Ahhh... it feels good to be back to my blog! After a particularly EXHAUSTING school year (which, unfortunately, I have not nearly been able to tell my readers about AT ALL), this summer has been nothing but relaxing, welcome and rejuvenating.
While some of my classes this year were pleasant and well behaved, two of my five class periods were absolutely horrendous. As in straight-from-the-bottom-of-hell terrible. As any teacher will tell you, in a class of 30 students, only about 10 students are the real troublemakers. In the case of my two classes, a total of FIVE students in each class caused the trouble that I, and my 25 well-behaved, eager to learn students had to deal with. Frequent trips to the discipline AP, who has been nothing but supportive, were necessitated. I even set up meetings with my professors at NYU to discuss their tips for classroom management. My amazing mentor, entering her ninth (and final :( :( ) year of teaching come September has saved my life countless times in my unruly classes.
Both of my unruly classes were the standard 8th grade math class. However, it would not be fair to those classes if I didn't acknowledge all the positive aspects of my students. For the most part, they were bright, funny, eager to learn, perseverant and EAGER TO PLEASE. Never would my friends, colleagues or my family guess how eager to please some of my 14 year old students were! They were always completing their homework (most of the time SHOWING THEIR WORK!!) and even put aside personal differences to work together with their "enemies" during group and partner activities. We had a lot of fun this year and I know I will definitely remember so many of my students - 8th grade math and Integrated Algebra students. (I had one 8th grade math class that was literally ANGELIC. I wish I could loop with them next year in high school. Of course, I wished I could loop with my students from my first year in high school as well.)
On top of some difficult classes, I had two new big things to worry about this year: New York State's adoption of the Common Core (which all states are adopting next year) and my taking over the school's first 8th grade accelerated Integrated Algebra program.
GREAT NEWS! Integrated Algebra was a success! Despite hours of planning, conference calls, late nights, early mornings and yes.. some tears as to why I was naive enough as a second year teacher to take over a pilot program at our school -- Integrated Algebra Regents exam scores were absolutely AMAZING. Over 85% of my students will be earning high school credit (some at schools like Bronx Science, Stuyvesant, Townsend Harris...)!!!
The Common Core -- I had a lot of support with. My mentor, principal, AP, department chair, co-teachers, NYU professors and of course, THE INTERNET all helped me get through the tough transition to the Common Core. NYT/Chancellor Walcott & Mayor Bloomberg and Michelle Rhee have all commented earlier this week about NYC's miraculous state score improvement. We are almost caught up with the rest of the state :) Sad news - I believe the state proficient/advanced rate is 31%. NYT says that NYC's is 29.6%. Our school's rate for ELA dropped significantly to 19% and math dropped to 25%. My students' scores - across the board in all 5 classes- were 40% proficient/advanced, 41% level II and 19% level I. Huge drop from last year... but then again, Common Core's standards are exponentially higher.
I wonder how this is going to affect my value added/my tenure portfolio...
I'm really going to go out of my way to blog more next year - I promise! Thanks for reading my newest update :) Check back for more soon!
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