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Ok so last time I was releasing some stresss before my first day as a teacher in highschool.
Some time has passed since then. I started my second week today, and I already have a nice grasp of what will surely awaits me this year. I have only two class, on the same level (which is nice and sweet). They are in their first year in highschool, in France we call it "Seconde" ; so I have the "Seconde A" and the "Seconde B" class. I think this blog will give first a slight description of how the lessons are for each.
The Seconde A : the ones I started my beautiful career with. 34 pupils that I could set in 3 categories : the very good ones, the okayish ones, and the what-the-fu-are-you-serious-you're-doubling-your class-and-you-still-don't-know-how-to-place-points-in-a-graph ones. Notice that there aren't just "good" pupils. I wanted to start the course immediately, but my supervisor convinced me that I should do some days of reviewing basic thing such as distributivity, factorization and fractional "calculus"... They were not that bad in the vas majority, and I was starting to think this job would be nice. We started the course last week, and they seem to understand what we are doing - for those who wants to know what, we learn how to place points on a graph, to read coordinates, and the formula for the coordinates of the middle of a line as well as the formula for the length of a line (which is, I find it funny but I'll explain why later, just the formula for the euclidean norm of a vector). Nothing to crazy on Earth, I say.
They are mostly quiet and interested ; of course on some hours (the afternoon or just before lunch) they are more loud and it is harder to obtain a correct work setting, but nothing to horrible.
Then, I met the Seconde B. They are of the same age, same formation (middle school). Can you explain me why the effitty effe a entire HALF of the class CANNOT properly evaluate that 9/3 = 3 ? Can you explain me what is hard to do in distributivity, when you already spent TWO YEARS doing it previously ? Can you, I beg you, explain me WHAT is hard in copying THE EXACT SAME THINGS you just copied when you factorize ? Oh, and again : are you serious, you are DOUBLING ?? Is it normal that we spent ONE ENTIRE HOUR placing 4 points on some graphs, when I gave them like 34 times the method to do so ?
Also : they are loud. Very loud. They don't give a single damn about what I am teaching them. They don't get it, so guess what ? They chat. I fail to understand first how pupils with grade (in maths, but let's be honest, when I heard them speak or just read what they write, I think this was there mean grades) ranging from F to C- in middle school were accepted in high school. We are speaking of pupils that are supposed to have the same course as the seconde A. Gimme a fucking break. After 4 HOURS spent in factorizing like they did the 2 years (make it 3 if they are doubling) before, this is what I heard suddenly in my back :
"ERMA GEHD SIR, FACTORIZIN' IS FINDIN' THEM COMMON FACTOR, RITE ? "
...
Success ! You learned something today ! WHERE WERE YOU YESTERDAY AND THE DAY BEFORE AND LAST WEEK WHEN I SPENT LIKE 3 HOURS AND A HALF REPEATING THAT EXACT SENTENCE AND SHOWING IT ON EXAMPLE FOR LIKE 3449083 TIMES YOU F******* C***T !
No I did'nt answer that. But I thought it so loud that it might have been heard anyway. I was thinking naively that, ok, they don't like maths, I have to find some topics that can at least motivate the A LITTLE. I am not able to make them love maths, it's too late, but I can always try to give them a nice view of the obligated program I have to teach them. So this very morning, 8 am, I wanted to present the different sets of numbers, having them participate as much as possible, I was even hoping to have some questions "why is pi irrational ?"... It failed so much I just hope I'd wake up again and I stun them with more factorization, so they at least shut the fuck up.
Basically, 75% of them didn't give a single boson of a fuck for the entire hour, a girl asked me "what is the point ? ah, you introduce us to the € symbol ? Whatever.", and they even asked me if they were obligated to come the next time if I did this lesson. Ts'not with that I'll motivate them... But what will do ? I am supposed to follow the exact same scheme with both classes. One will surely find its content of knowledge, the other... I cannot even imagine to make them do things that could be interpreted as interesting, and they are already 3 hours late compared to the other class. Gureeeto.
