Since today is August 23rd, let's look at the 23rd topic on Shelli's list:
23. Shoutouts! Give a shout-out to a former teacher, a colleague, or someone in your school or community who is a difference maker.
Well, I've written about my favorite teachers here on the blog before. So let me give another shout-out to my best teachers:
- My favorite elementary teacher was my second grade teacher -- who later became my fifth grade teacher as well. She was one of the first to notice that I was good at math, and so she came up with the idea of having a Pre-Algebra teacher from the high school (which went from Grades 7-12 in my district) send me a textbook. As a second-grader I would work on the assignments independently, then my teacher would send my work to the high school before I worked on the next assignment. By the time I reached the fifth grade and was in her class again, she had convinced the high school teacher to send me the textbook for "APA," or Advanced Pre-Algebra.
- Incidentally, my favorite math teacher was that teacher who sent me the advanced work. I finally met her when I was placed in her Algebra I class in the seventh grade. I was the only seventh grader in a class full of eighth graders, but she made me feel welcome in her class.
- Just like Fawn Nguyen, I had my favorite history teacher when I was an eighth grader. He was also in charge of the Thespian Club at our school, and so he decided to teach history in a unique way -- he would dress up as a historical figure and lecture as if he were that character. Therefore his lectures were more memorable to the students. About ten years ago, he retired from teaching, and many of my classmates held a big party for him.
- My favorite science teacher was my junior-year teacher. I was an up-and-down student when it came to science -- the first two years of Integrated Science were more biology-leaning and I struggled a little, but the third year had more emphasis on physical science, which is more closely related to my strongest subject, math (as we spent over a month discussing with Kline's book). And so I did very well in this teacher's class -- indeed, she told me that I would finish the whole test in a few minutes and spend the rest of the time making my writing neat, and of course my answers were correct. She wondered why I wasn't enrolled in the magnet program, and I replied that I had moved to my new district as a freshman, while magnet students are recruited in the eighth grade. And so my science teacher convinced the school to admit me to the magnet program as a junior. Even though I was no longer in her class, she was still my most memorable science teacher for this reason.
- My favorite English teacher was my senior-year teacher -- or to be precise, one of two English teachers I had that year. You see, the magnet program I'd entered a year earlier was a year ahead in English -- that is, junior-level English for neighborhood students was equivalent to sophomore English within the magnet. This meant that I would have to double up on English my senior year in order to graduate from the magnet -- and I didn't look forward to this, since my strongest subject was math, not English. So even though I was the only senior in a class full of juniors, I enjoyed this English teacher's class the most. This teacher allowed us to be creative in our writing -- I remember that for extra-credit, I wrote parodies of the literature we were reading, except with my friends and me as the characters. There was also an essay contest for seniors in which we were to write about a journey we had taken -- I wasn't going to participate, except that the junior English teacher whose class I had to take decided to assign the same topic for an in-class grade! I was in the unique position of writing an essay for class and submitting the same essay to the contest. So I wrote about my journey through my education (much of which I just wrote about in this post) -- and won $200.
Some traditionalists lament the fact that the Common Core accountability movement encourages teachers to focus on the weaker students at the expense of the stronger students. They say that some strong students want to move ahead in their classes, but the teachers, who claim their hands are tied by Common Core, won't let them.
I owe it to my stronger students to support them and celebrate their talents just as my own teachers celebrated my own talents.
Recall back on Square Root Day the story I told about teaching my second grade friend the square roots of 0, 1, and 144. I admit that this incident, along with my admiration of my second grade teacher, formed the foundation of my desire to become a teacher. At first I didn't know that Grades 7 and higher even existed -- I knew that my elementary school was K-6, and I'd always believed that students went directly from sixth grade to college. I remember that as a kindergartner, to me the sixth graders looked like grown-ups, and so I expected that they were nearly college students.
Naturally, it was the arrival of my Pre-Algebra text that alerted me to existence of 7th grade. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to be a teacher because I wasn't sure I'd be good enough at any subject other than math, but the benefactor who gave me the Pre-Algebra text was a single-subject teacher who taught math and nothing else. And so I knew at that moment that I wanted to become a single-subject math teacher -- which meant that I'd most likely teach in a high school.
And returning to the present, that's exactly where I am now -- teaching high school. But unfortunately, I can't say that I'm as good a teacher as my favorites were. Today in second period, I get into an argument with my class over excessive tardies (some of which were due to the freshmen being confused with our block schedule), while fifth period is as loud as ever (even after I've already switched their seats, and even with the most talkative student being absent today). It shows that I still have a long way to go.
It bears repeating that I owe it to my stronger students to be as good a teacher to them as my teachers were to me.
Today I perform the song "Function Rap." My Math I kids are learning about functions today while my Math III students will review them later this week, so this is a perfect song to rap this week.
I posted the lyrics on the other blog earlier this summer, but I've made changes since then. First of all, the song no longer has a melodic chorus (14EDL) -- it's now a pure rap (still call-and-response). And second, one student today is upset that my rap doesn't rhyme. So let me follow Peterik's rhyming chapter and post an improved version here to this blog:
(The last verse corresponds to a relation where 2 is paired with two different values.)
Perhaps I might consider performing this new improved version in first period, which doesn't meet today but will meet tomorrow.
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