This is a pile of work that I brought home instead of staying there this afternoon. Students didn't do so good on the test and I'm thinking that all this work they do is really quite useless. Emotional reaction, I know, but I feel like the middle school kid asking "when are we ever going to use this stuff?" (That's the culturally correct attitude towards math in middle school.)
having a post-processing-happy November doing word of the day with pig.
Teaching has to be an emotional job. Sometimes it feels overwhelming and stressful but the thing is, we never know when is the one moment that will touch that child's life forever, we might not even notice, so we have to keep crating as many chances as we can, so when they need us, even if we don't realize how much they need us, we won't fail them by not doing that useless thing that will be of use to them 30 years down the road.
Oh, Francoise, as someone who is tasked with and working toward changing the attitude towards maths in my own country, this is such a sad thing to hear. Somehow we need to make our students excited about maths and where they can use it in their lives. Marking has a terrible way of making one feel emotional drained.
Glad Mr Pig is there to keep you company.
When I was about 15 years of age, it was a Maths teacher who changed the course of my life. He encouraged, challenged and almost goaded me to do better, and I did!! Ended up with a scholarship to University.......
It's tough I think to convey how the math problems you work on are applied in every day life. I was never (and never will be) a math whiz. But I'm grateful to at least have enough basic skills to balance my check book and figure out the best bargain on the supermarket shelf. Hang in there!
I must admit, I had much of the same attitude in school, and it was only later that I came to the realization that it's used all the time in some form or the other and I wish I would have focused more, but I still do not like Math
November 23rd, 2014
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Glad Mr Pig is there to keep you company.