Summer School's Impact On Students

In this country, we offer students many chances to fulfill their requirements of responsibility. One of these second chances is summer school. As a student, I did not know what it felt to be in summer school or, in other words, summer school did not exist in my vocabulary. However, as a teacher, summer school is a word I hear every day. It is an idea our students rely too much on.

My first time teaching summer school was last summer. It was an interesting opportunity for me to go through because I was able to choose my subject, and also make a last impact on students who we know can do better than what they have achieved. 

As of February, 2016, every student I taught during summer school is either afraid of me teaching it again or have thank me for being their summer school math teacher. I am not offended by this because I know my expectations are never low, nor I took it as a "free money" summer. I was interested in the students' knowledge. 

Last week, one of these students came to me, in front of my Assistant Principal and said: "I'm sorry Ms. C. but when I was in summer school, I was not afraid you. I was afraid of Ms. G. (referring to me) because she made it clear that I would not be passing my grade if I was late or did not do my homework, but instead, I learned what I did not learn during the school year...Thank you Ms. G.". Her statement made me feel powerful. I have shown to them that it is important to work hard for good outcomes and that they should not wait until summer school to keep up their grades. 

This is just one of the many statements different students have made to me about their summer school experience. With this said, I am not sure if I would do it again but it was definitely an experience to remember. 

I love this profession regardless. Period!

- Ms. A

The Power of Understanding Math Concepts in Middle school

I am more than happy to share this with you all! This year, I am teaching 6th and 7th grade math!!! I love teaching something concrete such as MATH!!! LOVE it! With this in mind, I have to say I love it when students feel proud of their work and understand the skill when it is given to them in steps or  in detail.  The two students I am showing work from are two kids who DISLIKE math! They are always insecure and tend to have a hard time working independently, however, during this class, they were the ones that wanted to explain their work and even labeled how they worked throughout their independent work! During their sharing time, they came up to the front and explain what this data means!! I ALMOST cried because they made me so proud! They feel comfortable with my explanation, but most important, they feel comfortable with math! Now, its time for them to feel this comfortable throughout the year! I have to keep on fighting the hate against math!. 

The pictures below shows their way of setting up the problem given to them. Love the organization from each one of these individuals! I truly had a #proud # teacher moment!