Do you move on?

We are currently working on systems of equations with of inequalities. Here is the link for the foldable above.  Today as a teacher I feel a bit defeated and wanted some insight from other teachers. My students today acted as though they could not graph a linear equation. As if we have not spent the past for months doing all things linear!  Geez. Yes there were a few that made me relieved to see that I did in fact teach.  But I found it completely irritating that they could not graph. So I asked my colleagues how their kids did and the reply was the same. The kids acted like they could not graph, so they have moved on. I feel stubborn, but I am giving it until the end of the week. I feel like factoring and linear equations are 90% of algebra and if a child has not mastered these 2 concepts that they are not ready to move on or I have failed somewhere along the way.  So here is my question, would you move on or keep pushing?

My final class made me feel even worse when I asked a child to tell me if the angles or sides were marked on the picture and they told me angles on a SSS congruent triangle. All I did was ask her to get out her notes and she had to hold back the tears. I was probably closer to tears after feeling more like an entertainer than a teacher. 

First day of the new semester!

Thanks once again to Mrs. Hagan, I had a great worksheet to share with my students and fellow teachers on the beginning of the second semester of a year long course.  My kids said some of the sweetest things in their 6 word reflections.  You can find the sheet here.  When your students cannot think of a thing they would stop you from doing, (corny jokes included) you feel affirmed that you must be teaching in a way that engages students.  I was half expecting to see some "stop giving us homework almost every night", but those didn't even pop up.  The reflections that some students did were great.  I am putting them in a class time capsule and giving them back at the end of the semester to see if anything had indeed been kept, stopped, changed, or started.

My new resolutions are crazy big for just one year, so fingers crossed I will achieve them.  First, I am going back to grad school.  This time for a degree in education.  Second, blogging more.  This is the best way to reflect on what takes place in the classroom each day.  Third, more activities!

For those of you who may not know a new addition came to our household this past August.  Being out on maternity leave made coming back to kids that hardly knew me in the middle of a semester was hard.  But after doing my own version of the flyswatter game, another genius plan from Mrs. Hagan found here, I knew I needed to do more activities that I had essentially slacked on doing. 

We were even featured in the school newspaper!  I used the game to find the x- and y- intercept for the equations below.  Tomorrow I will share what else we did in class today, but it is time for me to pick up the babies for now.

Link here

Christmas Time Again!

I had a bit of a hiatus from my blogging, but I am ready to move forward full steam ahead.  Christmas is one of my favorite holidays.  I enjoy decorating, baking, gift wrapping, and giving.  This time of the year I try to give back to my community as much as possible.  Tomorrow, we will graph at least 10 linear equations with labels to make Christmas/Holiday cards.  If they don't have anyone to send it to, we will send them to the local veterans for Christmas.  Below are two examples, I really hope they like doing these.  I did not get to designing the Haunted houses with linear equations this year, so this was a great use of linear equations.