Every time a lunch bell rings...
Feb. 22nd, 2005 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
barnabas_trumanFor those of you who don't know because I never update my livejournal, I'm now well into my first of two years in grad school, studying math and math pedagogy. For the last four months I've been teaching experimental progressive math lessons in a struggling elementary school in Cowtown. I've been struggling in it myself quite a lot, and I am berated by the program director nearly every time she observes my teaching for various mistakes--some of them genuine pedagogical problems, though others, I suspect, are merely because her view of teaching differs from my own. I suppose it will become clear with more experience.
For the last week or two, though, I've been improving quite a lot--the program director had mostly positive comments for me last time she observed--and today, I got a huge confidence booster. One of the kids in the class stayed to talk to me when everyone else was leaving for lunch, and mentioned that he liked my teaching a lot better than the normal math class and textbook, because it was much more interesting and challenging, and he felt he was learning much more this way.
If teachers are angels, I think I just got my wings. I was grinning all the way home.
In other good news, I nearly finished the algebra take-home midterm, and the professor decided to grant an extension due to a typo in the assignment. Also I went up the stair tower of the Death Star this evening to watch a glorious sunset. Now I've just got 87 half-midterms to grade, an algebra homework assignment to do, and a lesson plan to make by tomorrow morning, and I'll be all set.
-=-Barnabas
For the last week or two, though, I've been improving quite a lot--the program director had mostly positive comments for me last time she observed--and today, I got a huge confidence booster. One of the kids in the class stayed to talk to me when everyone else was leaving for lunch, and mentioned that he liked my teaching a lot better than the normal math class and textbook, because it was much more interesting and challenging, and he felt he was learning much more this way.
If teachers are angels, I think I just got my wings. I was grinning all the way home.
In other good news, I nearly finished the algebra take-home midterm, and the professor decided to grant an extension due to a typo in the assignment. Also I went up the stair tower of the Death Star this evening to watch a glorious sunset. Now I've just got 87 half-midterms to grade, an algebra homework assignment to do, and a lesson plan to make by tomorrow morning, and I'll be all set.
-=-Barnabas
