First Year Teacher

My first year of teaching high school is officially over.  I can't believe how fast the year has flown by. Over the course of this year, I've learned a few things about teaching and about myself. Here's a list of things that I've learned and maybe you'll get a kick out of them or learn something yourself.

1.  Teacher make mistakes.  And lots of them! I had no idea that my teachers were real people in high school.  I pretty much thought they were robots that dumped all of their information on us.  Nope... They probably made more mistakes than I realized.  I especially made mistakes on Fridays and I joked with them every time a made a mistake that it was my first one ever, and only a couple students actually really noticed most of them.

2. I am hilarious.  I think I told a total of about 5 jokes to each of my math classes.  But somehow, all of my end of year notes said something like, "Mrs. Abel, I will always remember you for your silly math jokes. Thanks for making math funny."  I had no idea I was so funny until now.. maybe I should have been a comedian.

3. Cheating is ridiculous.  I know this may sound obvious, but the extent to which my students would go to cheat was extremely ridiculous.  If the spent as much time studying as they did writing their entire months notes on a note card and taking a picture with their phone (only to get caught), they would have done so  much better than a 0! I'm sure they many students got away with cheating that I didn't catch, but really?

4. End of term sucks.  My students don't ever care about their grades before it's the LAST day of the term.  They'll be grounded, they'll lose their scholarship, they will DIE! (Yes, I've even heard that one).  Well, you should have thought about that when you got a F on your test and didn't retake it. Next year I think I'll use all my sick days on the last week of each term.

5. No one likes math teachers.  Of course I had a few lovely students who adored me, but in general people hate math teachers.  We give homework every day, there aren't that many math videos out there, and I'm just not as cool as the hip photo teacher who gives fun assignments! (that they still probably don't do) Worst of all is parent teacher conference.  I sit at the very front (Abel) and hear the parents say, "Well, I only really want to talk to your math teacher."  So, the math teachers get the long lines and the angry parents.

6. I love my job.  I know I complain, but I have the best job in the world! It makes it all worth it when a students comes and asks you for non-math advice, or tells you how much they understand math now, or when your whole class does super well on a hard test.  It's so rewarding, and I teach much more than just mathematics concepts.  Even though some students disliked me, the fact that some of them were really influenced by me makes my heart smile.  Teaching is SO hard, but it's worth it!


There you have it. I can't wait for next year! Well, maybe I can... I am excited to rest for a couple months.  I think it will take me all summer to recover. And Matt and I are now in Boise, ID ready for an adventure.

Happy Leap Day!

So, today I started my high school classes by wishing my students a happy leap day.  I told them they should celebrate since this is the only leap day they will have while in high school.  Then came this question:

"What is the point of leap day?"


What do you mean, what is the point? This student literally thought it was some sort of made up holiday.  When I asked if anyone knew why we have and extra day every 4 years, NO ONE KNEW!  I'm sure maybe some of the quiet kids knew, but didn't want to speak up(or at least I hope so). So I turned on this video for them... and they LOVED it! And even I learned a few new things :)

Enjoy!

worst teacher ever award

For my Math Ed practicum class, we go to high schools and observe math teachers.  I had sad experience this week which made me really want to be a good teacher...

So the teacher were supposed to observe was testing and so we decided to try to observe another.  Turns out the teacher a few doors down was absent and had a sub (that was not a math teacher, just a nice guy). We went into that classroom to help the students because they were struggling. NO WONDER!! Their teacher is apparently suffering with some depression issues or something and the students said they have a sub more that they have a their regular teacher.  They have to teach themselves from the book every day and work on the 8392690385793485 homework problems their teacher leaves them to do. Soooo.. we taught them a lesson.  All of them did everything we said and even suggested doing more problems together and it was so apparent that they just wanted to learn something (which is not how our lessons usually go).  When they asked if we were going to be coming back to help the subs, I almost cried. Another kid said that when we graduate we should apply for their teacher's job so that the future students will actually learn something. 


Moral of the story... Despite my annoyance with the Math Ed classes lately, I have been reminded of why I want to be a teacher and I am determined to have my students LEARN and to like learning.

Hope you enjoyed my venting,
Mrs. Abel