they don’t wipe clean as easily as I had hoped.] Students can get from my room to the proposed white-board room, math annex, think tank, construction zone, melding pot or whatever I decide to call it and can be up working and thinking in less than one minute. My CF is sold and is helping me find additional white-boards that are not being used. Next stop, getting my principal’s blessing. I really just want to go to the hardware store though.

Wednesday—After school a former student comes to visit. Wonderful person! I asked former student (whose first AND last name I remembered on the spot) whom she had for math this year at the high school. She told me she had Miss D, a first year teacher. That made me so happy because Miss D was one of my favorite Algebra 1 students my very first year teaching. She too is a wonderful person and now she teaches math at the high school right next door to my school!

Thursday—Math II students were working on constructions as we had done most of the week. I love constructions, except for constructing parallel lines. That one always messes me up! Anyway, a student in the back of the room excitedly calls me over to his desk. He says he’s got it. He shows me a set of circles and two lines that he believes are parallel. I look at it and then I look at it again and ask him some questions about what he had done and why he thinks it works. He replies, “let me think about it.” Before class is over he tells me sadly, “never mind, it didn’t work after all.” The good thing is that he tried and tried again and he learned from his efforts. He was critical of his own work. He may not have succeeded in coming up with a new way of creating parallel lines yet, but he put himself out there and that is a very good thing indeed.

Friday—Attendance at my school wanes of Fridays. This coming Monday is a day of service and remembrance of MLK in our state so I figured many kids would be out starting the long weekend early. Not true. Attendance was very good. Actually, I think it was the best day all week. That’s a good way to end a week!

That’s my ‘one good thing a day’ for this week. Thanks for stopping by. Oh, if you have any suggestions for naming the new white-board room, please let me know. I’m thinking simply The BoardRoom.