I am no Onizuka. And I felt it the first evening. And the second. And the whole next week. Every evening, at 20:00 pm, I feel like shit. I feel so much anxiety I cannot even understand why. I have problem to eat, to sleep. I fear the next day, when I'll be in front of the kids. For the good class, I fear that I won't be good enough, for the bad one, I just don't want to see them because we both lose our time, and this time we lose isn't even pleasant. My supervisor tell me I want to go too fast with my classes, and when I show her an exercise I spent a entire hour on so they at least understand the most basic notions, I heard "Oh, you should not spent so much time, make it 15 minutes and move on". In 15 minutes ? Are you kiddin' me ? They cannot even draw a graph and write two sentences in 10 ! 5 pupils came at the end of the first lesson to ask me "to go slower because they didn't understand what they wrote". Okaaaaay... and what do I do for the 20 that have to wait you 10 minutes, and for the 5 that already finished the work I gave just after while you were still on the first board ? Oh, you bothered to underline every important word in red, green, and overlined them in yellow ? That's nice. Did you know ? You won't learn their significations better if you spent the whole time we train ourselves underlining, overlining.
It would be so much easier if I could find an interest in the content I am teaching them. We already spent 5 hours on factorizing (don't forget to add two years) with a class, and 4 hours on points/graph/middle with the other, and it is still sloooooow and uninteresting as hell. I feel so bad.
Now to the "funny" note, a vector is now officially defined as follow : let A and B two points of a plane ; the translation of A to B is the mapping of the plane that at each point C maps the (only one) point D such as [AC] and [BD] have the same middle. We call it the translation of vector AB. You'll see THIS definition in the book for HIGHSCHOOLERS. Brilliant. Wait, where is it correctly explained what a vector is ? Oh, you think they'll understand/listen when you'll show them the arrow on a screen ? And when they'll try to learn this definition, what will they remember ? Not a fuck they didn't give anyway. At least they have coordinate calculus for vector ! What ? No norm ? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME ? What is the point of giving the the length formula and NOT the norm of a vector ? Are you afraid they may UNDERSTAND THAT IN FACT IT IS LINKED ? Oh, I see, it was not good to bruteforce into their brains "a vector is defined by a direction, a sense, and a norm".
I'll do it anyway. When life gives you lemon, make lemonade.
 
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Your demeanour doesn't seem to mesh with the idea of educating young minds. Why exactly did you become a teacher?
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On September 17 2012 23:59 divito wrote:
Your demeanour doesn't seem to mesh with the idea of educating young minds. Why exactly did you become a teacher?
I dont think you get the point of a vent blog.
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On September 17 2012 23:59 divito wrote:
Your demeanour doesn't seem to mesh with the idea of educating young minds. Why exactly did you become a teacher?
Why do you say that? He sounds like he cares about getting the pupils interested and having them learn something - seems like a useful attitude for a teacher.
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Welcome to TL, where single internet statements can be used to discern someone's entire personality and motivations.
To OP: sounds awful. Try not to go insane.
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Every teacher in the world needs a place to vent. Fuck kids.
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should have asked me (kid of two teachers) before that particular job choice!
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Now to the "funny" note, a vector is now officially defined as follow : let A and B two points of a plane ; the translation of A to B is the mapping of the plane that at each point C maps the (only one) point D such as [AC] and [BD] have the same middle. We call it the translation of vector AB. You'll see THIS definition in the book for HIGHSCHOOLERS. Brilliant. Wait, where is it correctly explained what a vector is ? Oh, you think they'll understand/listen when you'll show them the arrow on a screen ? And when they'll try to learn this definition, what will they remember ? Not a fuck they didn't give anyway. At least they have coordinate calculus for vector ! What ? No norm ? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME ? What is the point of giving the the length formula and NOT the norm of a vector ? Are you afraid they may UNDERSTAND THAT IN FACT IT IS LINKED ? Oh, I see, it was not good to bruteforce into their brains "a vector is defined by a direction, a sense, and a norm".
I'm trying to wrap my brain around this but I fail. I don't understand this definition of a vector at all. Right now I am doubting if I still even know what the fuck a vector is(I sure as hell should, maybe it's called differently). You sir, confused the shit out of me.
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As a fellow math educator, I can understand your frustration. I agree with a lot of what you've written. Here are two points of advice (feel free to take it or leave it):
1. Don't rush through the important and foundational aspects of mathematics just to appeal to whatever curriculum you need to get through. Figure out what the students don't know (even if they can't do even super simple problems) and start there. Obviously, find a way to keep all levels of your students busy and learning, but you can't teach the hard stuff until they understand the easy stuff. You can't teach chapter eight until they know chapter seven, etc. Even if that means going over basic arithmetic.
