Dividing Fractions

            “Mrs. Jones, Caitlyn’s grade on her math test was just posted and she didn’t pass.  I studied with her last night.  What’s going on?”

            “I know you studied with Caitlyn.  She told me this morning.  She and I worked on the math every day this week, and she was doing the problems very well.   I was disappointed too that she didn’t pass.”  Caitlyn’s mother struggles almost more than her daughter, over her daughter’s work in school.  It’s unusual to go more than a day or two without a phone call or long email from her.

            “Is she getting the proper accommodations when she tests?”

            Sometimes I feel uncomfortable when people talk about “accommodations.”  We throw out that word like there is a specific set of special things we do and kids suddenly are able to remember things and perform on grade level.  I looked at the reminders still written on the white board.

Change everything to a fraction

Keep, Change, Flip

Word Problems:  What are you dividing?

Put it first

            “Yes,” I answered, “Caitlyn took her test in the Learning Center and we reviewed things before she even started.”

            “I don’t understand why she doesn’t pass a test when I study with her.”

            “I’ll help Caitlyn do the corrections on her test and get those in this afternoon.  Her teacher does give extra points for corrections.”

            Two periods later Caitlyn quietly slipped into the Learning Center.  She shyly handed me her test.  Even though her teacher had used a lime green Sharpie to grade the test, the 58% at the top of the page still looked mean.

            “How ‘bout you sit at the round table with me, and let’s do your corrections.  We need to figure out what you did wrong.”

            “My mom’s going to be mad.”  

            “No she won’t be.”  Yes she is.

            We slowly worked through her corrections.  She would calculate two problems correctly and forget to flip a fraction on the third problem.  On the next problem she’d flip both fractions.  Then she’d do three problems correctly.  She was correct more than she was wrong.  I made a mental note to sit by her side for the next test and verbally remind her of each step.

            The second page was simple word problems about pizza.

            “Caitlyn, what are you supposed to always do when you have a word problem?”  I pointed to the reminder still on the white board.

            Caitlyn stared at it for a minute, then said, “Figure out what you’re dividing up.”

            “Read these four problems.”

            “Five people have to share one and a half pizzas.  Six people are sharing three-fourths of a pizza.  Eight people are sharing two and a half pizzas.  Twelve people have to share three and one-fourth pizzas.  How much pizza do the people in each group get?”

            “Look at how you did the problems on your test.  Can you see what you did wrong?”

            Caitlyn stared at her work for a minute, then slowly began to smile.  “I divided up people instead of pizzas.”

            “Good job figuring that out.  Now go ahead and fix your answers.”

            Caitlyn bent her head down and began working.

            “My mom’s still going to be mad.”

            “No she’s not.”  Yes she is.

Anxiety

            The first quarter of school will be ending this Friday.  We’re very busy this next week having students finish projects and assignments, so we can get all the grades in.  On Friday a fourth of the school year will be over already.

           Parents are most anxious during this first quarter of middle school, and I’m relieved when we get past it.   Instead of 10 to 15 long emails from parents every morning, I’m down to just one or two – or none!

            The kids will get their progress reports in a week or so, and it’s rare for anyone to be failing at this point.  Everyone is breathing a little easier.  But there’s information that parents won’t get on these progress reports that I wish they could know.

            Parents won’t know how bright and happy their kids’ eyes are when the bell rings.  Every 45 minutes they get a fresh start.  Whatever is going on in class is over and they move on to something new.

            Parents won’t know how good the kids feel about mastering their schedules and lockers.  They now know where they go eight different periods a day.  Two periods a day they negotiate the A-B schedules for PE and Electives.  They breeze through shortened schedule days and block schedule days.  Ten times a day they twirl the combination locks on their lockers and pull them open without even thinking.

            Parents won’t know that the kids aren’t sad about not having their old friends in their class because they’ve made new friends.

            Parents won’t know that their student has figured out that Mrs. Sneldon is not nearly as scary as they thought.  She has a mean bark when they are messing around in class, but she’s a sucker for sad looks and sorrowful excuses.

            Parents won’t know that the kids have figured out Mr. Ableman forgets to announce the homework sometimes, and he can be talked out of a due date the next day by telling him he never told them when it was due – even though he did.

            Parents won’t know that the kids have figured out that Miss Crawford hates her students to get bad grades on tests and she gives tons of hints if you go up and ask her a question during the test.  If you get a bad grade, well, you’re just not using the “tools” available.

            Parents won’t know that even though there’s a lot of homework in math, most of the kids have figured out that math is one of those subjects you can’t learn by just watching someone do the problems on the board.  You have to do some math problems on your own.

            Parents won’t know that the kids have learned that a novel can start out confusing and hard to understand, but by the time you finish it, it’s “the best book you’ve ever read.”  And there’s six more books in the series.

