A few of my favorite things lately

6.5 weeks of the school year are in the books. Time has seriously flown by on me day in and day out. There have been a few bumps in the road - classes are starting to hit new material instead of constant review, which causes a bit of panic. I'm being forced to ease off of the coast mode in my teaching and really make sure students are taking everything in instead of assuming they understand. Things are actually going pretty well in that regard.

Intro to graphing. No frills. Kids figured out how to define all
the vocab with pictures, and had fun comparing each group's
ideas and finding the one that made the most sense to them!

No sugar-coating: I know there are (many) things that I am doing poorly. My lessons take no time to put together and therefore are nothing special more often than not. I've decided that this is okay. Things don't have to be super wonderful all the time, with tech tools, an activity for every lesson and something other-worldly that will blow kids' minds.

Sometimes all it takes is one question, silly though it may be. I had a whole 7th grade class stumped last week wondering why hot dogs are sold in 10's and buns in 8's, and it turned into a discussion on greatest common factor and least common multiple, and why you don't always need the process if you just use your brain. I admire all the teachers that create applets and games and dynamic activities, but I'm also much more accepting this year of the fact that sometimes I just need to be with and around the kids, talking and working through the problems instead of trying to be an entertainer and make them try to experience everything in a new and unique way.

Old and boring is okay. Using the textbook's worksheets every now and again won't kill the students. They are still learning.

Some of the teachers I've been following on Twitter lately have been down. I want to share a few fun moments with you all. These kids have been reminding me why I wanted to teach - to give kids a positive example to look up to and a love of math (even if it is a little boring sometimes).

I love my job, and my students. Even the days I complain, something happens that reminds me why I do what I do. Whether it is the kid that came in one morning shouting, "Look Miss W! I got you a Cardinals cape!" or the parent that I meet for the first time that says, "So YOU'RE the teacher that my daughter talks about all the time." Things are not all sunshine and daisies, but there is always another day with these kids to bring you back from the bad moments. Kids are pretty cool when you let them show their true colors.

Kids like leaving random notes on my desk/calendar

 when I'm not looking.

Good thing the month was over!

They call me A-Dawg. I couldn't make that up if I tried. Another teacher heard one of them call me that and said it
was disrespectful, but for crying out loud, sometimes they can't even pronounce my actual last name!

I have no idea where this came from. Seeing the name 'Boog' made me think of Brendan Ryan though. :)

This is what the 5th graders think of when they think of me. At first I thought the 'ADD' part on the right side of
 the page meant A.D.D... thankfully someone pointed out that it prob. meant 'addition.' I knew that (actually I just assumed I was A.D.D. when I teach).

My future wedding pictures according to a 6th grader. I was digging it until she put color. Purple?
Also, that guy has man-liner on. Just sayin.

I'm not a perfect teacher (not even close). These aren't perfect kids (HA). We don't have perfect days. We do try to appreciate the little moments though. I hope all of you that are feeling discouraged lately get a chance to have some little moments too!