Dear Blog Entry,
So I've done a pretty poor job of keeping up with this blog. Let me try to summarize what has gone on since my last post.
December:
Snow. It never stuck to the ground, and most of my students can count on one hand how many times they've ever seen it snow in their lives, so it was a pretty big deal. I think it snowed twice before I left for winter break. Nothing sticks out in my mind that was very big news at school during December. We began our winter break on December 13 and returned January 7. Since we had such a long break I decided to fly home and surprise my mom. It was nice to see my family and friends and tell them about South Korea.
January:
I came back from break not feeling very refreshed, and not very motivated, so I got into the habit of planning day to day. I ended up staying at school until they closed (6:00 PM) and still working from home most nights. The work never seemed to end. We had our semester exams and I felt good about going into the new semester, except I still wasn't very motivated to plan ahead, so things didn't change much. Having four different classes has been overwhelming at times because of the wide range of abilities in each class.
6th Grade (Pre-Pre-Algebra?):
I never thought I would be a middle school teacher, and my expectations for my students have always been high, so sometimes I need to take a step back and realize I'm teaching 10 and 11 year old kids. I like to be real with my students and talk to them as I would any adult, and that's hard to do sometimes with 6th grade because they haven't quite matured enough. It took me most of the year to figure this out, and things have been going smoother since.
7th Grade (Pre-Algebra):
This class is still a challenge for me. I have four students who took Pre-Algebra last year, so they are learning Algebra 1 content. Because of scheduling conflicts, these four students are in my room during the Pre-Algebra class. For the first half of the year they mostly worked independently on anything I gave them. Having zero instruction from me though made it a big struggle for them to learn effectively. I do my best to split time each class period to teach both subjects, but 50 minutes isn't a lot of time to teach two different classes.
8th Grade (Algebra 1):
Similar to 7th grade, I have two students in 8th grade who are taking 9th grade math (Geometry). They also have been working independently all year. Towards the end of the first semester I was able to give an adequate amount of instruction for both levels each class period. At the beginning of second semester more challenges presented themselves. Two new students joined my 8th grade class. Both students were previously in US schools, but neither student was at the same level as the rest of 8th grade. One student was only a few chapters behind us, but was missing important knowledge, so they had to play catch up. The other student is in 9th grade, but would have been most appropriately placed in Pre-Algebra. This split my 8th grade class into four different courses, making my days exhausting. I never found a solution to give everyone the appropriate amount of instruction they needed, but I have found more efficient ways to handle it. It's still exhausting though.
9th Grade (Geometry):
Since high school students have a more flexible schedule, I only have Geometry students in this class. I have taught the same basic Geometry topics in each of my four classes this year since it's a part of the curriculum for each. I've taught so many things about points, lines, and planes that lately I've been seeing the world in terms of parallel lines, perpendicular lines, equilateral triangles, and all other geometric things. I have become very uninterested in the subject. At my ideal job, I will not be teaching Geometry.
Next year I'll be teaching 6th Grade math and Geometry again, but also Algebra 2 with Trigonometry and Applied Probability and Statistics, which I will teach in a similar fashion to AP Statistics.
February and April (so far):
The biggest news that came from February would be that I dislocated my pinky finger on my right hand. I was playing an intense game of halfcourt lightning with a few students. My ball bounced off the backboard on a miss and when I went to reach for it before a student could knock it away, the proximity of the ball and my hand and his ball was perfect for him to smash his ball onto my pinky finger. It wasn't painful at first, and I was more worried that I broke my finger and needed surgery again. They do have large hospitals, but they also have many specialized hospitals that don't have many doctors. One of the secretaries at my school went with me to an orthopedist, which was only about five minutes from school. I didn't even have to sit down to wait at all before they took me to get some x-rays. I wasn't given any lead vests or anything to cover myself. Then I went into another room with an operating table and the doctor came in. He spoke English well enough for me to communicate with him. It was good to hear that it was only a dislocation. He was holding my finger, a nurse came behind me and put her hands on my shoulders, and the doctor said, "Okay, one time pain." Then he pull my finger and set it back in place. Then all of the nurses and the doctor put lead aprons on, and again I wasn't given one. My hand was put onto a machine that gave a live x-ray and displayed it on a screen. The doctor then adjusted my finger to align everything just right. I was given an entire forearm cast, immobilizing my wrist and every finger besides my index and thumb. I was so happy that I didn't need surgery again that I didn't think about how ridiculous it was that I had a forearm cast. I went back to the doctor once a week for three weeks. Each week I was able to convince them to shorten the cast. I have been splint/cast free for two weeks now. I have been going to physical therapy every day, but I have made so much progress that I will only be going three days a week.
I'll post a picture of my injured finger eventually.
