It Won't Be Long Now...

As I write this post, I should really be working on a couple of projects that I have yet to complete for school this semester. Alas, it is a Friday evening, and I am pretty worn out, and just need a couple of hours to recover from a busy (and very cold and somewhat snowy) day!

But, it was a good day, too! I taught a full class this morning (it was my first time) and it went really well! In fact, it was leaps and bounds better than the practice lesson I taught to my peers in one of my education classes earlier in the week, ha ha. I had been fairly stressed about making sure I did everything right this morning, but everything just kind of flowed really easily and I feel tons more comfortable teaching now. Yay!

So those projects I mentioned above...yeah, well, I really need to get them done this weekend. And I will. The fact is...I only have two weeks left of school, and one of them is a short holiday week! It hit me today:

It won't be long now until I get to go home and be with the Hubs! Woo hoo! Color me excited!

I Fought the Law...

...and I WON! This will be, like, the most brief post ever. But, I just had to gush over the fact that I triumphed over the Lords of Parking at ETSU! Woo hoo!

I had received a ticket for parking in a faculty lot yesterday. Today, I went to their little "Parking Court" and presented the facts:
1. Of the two entrances to the lot, only ONE has a sign advising students not to park there.
2. They have both blue and white painted on the curbs. I know blue represents faculty, but white (I thought) indicates open parking.
3. They have another lot across campus that has a white sign "Open Parking" and that lot has white paint on the curbs, just like the curbs in the faculty lot where I was ticketed.
4. There was another sign that advises that it is a faculty lot, but is not visible because of tree limbs.

I took showed them photos of all of these things, and respectfully requested that my ticket be dismissed. And they agreed! Yay!

So, it WAS just $20...but even small victories can make my day, ha ha!

Trial and Error

Every weekday morning now I am observing a high school economics class for my secondary methods course. I'm pleased to report that I am being given the opportunity to practice teaching various concepts to the students. They are my guinea pigs, ha ha.

And, believe me, the experimentation is ongoing! Over the last couple of weeks, I've tried out several different techniques to attempt to find the ways that work best for me. I've had minor successes, but today's activity was a colossal failure!

On Friday, I had given the students a worksheet to complete in order to provide them with additional practice on predicting shifts in supply and demand. I guess they were terrified that they might not get it finished and would have to do it as homework over the weekend, so they all rushed through it.

I don't think I've ever seen such sorry schoolwork. I was incredibly disappointed when I graded their work over the weekend. They had seemed to know it so well in class...

Anyway, this morning I went in with a plan. A number of seasoned veteran teachers had advised me to provide opportunities for students to teach one another. So, my plan was to pair up the students in such a way that each pair contained one student who answered the question on the worksheet correctly and one who did not. Then, I called each pair up to the board to graph their answer and explain it to the class. In my head, I envisioned having the student who answered correctly walk the one who didn't though the process, so that it would be a learning experience for both...

The problem is that I didn't specifically state who I wanted to actually DO the work on the board, because I didn't want to embarrass the students who didn't answer correctly. As a result, the students who answered correctly were the ones who graphed the solution AND explained it to the class, while the other students in each pair simply stood to the side, and probably learned nothing.

I felt like a moron, but at least I leaned from this. Next time, I will have ONE student at the board, and instruct the class to decide if they agree or disagree with their answer and state why or why not. Or, maybe I can have the students work in pairs at their desks, and that way I can privately speak to each pair and instruct the one who has the concept down pat to coach the other student...

The good news is that I get to go back every day and continue my process of trial and error...