Plea for Help...

Two weeks down. For the most part I am getting my footing. My colleagues are great, very helpful. My students are great, fun to be around. And my second and third period are going well. Second hour I teach social studies, which comes easy to me (PowerPoint's to share are coming soon). Third hour is reading, we are reading "The Tale of Despereaux" which is very cute.

Fourth hour though.....is the dreaded math class. Now I freely admit that math is not my best subject. I had trouble with math elementary through high school. In college I took one math class for my liberal education credits. If I do any kind of math now it is to see how much I saved by buying clothes on sale. So I am re-learning with the rest of the class.

So here is my plea....calling all math people! And my math teachers friends (both elementary and high school). What are some strategies, curriculum, and both hard copies and online resources you use in your classroom? Any advice and ideas are welcome.

The 1st Day of School

Quite possibly the best part of being a teacher is getting to experience the first day of school over and over again well into adulthood.

Since I am a big nerd, I loved the first day of school when I was younger. Most of the time I couldn't sleep the night before. I loved school and was usually sad at the start of summer (yes, like I said I am a nerd). I think part of it was the social experience as well as the learning. I like to be around big groups of people and there is not better place for that than in school.

As a teacher I still get that tingle as the first day approaches. Usually, I can now sleep through the night. Seeing the first day of school through the eyes of a teacher is a wonderful experience. EVERYONE is excited to be there, even the toughest students. You get to see people who you haven't seen in three months, but it feels like three years. All the students have excited stories from their summer. And everything in the classroom is fresh and new. There are no frustrations yet about test scores and student drama.

So to all my teacher friends out there, Happy New School Year (ha ha, I stole that from the frosted mini-wheat commercial!).