Emotional Reflections

I have several dozen drafts partially written, yet I haven’t posted anything since the beginning of the year. Some seemed too negative, and others–well… they just didn’t make much sense.

I feel more physically and emotionally tired this year than all my previous years teaching. Why? Perhaps it’s because I’m also a part-time student, or maybe because I put in a lot more hours after school tutoring students. Actually, implementing my SBG quizzes into my grading can also be quite tiresome at times (primarily since it seems that students want to reassess in waves). Overall, though, I feel accomplished. My test scores have gone up, and my D/F ratios have gone down. Are my scores at the top of the school or district? No, but I’m very pleased with my improvement.

The Progress

This leads me to my next area of thought. Student achievement. My Algebra 1 classes (of all repeating students) have improved dramatically. Although it is definitely a challenge for me to both manage and teach these classes, this is where I’ve seen the most improvement. My D/F ratios have dropped significantly from over 60% (yes, I’m admitting that I failed or nearly failed two-thirds of my class last year) down to about 40% this year. Still not great, but again, I’m happy with the improvement.

My Algebra 2 classes have also shown significant improvement on all the common assessments (with the exception of the last test, but I’ll get more into that later). They seem more confident and SOME show a better understanding of the underlying mathematics, and are not just memorizing a series of steps. I wish I could convert more students to think this way.

The Process

What are two major changes this year that made a difference in my teaching and student performance?

1) All homework grades replaced by SBG quizzes. You don’t get points for practicing!!
2) Implementation of a “Process” notebook, where students neatly “process” and re-copy their notes into a SECOND notebook that stays in class.

How do I know these made a difference?

1) Test scores. They went up this year.
The last test, in the rush of the ending semester, I told students I would not add more quizzes to the long list of standards already being assessed. I wanted them to focus on reassessing the older quizzes (which was partially true, but I was also burnt out and didn’t want to grade a slew of new quizzes, and rush them into reassessing). Instead, I just provided them with a lot more practice practice problems, but no accountability until the test. BIG mistake #1. The test average dropped nearly 15% on that last common assessment.

As for the process notebooks, here is a story that may help the argument toward its use. I was sick one day and had a sub for my 5th period Algebra 2 class. I included in my sub lessons plans to have my 5th period process their notebooks on logarithms, and have them include ALL of the examples from the notes, and they did it. It was the only Algebra 2 class that did. My other two classes, I spent so much time reviewing problems and answering questions for the test, that I ran through the time I had alloted for them to process their notes. BIG Mistake #2. My Periods 2 and 4, did not have much time to process their notes, and as a result, they were only able to re-copy the first lesson on logarithms.

So what happened? Yes, all my Algebra 2 scores dropped, but my 5th period did not see as dramatic of a decrease in scores. In fact, they scored the highest out of my three periods, whereas my 2nd period is usually the highest scorers by far. I would like to hope that the time used to process notebooks helped them.

2) Student surveys. Mostly positive!
Of course reading student surveys is always tough. This year, the same survey was given department-wide as a “writing assignment.” There was only one student who attacked my teaching methods, which was much less than what I had anticipated. So what did I find?

Question 1-How do you feel about your grade in this class?

Many students were proud of themselves. I had several students claim that this was the best they had ever performed in a math class. On the other hand, many of my ‘B’ students were disappointed with themselves. Many students said that they knew they should have continued to reassess early on and that they could have earned a better grade.

Question 2-Describe something that has helped you be successful in this class.

This was the most important and useful feedback out of all the questions. When I first explained the idea of the process notebooks, students were very resistant and confused.

“Why do I need TWO notebooks? That’s dumb!”, they said.

It took some convincing, and I even showed them that I use it myself in my own graduate-level math courses. However, I was surprised by the large number of responses on these surveys that said that rewriting their notes surprisingly HELPED them greatly in understanding and remembering the material. It was also great for reviewing for tests, since it was nice, organized, and never forgotten at home since it was kept in class. Only one student stated that it did not help her.

Second, many of the students felt that the quizzes were also very effective. It forced them to understand and think about the problems on their own, since I did not review warm up problems prior to the quiz.

Other things students mentioned that was useful to them was homework (Who knew?) and practice tests.

Question 3-Do you think you have worked as hard as you can this semester, or do you think you could have done better?

Most of the students feel that they could have tried harder. That’s disappointing for me to hear, but I feel it’s the norm in a high school setting. I know I could have tried harder as a high school student.

Question 4-What are your goals in this class for next semester?

I REALLY liked the some responses on this one. Many students were actually specific in their goals on how to improve their grades, even though the question was not specific. Some of the responses were to not wait until the end of the term to reassess quizzes, to ask more questions, to complete all homework.

Question 5-Additional Comments.

Of course, this is the fun one. Some student comments were just funny (because I forced them to write three COMPLETE sentences for each response), but some were also very nice to read. The best one that comes to mind was a student that said that for the first time in a math class, they were not afraid to ask questions or seek help. This was also coming from a student who can sometimes come off as having a bit of an attitude.

I also appreciated many of the other positive comments left by students on the way I present my lessons, and checked for their understanding during class. Of course, not everyone’s learning style is the same, but I’m glad I was able to find ways to teach the concepts for many of them.

Overall, I definitely see much room for improvement for the future, and also read a few minor suggestions to consider implementing in the classroom, but the improvements I have made over my previous year are also evident. These positive surveys also came at a good time when I was feeling down on myself as a teacher, and the surveys I have given in the past usually did not make things much better.

Now, however, I feel much more prepared and motivated to tackle next semester. And one thing I know for certain–I will NOT slack on quizzes, and I will NOT let students slack on their process notebooks again!

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