I failed to write this post on time yesterday.
I also apparently failed to teach linear equations properly because a substantial portion of my students in my second block failed a quiz on translating between representations of a linear function.
They were not able to construct an equation from a graph.
They couldn’t make a graph from an equation.
They couldn’t make an equation or a graph from a table.
We have been practicing this for a couple months now and I felt a little bummed yesterday. I am trying to figure out how I failed them.
Part of it I think is classroom culture. I posted about class culture versus classroom personality this week. I posted this because I was thinking about how I cannot let classroom personality dictate how my class is going to go and whether work is going to get done. Sometimes I rely too much on the fact that some classes get to work more easily than other classes and then I get lax about building culture and instead just feel frustrated with the students. “Why can’t they just do the work like the other class does, what is wrong with them?”
And to an extent it is the responsibility of those students in my class to come to class ready to learn and participate, but I also have to guide them when they don’t. I have been making steady progress in my ability to manage a classroom and responding appropriately to student behavior that can range from anywhere from just being silly to outright hostility.
A big area where I struggle with this is my own willpower. It is draining to reinforce classroom norms, especially when students are on the hostile end of the spectrum for misbehavior. And so I’m not as vigilant and then of course I am even more tired when students are off-task.
And I think I may have just failed to stick to the point.
I am not happy with how I handled linear equations this semester or how much my students seemed to have understood. I don’t know if I really have a point other than that.
The Barefoot Teacher 