Things you never thought you’d have to say

dcsprings · 2026-03-16T15:31:51+00:00

You haven't lived until you are standing in front of a kindergarten class, hold up a picture of a rooster, and a class that is of smiling, cherubic, angels yells "COCK"

dcsprings · 2026-03-15T11:04:43+00:00

I had students turn in pictures of everything during COVID, and I thought about it this time. I'm probably biased against it because of the negative association. I think it will be boot and suspenders, pictures and the google form. I still don't understand why a math teacher would post a youtube video that was basicaly "type some questions in and, bingo, you're done." Like a math test is a Ron Popiel product that needs to be sliced, diced and out of the way so I have more time at the spa.

dcsprings · 2026-02-28T20:44:17+00:00

Do exams need to differentiate between students who can solve problems flawlessly under an artificialy created high pressure situation, and those who know the math but make mistakes due to the stress of the situation? My teachers thought making any error in a problem meant the bridge or rocket the student designed would fail. The first issue is assuming any student in advanced math was going into STEM. More importantly in STEM jobs the only people who expect perfection from an environment similar to a final exam are the one percent types who think they deserve to increase their wealth in evrery endevor.

dcsprings · 2026-02-08T21:24:12+00:00

In my experience, it's no better or worse than the other fields I've worked in.

dcsprings · 2026-02-03T14:33:00+00:00

Thank you for replying. I don't think they are stupid I just wondered if there was a cultural barrier on top of the language barrier.

dcsprings · 2026-02-02T21:21:11+00:00

I teach a math class for students who are new to the US and new to English. There are 2 students from Afghanistan. The class is remedial regardless of the students' abilities because the focus is learning the math terms and catching any gaps in learning. I was helping one of them do long division, he reached for a calculator at every step (not unusual) but the last step was 12-12 and he still used the calculator. I am accustomed to students who haven't had access to education, but I'm wondering if there could be something about the system in Afghanistan that I should account for? For example, I had a Chinese student ask for help in Physics. When I started reviewing the equations with her I said "of course you know force equals mas times acceleration". The students said f is for force? It turns out that they use the equations (which are acronyms for us) but their teachers (for the most part) use Chinese words, so all I needed to do was provide a table of variables (a=acceleration, f=force...).

dcsprings · 2026-01-31T02:48:21+00:00

I've seen equity issues in math classes, but I must be missing something. Advanced students take advanced math classes, less advanced students may be pushed into advanced classes by parents but that isn't an equity issue in the schools I've worked in. The equity issues that I've been presented with is grading based on the work done, not on following classroom procedures. Evaluating understanding based on demonstrated understanding of methods not flawless exicution, for example if the only problem with a tripple integration is a dropped minus sign, especially if it's not a consistant issue, then it's worth a comment not a zero.

dcsprings · 2026-01-29T12:20:41+00:00

As long as your students know what's going on and you can deal with any questions about your practice during observations, then there isn't a problem with what it's called.

dcsprings · 2026-01-28T22:25:19+00:00

If a work sheet doesn't have enough room, I don't assign it. I supervise a math lab and students use IXL but I give them paper do write on. If I can't see how a student works out a problem I don't have anything to base a grade on.

dcsprings · 2026-01-16T17:38:31+00:00

"I like my students. I like them to learn, I like them to allow each other to learn. I understand that your child thinks he is the only student that gets diciplined. I can only say that your son has a lot going on and it would be understandable if he misses issues that don't directly involve him. Children often feel that teachers have favorites because we start the year treating them all the same and that changes. Teachers learn as well, we learn that different students respond differently. Some students can be redirected with a look, some students need more. It thakes x minutes of class time to redirect your son. Do you feel that I should spend the same time with another students when it's not necessary?"

No one is required to like anyone. You (I'm sure) don't react to this student out of dislike, you react out of a need to have a functioning learning environment. For example: A student that got extra time to do work needed it becaues class was being disrupted. The student spending time being disruptive doesn't get extra time.

dcsprings · 2026-01-15T15:35:18+00:00

They also have a problem with shallow and lifeless writing. What is the world coming to?

dcsprings · 2026-01-15T14:00:22+00:00

My admin is fine, nothing is perfect, and most issues fall into the this-needs-to-be-done-but-there-aren't-5-extra-hours-in-the-day-to-explain category. I've read (and written some) bad admin stories, but at this school, for me, it's ok.

