Well, Ms. M, you see I did my homework last night, but … after I had finished it I left it on my bed and then my little brother got a hold of it and took it downstairs to draw on it, which wasn’t the end of the world because I was going downstairs anyway. Then, I noticed it on the floor, so I picked it up and put it on my kitchen counter. I showed it to my mom as she was cooking dinner and she said what a great job I had done on it, so I took it over to my grandma’s house to show her. She owns a sheep farm, you see, so she was out tending to her herd when I was showing it to her, when a big gust of wind took it by mistake high up into a tree!!! I ended up getting it down, but not before it got a fair share of sap and dirt on it. I put it in my grandma’s pick-up truck because she was going to give me a ride home, but my dad ended up coming to get me instead. When he drove me over to her house this morning to go and get it, we found out that my grandma had driven to the next town for some reason or another. So… my homework has crayon on it, some BBQ sauce from last night’s dinner, some sheep food, tree sap, and dirt on it, and it’s in the back of my grandma’s pick-up truck, but … it’s done.
This is my life as a math teacher.
I think most teachers have heard stories like these. Maybe I exaggerated this one a little bit, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something similar come out of any one of my students’ mouths. I really enjoy what I do. If you were to ask my husband, however, he would say that that is anything but the truth.
The truth is, 90% of my day is wonderful. I get to make a difference in kids’ lives. I get to make them think about problems and ask questions. I get to encourage them and make them feel good about themselves. I get to challenge them and make them see others’ points of view. For some, I get to be the only person in their life who actually cares. I get to be the first teacher who makes them change their opinion of math and to help them see how enjoyable it can be. Not every kid is going to be a math genius, but EVERY kid should feel some kind of success every day in math class. That could range from being able to solve a two-step equation to simply being able to finally remember that three times four is twelve.
Then there’s the other 10% of the day. This part of the pie-graph includes parents who don’t believe me when I call them up to tell them that their kid misbehaved. It includes watching kids bully each other and knowing that sending the bullies to the principal is probably just going to make it worse. This section would include the kids who don’t bring a pencil to class because they honestly can’t afford one. A fraction would go homework assignments with just answers, and no work shown. A small percent would be dedicated to not having any time to actually create lessons during my planning time because I have a meeting about a failing student, when it’s really the parent who is failing. Then, of course, a tiny itsy bitsy little decimal would go to watering my plants, which never seems to want to grow in my forty degree classroom.
So, this blog is going to be about my life as a math teacher. All 100% of it.