            Yes, it was an anxious, scary time starting middle school.  But it was scary starting 5^th grade, and 4^th, and 3^rd, and 2^nd, and 1^st, and especially scary starting kindergarten.  It was scary leaving your child with a babysitter for the first time.  There was a lot of anxiety leaving your baby in the church nursery for the first time.

            It was scary going into labor and giving birth.

            But all these anxious, scary times starting new adventures are turning out to be doorways into bigger, brighter rooms.

(from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" - no joke intended)

Failure

The workshop on Common Core last Friday was really dragging, and just like my students I began looking around the room for some kind of diversion.  There on the wall I found my diversion in a poster.

There are no failures

Just experiences and your reactions to them.

-Tom Kraus-

 

            Interesting.

            It made me think of a comment I’d once heard a principal make.

            “99% of the kids sent to my office for discipline problems were not sent there for what they had done.  They were sent to me because of how they reacted when the teacher pointed their behavior out.”

            Just our reactions to our experiences.

            In my classroom I have a different poster.

What we call failure is not the falling down

But the staying down

-Mary Pickford-

           

             I don’t know whether I’d be so bold as to say, “There are no failures,”  because 29% on a test is definitely a failing grade.

            This morning as I walked down the hall to my room at 7 a.m., I saw Jeffery sitting on the floor outside Mr. Ableman’s room.

            “Hey Jeffery,” I called out, “Are you OK?”

            “Yeah I’m just waiting for Mr. Ableman.”

            “Was he expecting you this early?”

            “Yeah.  He’s letting me take my test over.”

            “Well that’s good.  How’d that happen?”

            “I told him about my lost book, and asked him if I could take the test over to get enough points to pass.”

            “And he said yes?”

            “I told him I’d read the chapters this weekend and I would come in whenever he wanted me to.”

            “And he said Monday morning?”

            “Yeah.”

            “Did you find your missing book?”

            “I went to the library and asked if I could pay for the book I lost.  They said someone had turned in my book three weeks ago.”

            “Well that was good.  So now you know where to go if you ever lose one of your books.”

            Jeffery suddenly stood up as Mr. Ableman came down the hall.  I opened my door.

            “Good luck Jeffery,” I said walking into my room.

            Way to go!

Tests

            “Mrs. Jones, could these four fine students sit in your room to finish their test?”

            Mr. Ableman, a 6th grade English teacher, stood in my doorway with four students huddled behind him. 

            “They had to get their vision checked during class and now they need some extra time to finish their test.  I’ve got a meeting I’m supposed to be at.  Would it be OK if they finished in your room?”

            It was my planning period, and I knew it would be quiet.  “Sure.  Send them in.”

            The kids spread out at different desks, sat down, and immediately bent their heads over their tests.  After about ten minutes, three of them brought their completed tests to my desk and left.  Across the room Jeffery slumped forward, staring at the bulletin board in front of him.

            “Everything OK Jeffery?” I called.

            Jeffery inhaled deeply, let it out, and then moaned weakly, “Yeeeaaah.”

            I went back to my work, but soon felt someone staring at me and looked up.  Jeffery was standing in front of my desk.

            He held up his test and pointed to the heading.  “This test is over Chapters 17 to 24.  I haven’t read them.”

            “Why not?” 

            “I was at the dentist last week.”

            “You were only gone one class period, and you’ve had almost a week to read the chapters.  You could have read them over the weekend.”

            “I was really busy this weekend.  And I couldn’t read them anyway.”

            “Why not?”

            “I lost my book.”

            “When?”

            “I don’t know.  A couple weeks ago.”

            “Well, how have you been reading the novel in class if you lost your book?”

            “Abby let’s me look on her book when we’re reading in class.”

            I gave Jeffery a sad, sympathetic look and said, “You’re just going to have to do the best you can.”

            “But I don’t know the answers,” Jeffery moaned.

            I leaned forward, smiling, and whispered, “Do you want me to give you the answers?”

            His eyes widened.  “Will you do that?”

            I widened my eyes and leaned in closer.  “Do you have any money?”

            Jeffery’s mouth dropped open, and he froze for a minute.  Then he began to grin.  “You’re kidding me aren’t you Mrs. Jones?”

            “Yes, I am.  Now Jeffery, you’re just going to have to do the best you can.  You can bring me your test when you’re done.”

            He turned around, and schlumped back to his desk.  I went back to my work, but after a few minutes, I felt like someone was watching me again.  It was Jeffery.  He was still sitting at his desk, but he had turned sideways in his chair so that his whole body faced me.  He was staring at me.  Waiting.

            When he saw me finally look up at him, he held both arms out in front, palms up.  In a low, chesty voice punctuating his words with downward pumps of his arms he said, “I JUST.  don’t KNOW.  the ANswers!”

(source)