2. Find a way to generate interest and make the material engaging (and it seems like that's what you want to do anyway). Also, show that you're interested in the material as well. Your enthusiasm will often be contagious, and going off on little rants, stories, anecdotes, and talking about cool practical applications can help keep students on your side (rather than turn them against you and push them away from wanting to learn). Have open discussions, little projects, and anything else that makes it less of a lecture and more informal if they get noisy and hard to control.
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It's not too late for them to start liking math. Not until I was 16 did I began to grow fond of math. Altough I always appreciated how logical everything seemed, many things just seemed useless. It was not until I saw some real world applications in Physics that I started too appreciate math more. Right now I really am starting to enjoy. Everything is so goddamn logical. It's definitely a hard subject which might be discouraging, i.e when I just can't prove why angle A is twice Angle B in whatever triangle, after thinking about it for half an hour, I just get so fucking mad.
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After going through High School myself, I don't think I could cope with being a teacher in high school. Some people just don't give a flying fuck about learning, and there isn't much you can do about it. But I salute you for trying, and best of luck not going insane.
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On September 18 2012 01:52 Laertes wrote:
I think, as a student in high school with some amazing teachers, the best thing to do is to have passion and take pride in your work. Everything else will follow. If the teacher is excited about learning, so is the student. Every teacher in my school LOVES THEIR JOB. I go to a small special ed high school(For ADHD, ADD, Tourettes, aspergers, etc.) in NYC Queens, its called The Summit. The teachers there love their job,so I love mine, I LOVE MY SCHOOL, a lot of other kids there do too. We WANT to learn, because the teachers make the classes engaging and they are like parental figures as well as teachers. Everyone of my friends hates school, why? Probably because their teachers suck, I don't know how my teachers do it, they make me want to learn, and they aren't afraid to joke around or be friendly, they aren't just teachers, they are a part of my life. You have to approach the kids like they are kids,everyone loves a good teacher, and maybe you can do that for your students.
EDIT: To sum it all up, don't be afraid to HAVE FUN. And if your stupid current school won't let you do that, find one that does. Please, have fun with your job, it makes all the kids WANT to learn!
This, all my good teachers(rofl 2 out of 8) Are the ones who are truly passionate about what they do. I have this history teacher who just loves to talk, read and do anything related to history. His life is history. That passion is transfered over to his students. The sole reason I choose history as a subject was because of him. Last year I had a very good physics teacher. Who just loved to explain Physics. You could see it in his eyes. He would be constantly like, isn't this beautiful? The same goes with the math teacher I have right now. When someone solves a problem he proposes he just lights up because he is able to transfer some of his understanding and love for his subject to his students. These are exceptions however. All the other teachers I feel like I am wasting my time in class and I might aswell just read the book and study myself.
Above examples are also the classes where the students laugh the most. The physics teacher might make an ass out of himself by jumping of tables or simulating vibrations with his body, but it does help us understand. We might laugh at our history teacher because he tells all giddy how he got a new book on history. But you know what? You can tell they don't give a flying fuck. Because this is what they are passionate about and they know they are fucking amazing at it. Someday I hope I can be as passionate about something.
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Try to build up a reputation for yourself so you can start requesting to get only classes that are not full of idiots.
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I am only studying to become a maths teacher, but the horror story of the OP is something I often have to go through my mind. However, in my mind (that is far from experienced with these matters) what darkplasmaball wrote should work quite accurately. You cannot go on with the mindset that they cannot understand even the simple matters that you keep repeating. If they don't understand, think of methods to simplify it even further. Think of games and real life examples to bring them closer to the subject. At some point give them a minute to talk the problem with their friend and what is difficult about it (after you've had their attention naturally) and then go through the 'hard parts'.
You're probably really smart (I'm assuming), and often I've noticed that inexperienced people have a hard time teaching less talented kids. Don't give up. As long as you CRAVE to improve, to get better, you will get there. You only just began teaching, perfection is not required of you yet. After 20 years it is.
After teaching a new subject, gather feedback after the lesson, maybe make them write feedback on what did they not understand. Try to give individual feedback during the lesson while they're busy working on the new subject or so.
