Well... I wish I could say integers are going better but in reality, things are much the same. I truly wish my math classes were tracked. If I had those top 25 kids all together, we could soar. Then my middle group would plod their way through slowly but steadily. And last... the group who really does not place much importance in much of anything we say or do. I wonder if I had just those 25 together, could I somehow reach them? By moving at a slower pace, could they then keep up? It is so easy to blame them.. blame their lack of homework, their lack of attention to the lesson - but in truth, I know that somehow I am responsible for their not learning the material but I am truly at a loss as to what to do. In years past, I have had the few who seem to not care but it was an obvious few, a very small minority. This year, it seems to be almost half.

The discipline problems with some of the chronics are wearing me thin also. I've always prided myself on being the kind of teacher that kids behave for because I relate to them, understand their age, try to make learning fun... give them opportunities to work with each other, be active, learn new things... but there are these boys this year who, as the language arts teacher said, have the impression THEY are in charge. Just when it seems I am making gains with one, another surfaces to replace him. Or worse, a group of them gangs together - spitwads, rude comments, bullying behaviors - I am just frustrated and at the end of my ropes. After sending 7 to detention yesterday, I have to admit today was better - but I HATE sending them to detention during class - they need to be in my class LEARNING.

ahh.... but tomorrow is Friday... and then next week will be a nightmare... with school Monday, in-service Tuesday - and me gone to MAMSE the rest of the week. Then I can maybe get things back on track - with PTC that week, and hopefully an opportunity to talk to more of the parents I never seem to get in contact with. After the report cards go home with so many D's and E's... I fear my table may be a popular one at conferences.

After my last math unit, which overall...was a disaster... I was excited to be starting integers. Positive and negative numbers are easy to relate to real life - not really tough conceptually.... I thought AHHHH.... well.... until last Thursday when we started it anyway. But the kids ...OK ME! I have to find a way to break them out of their bad habits of not paying attention, not completing homework, not turning in classwork. I can not remember a group EVER who was this difficult to get motivated in these areas.

We had a 3 day weekend with yesterday being President's Day - from Friday they had a really short worksheet on positive & negative - mostly giving the opposite of a number (the opposite of -9 is 9) really tough stuff, and they had time in class to get started. I got maybe 2/3 of the assignments turned in, and of those, at least 1/2 dozen were not completed. 3 days off from school to complete this maybe 10 minute assignment.... part of me says - I give up - no more homework - but then the other part says WAIT JUST A MINUTE!!! It is called RESPONSIBILITY!!

I just do not have the answers, and I am frustrated to the point of tears.... I don't want to fail half my students in math class... but is that what it will take to wake some of them up from their hibernation pattern?

I try to make class interesting and fun... we took a few notes on terms today but I mixed that with a "human timeline" and time at the board to make up Math Mania scores.... a little competition sort of... but still, there were those who were zoned entirely out - the one young man, whose timeline number was 744.... the largest number of them all, who had placed himself in the negative teens instead of at the largest section of timeline... because he "didn't know where to go" !!! GRRRRR............ if you are in 7th grade, and cannot figure out that 744 is LARGER than 0, or 1 or 76, or 100, is there any point in me trying to teach you to add and subtract positive & negative #'s??

And the young lady who has a D in math because as she told Dad... she "doesn't get it" - this child who lives across the road from the school... who could easily come get extra help before or after school.... but has only once... before the last quiz.... during class today, she was busy writing on her paper... doing her homework during class while I was still doing large group instruction.... when I called on her, she rudely commented under her breath, "I know how to do all this!" GRRRR........

and the ones who are absent so often....
and the ones who were horrid for my sub on Friday....
and those who think school is only for socializing...
and those that I love....
and those that are sad....
and those that try so hard....
and those that have grown so much...
and those who have learned to accept responsibility for their actions....
and those who don't have anyone who loves them at home....
and those with abusive parents...
and those in foster care...
and those who come in the morning with a hug and a "GOOD MORNING MRS. GEORGE!!!" and a smile.....

FOR THEM ALL.... tomorrow is another day... and I shall perservere... and find a way... to reach them and teach them.....

It was a Monday - that much is definitive! After spending time working on finding perimeters and areas for the last couple of weeks (after trying the CMP book Filling & Wrapping with is all about surface area and volume but too tough for the majority of my students so we stepped back and did basic perimeter and area..) today we had a "mini'lab" with centimeter cubes. Students needed to use cm cubes to create rectangular prisms - for example - the first direction was to create a rect prism with 8 cubes that was 8 cm long. THen they had to record the dimensions (length, width, and heigth) in a pre-made table. THey had to also record the volume (which they could get one of 2 ways - count cubes - easiest obviously... or mulitply lxwxh) and then figure surface area by counting squares on all 6 sides of their prism. This we did together - the entire 8 cube prism - they then needed to create another 8 cube rect prism with different dimensions, then a 10 , then all the possible 12's, a 20, recording for each the dimensions, volume, and surface area. A few questions to answer - how do you know you have found all possibilities? How does surface area change as volume increases? then, the GIANT LEAP!!! Without cubes, find all possibilites for 36 cubes and answer some questions.

WOW!!! I don't know - sometimes I think I expect too much - other times, I think the students just simply do not want to do anything at all complicated. They refuse to attempt to do things on their own. THey want to be walked through everything step by step... You would have thought they'd never found areas before - never counted cubes before...

Something that was supposed to be fun and lead them into insightful reflection and discovery ended up being just frustrating for most...but my take... as we did the 8 cube together... quite a few simply zoned out - they refuse to even count the cubes... much less attempt to find the area of a side...GRRRR!!! and then there was Cody who struggles so with EVERYTHING.... working away... doing great all alone excpet an occasional check from me to make sure he was still headed in the right direction.

Some of them simply are not concerned about LEARNING - they want the grade, and want that grade to be an A... not work for the A at all.... simply be shown the easy road to it....

tomorrow- we go back into CMP - they will hate that even more.... life is a condundrum....in 7th grade math anyway...

social studies- we talked at what is means to be a person of virtue - what would you do if you found $5 but there was no way to find its owner... $20 that belonged to the old lady ahead of you in line at the store - $20 that belonged to the young well-dressed guy ahead of you in line - how all that related to working in the 7th grade store - very interesting insights here!!