For each school day of the 2020-21 school year, I will be writing two sentences to capture some of the impressions, feelings, experiences, or thoughts I had that day. This is the 26th post in the series.
Monday (Apr 12)
After brainstorming with my cogen for three weeks, I was proud to unveil my new and improved math poetry assignment today. It went from being strictly haiku-based last year to now having four different options for students to choose from: a haiku, Fibonacci poem, free form poem, or math rap.
Tuesday (Apr 13)
To encourage more participation, out of no where, I started doing pushups in ninth period (I’m teaching in the gym). I’ve been slacking on doing my daily pushups…why not kill two birds with one stone?
Wednesday (Apr 14)
An emotional day; started off feeling isolated and ran through a gauntlet of feelings as the hours passed by. I held back tears in conversation with a colleague about the end of the school year; I realized that I’m concealing a lot of dismay that will probably come back to bite me in June.
Thursday (Apr 15)
Though it felt rushed, I got a little closer to mapping out a lesson on predatory lending at the final CHRE workshop with two trusted colleagues. In the evening, I attended an excellent talk by Sian Beilock on math anxiety through MfA‘s Thursday Think series.
Friday (Apr 16)
Had a thought-provoking conversation with two colleagues and a student about The Glass Castle this afternoon…interestingly, the student informally enticed all of us teachers to read it individually (both last year and this year) and then got us all together to chat about it for 45 minutes; it was an incredibly unique way of connecting during these crazy times. In an impromptu venting session, my AP shared an impassioned plea to not tell the stories of our students, no matter how inspirational doing so may seem to us; they don’t necessarily want to wear their struggle on their sleeve for all to see — we shouldn’t force them to.
bp
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