Responsibility and History

Last week was a short week due to Labor Day – and boy was the three-day weekend needed. It was so nice to sleep in on Monday and not have to go to school. Friday was my students’ first test – it went better than the quizzes, but there were still a lot of Cs, Ds, and Fs and just a handful of As and Bs. It’s kind of discouraging to grade these tests and see just how badly my students are doing, and I wonder if I have taught them anything at all. Everyone points out that they are better off than they were before and that they will learn to work to my standards, but in the interim I just worry that they aren’t learning anything. I feel good about my lesson for tomorrow (scientific notation), so I hope it goes well and they “get” it. What is frustrating is that I explain things multiple times, give them lots of opportunities for extra help, and lots of practice, and many won’t ask a question until halfway through the test. What does it take to get them ask for what they need? That really frustrates me. Or when they wonder why they’re failing, and I point out that they have missed five days of school and haven’t made up any work. They complain that I didn’t give them the make-up work – even though each day I remind them where the make-up work is and that it is THEIR responsibility to get it and turn it in. It’s posted in the room and they hear it all the time. What’s the problem? The lack of personal responsibility drives me crazy. I will admit, sometimes I give them homework simply to make them take it home, do it, and bring it back – and learn responsibility in the process.

Each day we do a Quote of the Day – even though it’s math class I see value in getting them to think and share their opinion, even if it’s not about math. This is also my opportunity to tie in my interests in current events and history – and so I can talk about the anniversary of the moon landing, Sen. Kennedy, President Obama’s speech to students (which they did have some good thoughts on – though not sure the personal responsibility part sunk in) and 9/11. My students were in third grade on September 11, 2001 – most of them have little if any memory of it. When I asked why today (Friday) was important, the best I got was “wasn’t that when those towers blew up?” They may have been in third grade at the time, but where have they been the past 8 years? It frustrates me so much how out of touch these kids are, and that no one makes an effort to connect the rest of the world to them. That wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were a result of 9/11 was a foreign concept – they had no idea! Here’s an interesting article from the Washington Post about this very issue http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/10/AR2009091004425.html?wpisrc=newsletter. I pointed out that one of the reasons 9/11 was so significant was because it was the first time since Pearl Harbor that the US had been attacked on our soil. Blank stares. So I explained what Pearl Harbor was – Hawaii, Japanese, WWII. One of my kids’ responses was, “was that the war with Hitler?” Nevermind that I teach Algebra, I wasn’t going to let THAT teachable moment go by. They had just finished a test, so we talked a little about WWII, and then 9/11. I hope that even if they never learn to love math, my class will at least teach them what education is, and that there is something beyond their town and their school.