Money on the Top

Monday started with my third official observation. I was standing in the hall greeting my first class of the day when I see the principal walking down the hall with a lap top in her hands. She wasn't even halfway down the hall, but I knew she was coming for me. Luckily she got in my room before most of the students did. So, as the students entered, I would stop them and point out who was in the room. The response was, "Oh. I'm going to be good today!" They were amazing! They all did their warm-up. They all took notes. They all participated when called on. They all did their class work. I'm so glad she came in 2nd period and not 4th because it might have been a different scene. One student who was sitting beside her came up to me a few minutes after class started and asked how long she was going to be in there. When I told him probably the whole time, he said, "She makes my stomach feel nervous." I said, "Mine too!"I haven't had the follow up conference yet, but that should be coming soon...I'll keep you posted.

I gave a test today. Test days are always fun because it is quiet all. day. long. It's wonderful. Some classes I have to fight to be quiet. Today all but one of them were quiet without any fighting; it was great. My fourth period, aka crazy class, was SO quiet I almost didn't believe it was my class. Fourth period is the type of class that has one volume level and that is LOUD. So, them being silent for an hour today was nothing short of a miracle. To top it off, the majority of them did very well on this test!

I'm in a book club, Read Between the Wines. This month we are reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. A lot of my students have read this book and the two that follow it. I just never had picked it up to read because I am bad about judging a book by its cover and its cover didn't appeal to me. However, this month I didn't have a choice and I'm glad I was forced into it. I'm halfway through the second one already and am sure I'll be diving straight into the third when I finish this one. The events in it are disturbing and if I think about them out of a fiction context (aka reality), I get angry. However, I can't seem to put them down. They're filled with adventure, love, heartbreak, tough decisions, frustrations, fear, excitement, hatred, murder, authority, control, etc. etc. If you haven't read them, you should!

As we prepared for our test today, we've been reviewing for the past two days. This test wrapped up our focus on proportions. We've learned about setting up proportions to solve for measurements, unit rates, and percentages. Yesterday we had a unit rate problem for our warm-up. (If 3 oranges cost $2.50, how much does one orange cost?) We've talked over and over and over again about how you form the proportion. Money goes over what you're buying in a fraction and you set that fraction equal to x over 1 because you want to know how much one (hints the term unit) costs. One of my students asked for some help. I said, "Well, where do you start?" He said, "Money goes on top." Usually if they can get that much out, they can get the rest. So, I continued walking past him to circulate the room and check on other students. When I came back by him, he had a fraction bar drawn in the middle of his paper and had a $20 bill laying above it. He said, "I put my money on top, now what?" What else is there to say other than, "You give your money to your teacher!" There's never a dull moment.