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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Word problems floating in my head...

Last night I couldn't fall asleep because I couldn't stop thinking about fun ideas for multiplication word problems. Then, this morning I woke up early with the best idea for a word problem, only to realize that it wouldn't work because there were only 8 seasons of Full House, and I need to be teaching 2-digit multiplication problems.

I can't get the math out of my head!

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I am an educator and a comedian

I got a wonderful comment on my micr0teaching evaluation today:

"I loved that you said that [something about division] was cool. Even if your class thinks you are weird, your enthusiasm is important (and maybe humorous)."

My professor has regularly been commenting on my "humor" in the classroom. Which is just awesome, because I do make it a point to be kind of goofy. Partially because that is who I am, and partially as a way to show that learning can be FUN! When things connect in certain ways, that's just cool, and I'm not afraid to say it. She has commented about four different times on my "humor" and "age-appropriate sarcasm". I love it.

I am an educator and a comedian

I got a wonderful comment on my micr0teaching evaluation today:

"I loved that you said that [something about division] was cool.  Even if your class thinks you are weird, your enthusiasm is important (and maybe humorous)."

My professor has regularly been commenting on my "humor" in the classroom.  Which is just awesome, because I do make it a point to be kind of goofy.  Partially because that is who I am, and partially as a way to show that learning can be FUN!  When things connect in certain ways, that's just cool, and I'm not afraid to say it.  She has commented about four different times on my "humor" and "age-appropriate sarcasm".  I love it.

Monday, February 26, 2007

I'm an educator and comedian!

I got a wonderful comment on my micr0teaching evaluation today:

"I loved that you said that [something about division] was cool.  Even if your class thinks you are weird, your enthusiasm is important (and maybe humorous)."

My professor has regularly been commenting on my "humor" in the classroom.  Which is just awesome, because I do make it a point to be kind of goofy.  Partially because that is who I am, and partially as a way to show that learning can be FUN!  When things connect in certain ways, that's just cool, and I'm not afraid to say it.  She has commented about four different times on my "humor" and "age-appropriate sarcasm".  I love it.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Distraught, still.

I met with my education advisor to discuss what she knows about the impending elimination of the elementary education program.

It was horrible.  I shouldn't, and won't, discuss too many specifics here.  But the entire thing was completed in a very closed process.  Part of the reason it was able to occur this way was due to an unfortunate technicality.  The entire education department is in a state of shock, and the nontenured professors, especially, are feeling the pain and anxiety of the uncertainty of everything.

I've never been moved to take action over anything.  I'm one of the most non-confrontational people I know.  But I cannot sit back and watch my department be destroyed, and see my professors hurt in the process.  That is, perhaps, what is bothering me most now.  The disregard for the rights of the professors.  And that may or may not be the correct aspect of the whole debacle to feel the most anger toward, but if it will make me take action, then so be it.

And I am taking action.  They would never be allowed to just eliminate half of the anthropology department, or an important section of the physics department.  Those are things that would never be in any one's mental mindset of things that could possibly happen.  So why is it allowed to happen to the education department?

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Speechless

I am one of the two student members (the rest being faculty) on the committee that discusses issues within the education department, and approves new students to the program. Today we had our once-yearly meeting and everything was going boringly smooth, as it did last year.

At the end though, the department chair brought in some new information. The president of the college has decided to completely change the goals and direction of the education department. Two radical changes will occur:

1. There will no longer be an elementary education program. This year's senior class will of course be allowed to complete the certification, as well this year's junior class (next year's senior class). But after that, there will be no more elementary education program at my school.

2. The education department's focus will now become secondary science education.

There are so many problems associated with these moves:
1. On average, the elementary education methods courses have higher enrollment than the secondary education methods courses. Therefore, eliminating the elementary program is not supported by enrollment.

2. Secondary science methods courses have the lowest enrollment of all the education courses offered. The education department certifies fewer secondary science teachers than nearly any other grade level/subject area.

3. Three quarters of the faculty of the education department are not certified to teach science methods. The remaining quarter is retiring and getting replaced by new (science focused) faculty. One half of the education faculty is not yet tenured. I don't understand enough about higher education politics to know exactly what that means for their tenure prospects, but I can assume it is not good. If the department can't use them, it will want to get rid of them now, while it can, before they are tenured.

4. None of these decisions were made by the current faculty of the education department. They were made by the college's president. He has always disliked/hated the education department. He feels that "students of the caliber of those who attend this college should not waste their skills/knowledge on working in elementary education." He also feels that "any students who do go on to become teachers should complete their undergraduate education at this college, and then go on to work for Teach For America or similar programs." Those are both paraphrases, but frequently acknowledged ideas of his.

5. As I think I have said before, the education department at my school is neither a major nor a minor. It's just kind of there. This makes it a lot less powerful in instances such as this one. It's voice is quieter and less respected than, for example, the chemistry department.

This was probably quiet incoherent and unorganized. I am not entirely sure why this enrages me so much, but it does. Perhaps because I know that, had this school not had an elementary education program, I would never have applied to come here. And I love my school. I love (most of) the experiences I have had here, the people I have met, the professors I have worked with, etc. I've been here for nearly four years and can't imagine myself without the tools (metaphorical tools, of course) and knowledge I have gained here. Had the president made this decision just a few years earlier, I never would have experienced the things I have experienced.
But that's not even the point. The president of the college is being an elitist and a snob and devaluing the people who got us (the students of the college) here in the first place. He is also devaluing every student and faculty member of the education department. He is saying that while education is important, it is not important enough to allow us to become teachers of children, or teachers of English, or teachers of Social Studies, or even teachers of Math or Foreign Language. It's important, perhaps, but not important enough. And it hurts to be told that the classes and practicum on which I spend hours and hours every day of every week here at school, and countless hours outside of school, is really not at all important to college. Is in fact so unimportant that it can just be tossed out and forgotten.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Math

I've been negligent to this blog as of late.  Who'd have thought my last semester at college would be so, so busy.

I am taking a math methods course this semester, (my last methods course).  And it is scaring me beyond reason.  I have come to the realization that I somehow made it through 13 years of school math having learned absolutely nothing.  I don't know how that is so, but it is the only explanation I have for how little I seem to understand about basic mathematics concepts.  When I add single digit numbers, I count up.  Apparently, that's not how you're supposed to do it.  You're supposed to use "doubles" and "near doubles" and "make ten" and who knows what else.  And when we bring subtraction into the mix, there are literally some methods discussed in my textbook that I don't understand.

We haven't gotten to multiplication and division yet, but when we do, I'm sure to be floored by all the new things they tell me about it.

I feel like I should go through some math course.  I haven't actually taken a non-statistics math class since my junior year of high school.  I just don't remember anything about it and how it all works.  Of course, the most recent math classes I have taken will be nothing like what I will teach, since I will be teaching elementary, not secondary. 

But I am currently lacking confidence in my ability to teach math.  And that can't lead to teaching success.  I need to be more confident in my ability to teach math.  I'm confident (but not overly so) in my ability to teach other subjects, but math is currently making me very, very nervous.