Prime Time

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy - Open House, first progress reports, four new students and papers to grade. Getting back up to full-speed is really time-consuming!

I'm spending a great deal of time thinking through my lessons to make them top-notch. I'm still having a hard time estimating the amount of time I need.  On paper, it looks like there is plenty of time to accomplish all that I plan for the students.  In reality, I'm biting off too big of a chunk! I have forgotten about all the little things that are not "planned" parts of the class period that absorb all those precious moments.  Prime time gets shorter after attendance, passing out flyers, homework, picture packets, dress code issues, explaining progress reports, and handling all of the spur-of-the-moment student crises!

Today I am looking forward to a discussion with two of my classes on the Problem of the Week. They have had about a week to think over the Cat Walk problem from the Math Forum website. http://mathforum.org/ The problem is one of proportional reasoning - a cat takes a different amount of steps than a dog to cover the same distance. Students are to find the distance a cat will cover in 24 steps. I am curious to see the methods of approaching this problem.  The students are going to share their work and talk about their reasoning.

I wonder....
   How many students will have their homework.
   How many students communicated their thinking in writing.
   If I can lead this discussion by allowing the students to do most of the talking!
   If students will enjoy the process of tackling a more difficult problem without being led through
       the steps.
   If they will gain the ability to persist even when it is challenging.

I am prepared to keep at it! I know that my students can get better at solving problems. I need to persist even when the going gets tough just like they do! We are ALL in the learning process here.

The other task today is to continue our work with prime numbers in all classes. We're entering vocabulary into our math notebooks (Frayer Model) while I work with small groups.

I wonder.....
    If I have bitten off too big of a chunk today? All I can do is monitor and adjust, right?