You must stay enthusiastic. It is contagious, like darkplasmaball said.
As for not being able to hold up to the talented class's standards, that is the least of your worries IMO. If you prepare well for the class and you know you have, there will be very few problems. More importantly though, a teacher (especially a new one) does NOT have to know everything. If you don't know the answer to something they ask, simply say 'That is a great question, I will find the answer and give it tomorrow'. And honestly, you won't need to do that too much if you prepare well. Like I said before, you are not required to be perfect or know everything. Just keep a learning mindset at all times, don't give up, try to find new ways to teach, try to find activities during the class to keep them engaged. Maybe even take a short break in the middle and talk about something completely different if you want.
Just keep your head up high and you'll get through this for sure 
Keep posting the blogs, I love learning about other teacher's experiences
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Sounds like a rough group of kids OP. As a high school senior right now (but I never get in trouble/never talk/always respectful) I too get annoyed at the immaturity of fellow classmates. They don't give a shit about learning and I feel that it takes away from what I could learn when the teacher has to tell them to "quiet down" or "do your work". School is for education and it is a great thing that we (as people) have, and they are just disrespecting that privilage that they have.
Sounds like a bit of a rant for me too . Hope you find a way to get to your second class. What I'd do if I were a teacher would be like "Alright class, quiz today, quiz tomarrow, and oh look, another 3 quizzes". Then they'd start paying attention (or fail lol).
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It sounds as though you're willing to teach them, but your frustration stems from your students (at least a few of them) not wanting to learn. Like when the one girl went, "What is the point [of learning this]?" I understand that you probably would blame yourself if your pupils don't succeed, but if you give 110% every day, and your students give you (like, on average) 30%, it's not your fault when they fail.
I'd also say that the reason why they don't know the basic stuff is because this apathetic attitude has been a part of them for a very long time in their academic life; it's the product of years of just not caring in the classroom. So you're pretty much having to do the job of the teachers who taught the grades before you 'cause these students chose not to learn anything earlier.
Merely my two cents to your quandary. I've no doubt your job is infuriating right now, and I hope and pray your classes show some appreciation for your efforts and are motivated to learn and succeed soon.
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I love this, please write more.
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On September 18 2012 00:28 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
As a fellow math educator, I can understand your frustration. I agree with a lot of what you've written. Here are two points of advice (feel free to take it or leave it):
1. Don't rush through the important and foundational aspects of mathematics just to appeal to whatever curriculum you need to get through. Figure out what the students don't know (even if they can't do even super simple problems) and start there. Obviously, find a way to keep all levels of your students busy and learning, but you can't teach the hard stuff until they understand the easy stuff. You can't teach chapter eight until they know chapter seven, etc. Even if that means going over basic arithmetic.
2. Find a way to generate interest and make the material engaging (and it seems like that's what you want to do anyway). Also, show that you're interested in the material as well. Your enthusiasm will often be contagious, and going off on little rants, stories, anecdotes, and talking about cool practical applications can help keep students on your side (rather than turn them against you and push them away from wanting to learn). Have open discussions, little projects, and anything else that makes it less of a lecture and more informal if they get noisy and hard to control.
DarkPlasmaBall here to save the day once again! To all the educators out there, what do you feel is the best method of teaching math? I've had a myriad of teachers and only a few stuck out as truly knowing what they were doing, is there a standardized, popularized method?
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Being a teacher in a mandatory education is frustrating for sure. The greatest pleasure I have had when teaching someone is one on one, or with people who pay to be there and don't feel like they have to be there. aka people who want to learn. In high school a lot of students feel totally powerless and are just watching the clock the whole day, meaning they learn almost nothing and get almost nothing done, whether you are a good teacher or not. To be honest, I sympathise, but it's a not a little known fact that the more education a populace has, the less crime and cruelty. So mandatory education has that benefit, and even if a lot of students are learning at a terrible pace, some of it eventually gets in.
But I feel your pain. It is the most distressing thing to watch a student waste away hours accomplishing 5% of an assignment you know could have been done in 10 minutes if they focused. And the more the system afford for this, gives more time per assignment, the less motivated they are to begin. Teaching people who are unmotivated is very depressing. Even if you are funny, students like you etc etc you're super helpful and available, you can't usually can't change a student who is just worn down by 6 hours a day of mandatory education.
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EPT
