Week 4: Ups and Downs

We had our first test in Math Analysis this week and it was either up or down.  Many students did very well, and many students did very poorly.  As a teacher, I can usually sense that ahead of time... but since one of my goals for the class is that students take responsibility for themselves and learn how to value practice for learning rather than just practice for checking an assignment off a list, sometimes I have to wait until the students experience failure for them to learn.  I can tell them day in and day out how to prepare and to take their assignments seriously, but it doesn't really hit them until they don't do well on an assessment and realize that something needs to change.

So, I am obviously disappointed that not all my students did great, but I think a lesson was learned.  And, since my goal is learning, all students will be able to reassess for 100% credit on the exam.   I think that many of them will begin to work on their habits of "playing school" and checking off assignments just to get credit... and hopefully start to figure out that true learning is what is important.

There is one thing I've done differently this year that I don't think helped this first situation - I am not checking or signing off homework on their WSQ charts at all this year.  They still have them (don't forget you can purchase my WSQ chart templates from my new TpT store here!), and they are supposed to be getting them signed off by a partner in class (still keeping some level of accountability), but I found it to be such a stress and waste of my time to try to get around to sign off every students' chart last year that I chose to not do it.   This means there are students who aren't finishing their practice work.  But, I am hoping (sooner rather than later) that they find out that the practice work is beneficial to their learning and will lead them to success on the test.   We will see how this pans out.

One thing that seems to be working well is my "not prepared" list.  Students who don't do their WSQ before class simply put that day's date on the chart and head over to the side of the classroom to watch the lesson.  They know that if they do it on their own (without me prompting them) they receive NO consequence.  (Unless it becomes a daily habit, then I will discuss with that individual what is going on and talk about potential consequences).  For the most part, the students are doing great at it and it's a stress relief for me.

On a totally random note, Dropbox camera upload sync is amazing.  Students take a picture with the iPod, open the Dropbox app, and BOOM their pictures are on the three class laptops!  Love it!  This will be great once they start making their own videos as well.

So, I actually took pictures this week...but I used the iPods mentioned above.  And synced them to the class laptops... and then cleared out the class Camera Uploads folder at the end of the week, deleting the pics I took as well. Fail. I'll try to get some more this next week :)

Short post, I know.  And, it's not even color coded.  But, it's a weekend and I'm having way too much fun spending time with my husband and amazing smart and cute 3 1/2 month old :)