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Name: Stephanie
Country: United States
State: Georgia
Metro: Atlanta
Gender: Female


Interests: I love tennis and teaching. But I never teach tennis.
Expertise: Poaching, volleying, fractions, percent proportions, and systems of equations.
Occupation: I am 6th grade gifted math tea
Industry: Public Education


Message: message me


Member Since: 3/14/2004

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Saturday, October 11, 2008

Currently Listening
Los Lonely Boys
By Los Lonely Boys
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Ending the Term

Here is a secret you probably don't know, unless you were/are a teacher.  Teachers want you to pass.  So at the end of term - yesterday for my kiddos - a teacher will perform incredible mathematical  gymnastics to get you a passing (or near passing) grade.

I have curved tests, dropped lowest scores, omitted forgotten assignments, and given one last opportunity/assignment/assessment to allow students to prove they mastered the curriculum.  And if that fails, and you are close, we will give you the point.  Yes, all teachers do it.  The administration knows - and approves.

Teachers don't want you to fail.  We want you to succeed.  Your success is our success.

And success means a whole lot less paper work!


Sunday, September 28, 2008

Currently Listening
Queen - Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 &2
By Queen
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Running on Empty

Atlanta is out of gas.  Really.  Now it isn't just Atlanta, it is the surrounding areas.  As far away as Athens, the pumps are dry.  This is because of Gustav and the pipeline supply disruption.  We use A LOT of gas in this city of millions of cars!  So what to do?

I believe I will be riding my bike to work tomorrow.  We have gas, but need to take Meredith back to school tonight.  Andrew's carpool will have to run.  We will need to do our part there tomorrow afternoon.  So, since I work less than 5 miles away, I will ride - maybe.  This afternoon, I will do a practice run.  This will let me know how long it will take.  I will try it, at least.

It is a scary thought.  People have started calling in to work "empty."  We didn't go to church and many are staying home from shopping, movies, restaurants, etc.  Is this a sign of the times?  It will get better - until the next time.

With all this bad news, my poem ina box took a turn.  I have decided to use any leftovers as titles.

Here is poem ina box #2
go be the melon

we
as me
fresh poison
they have no trust
he throb s
who will laugh at old brother
as he bellow s
yet dark haunt s
when he lie s rhythm ly seep ing



Saturday, September 27, 2008

Writing Poetry

It ain't so hard. 


Steps to writing poetry:

1.  Get a box of magnetic poetry pieces in a box.

2.  Take a handful of pieces.

3.  Use as many as you can in an artful way.
4.  Put the rest back in the box.


Here is Poem Number One "Untitled"

listen up stiff er
we know about cake
celebrate his caramel
surround the moist liquid ferocious night for work
secret sad naked crap linger ing

Did I say "artful?"  Well, at least put the correct parts of speech in the correct places....mostly.

* er and ing are separate words in "poem ina box."  Sorry, there is no punctuation.  It costs extra.




Friday, September 26, 2008

Coping with Flounders

My plan has worked, so far. 

I have a display with index cards, each titled "Mrs. Cole's Question Cards" and a place for a student's name.  I have a cup for them to be deposited in.  I am in business.

I explained the whole "flounder" thing with adolescents.*  How their brains are maturing and re-wiring and it leads to some "disconnects" while the brain undergoes these changes.  I told them that the index cards were to help them filter their questions before we wasted time on questions that they didn't mean to ask or were afraid to ask aloud.  They could pick up a card at anytime during class, or at times, would be handed a card and asked to write their question so I could go over it privately at lunch, bus call, homeroom, or just after class.  I explained I would still answer questions in class, but I just wouldn't waste everyone's time on some questions or questions that were too involved to answer in front of the class.  I told them some of the questions on the cards I would answer for everyone, if I thought it was important for everyone to hear.

I had several kids write cards, and I had to give out a couple too.  Expecially to "?? Girl."  She only wrote 2 questions, but they were actually good ones.  The funniest result of this was in my gifted class.  When a student  asked a stupid question, someone would get up and give them a card.  Gifted kids are not patient with stupidity.  The quality of questions improved immediately.

But now I have a new worry.  I was giving a quiz on measures of central tendency.  They were allowed to use calculators to add their values and divide to find mean or median if necessary.  I had a student sit there for 5 minutes doing nothing.  I asked her, "What's the problem?  You need to get started."

She looked up at me and said (I am not making this up!), "I don't know what buttons to push on the calculator!"

I replied with a straight face (as others snickered in the background), "Then don't use the calculator.  Use your pencil and paper."

She looked relieved, and replied, "Oh! Okay!" And she began to work.

Ahhh.  Sixth Grade!  Flounders, all.

*If you do not know about flounders, click on the link.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flounder



Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Currently Reading
The Accidental Time Machine
By Joe Haldeman
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Answering Questions

"?"

A teacher loves students who are actively engaged and asking questions.  It shows that you are provoking thought and challenging your students.

But I have seen a disturbing trend this year.  In one class, I have a student who asks questions just to hear herself talk.  Her questions, at the beginning of the term, were not even questions.  She would raise her hand, and when called on, would begin,  "You are saying...."  or "You mean....."  And then she would try to reteach the entire lesson, less effectively, while everyone watched.  Students (and teachers) quickly tired of this performance.  The students would begin to start talking among themselves as soon as she began.  Teachers got impatient. 

I had a great solution.  As soon as she would raise her hand, I would ask her, "What is your question?"  She would begin her monologue, and I would interrupt.  "If you have a question, please ask it.  Start with a question word.  Who, what, where, how, why, when.  And go from there."

She would hem and haw.  Ummm and uhhhh.  And then, I would leave her and go on.  I guess this didn't give her the attention she desired. 

I heard that she was asking 15-20 questions a class period and other teachers were having trouble teaching or answering other students' "real" questions.  So the first day that I saw that behavior, on the third question in 5 minutes (we were heading toward 30 in one period), I told her she could ask 3 questions a class period and she had already asked her third.  But I would count only her last one that day.  I asked her, "Is this a question you really want to ask?  Because afterwards you will have only 1 more."  She decided to wait. 

This worked for a week.  She now doesn't ask me tons of questions.  And I no longer have to make tally marks for her on the board.  She no longer lapses into 5 minute monologues either.  But now we have a new, more disturbing trend.

The stupid question. 

Teachers will say, "There is no such thing as a stupid question.  Only the question not asked leads to stupidity."  I disagree.  I am a firm believer in "Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer."  (These are words of wisdom from my former math teacher father.)  Or "There are no stupid questions, just stupid people."

I am not talking about true questions about content, or probing the hows and whys of problem solving.  I am talking about the question that EVERYONE in the class already knows the answer to, especially the one asking it.

Some winners from "question girl":

"Do we have to put our names on our test?"

"Why do you have to put the numbers in number order to find the middle one?  Can't you just pick any number?"

"Why is it called the middle number?"

"Do we have to hand in our test?"  "Does it go in the 'test' box or the 'class work' box?"

"Where did you get the example you wrote on the board?"

"How did you multiply 2 and 3 and get 6?"

The entire class laughed out loud when she asked her finding the middle number question.  I would wonder about her if I didn't know she was so smart.  I would answer them all, if I thought it would help her or the class.  But she is now failing and she is disrupting class. 

This new favorite game is going to stop.  Tomorrow I will go back to my 3 questions a day tally marks.  And I will reserve the right to answer the question after class.  One-on-one.  No audience. In private.  I will ask her to write it down on an index card and any others she has that she didn't get answered.  Then we will go over them at lunch.  She will meet with me at lunch every day that she has questions on her card.  I will bet that there may be one or two for one day.  After that... her questions should improve. 

And so will my blood pressure! 

 



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