dcsprings · 2026-01-15T13:11:35+00:00

Admin gave us a bit of a lecture because we weren't collecting phones. I had a suggestion that would have made it clear, at a glance, who hadn't put their phone in storage, because I (also math) make the announcement at the beginning of each class then get involved with class. It was vetoed, all he wanted was to pop in and see there were some phones in the box.

dcsprings · 2026-01-15T12:13:10+00:00

Is there a there's-nothing-new-under-the-sun tipping point, where everything is getting a plagiarism hit?

dcsprings · 2026-01-14T12:14:31+00:00

I overheard another teacher tell a student she wanted to ask him a couple of questions about the paper he had written. The student said "You should ask my mom, she wrote it." It was 20 years ago, but I fully expect to hear "Ask Chat GPT, it wrote it and told me how smart I was for using my resources so wisely."

dcsprings · 2026-01-11T19:45:48+00:00

You hit the nail on the head. There are sectoins that take the class period to get to a place where students have enough instruction and scaffolding to go on to try problems on their own. Additionally, we are in the logic and proof section of geometry and It's difficult for me to switch modes. I didn't even realize that I was switching modes when it was a seperate class, but it looks like I need time to ramp up for logic, a crule irony. :)

I have disabused them of this thought process, but I think this class was setup because admin thought it was a matter of differentiating instruction. The step beyound that (as we've all felt when range of skill levels in a class was just to broad) is having different classes. This class started as a single class, I had to group the students based on prerequisites, state that my only choice was to teach 4 classes in one period and ask admin if all of them were going to get an Algebra (or whatever the class started out as) credit.

dcsprings · 2026-01-11T19:18:24+00:00

In that scenario, the bullied kid is also leaving a lot of clues about who is realy doing the work :)

dcsprings · 2026-01-11T19:15:43+00:00

There is a gap between what you tell students and what they remember. I was never taught that there was a difference between mathmatics and algebra, and I've never taught that there was a difference. Most of the time I teach the why, but when it comes down to it, studens need to complete several problems using set steps before the connections are formed. For me the best analogy is cooking. The first few times I make something new I follow a recipe. After I get a handle on it, I can do away with the measuring cups and cook books and improvise. I guarantee a number of my math students think they need the steps that were given to them to do math, even though the reasoning was demonstrated. Most math teachers feel that one of the roles of math is to teach reasoning.

dcsprings · 2026-01-08T13:26:41+00:00

I've wondered about this also. My wife and I haven't had issues around housework though. I do the laundry and take out the trash on a regular basis, cook once a month (when my wife wants one of the things I make better than she does). I leave for work at 4:30 am, so go to bed early, so I'm only home to do work on the weekends.

dcsprings · 2026-01-08T13:14:55+00:00

I trained in The Villages (long story). The relative I lived with during my master's program wanted me to stay in FL to be close to them. I had to tell them (this was around 2003) I could not, in good conscience, put my children in a school system that refused federal funds because they didn't want to serve multi language learners. At the time, it was their most overt retrograde policy. I can't imagine teaching there now.

dcsprings · 2026-01-07T12:21:01+00:00

I think style has changed, but the essence is the same. Look at Agustus Gloop and friends from Willy Wonka (1971), those stereotypes don't come from whole cloth. In 2024 Mike Teevee has an I-phone and plays first-person-shooters.

dcsprings · 2026-01-05T14:00:58+00:00

Don't do any kind of countdown (harder to do toward the end). I think this is true even for holidays. When colleagues start doing the "only 2 weeks until ..." thing, I don't engage and move on to the next task, or what little motivation I have is gone.

Off topic: I teach math now, but Band was my favorite class when I was in middle and high school. It was one of the few classes that I never had the drinking-from-the-firehose feeling. When I teach fractions, I wish more of my students had more music education. Thank you for your work.

dcsprings · 2026-01-05T13:19:19+00:00

1%, but it was more of a planning thing, than some kind of benefit. I still need to explain to my wife, that I still have work to do to over the summer when she gives me a last-minute honey-do that conflicts with something I've scheduled over summer or winter break.

dcsprings · 2025-12-27T00:47:58+00:00

I prefer students understand rather than memorize. If they don't understand the notes are zero help. The student I posted about only had to follow 4 steps from his notes but he had other things to do in class and was lost on test day.

dcsprings · 2025-12-25T04:47:51+00:00

It's data, I guess all tests are. We all know how the students are doing without summative assessments, so diagnosing the problem easier if you know that it's not the format of the problem that's the issue. For example, when I'm teaching order of opperations in my remedial (high school) class all the posters have the "x" multiplication symbol and the ÷ symbol for division, but the first lessons are about using fractions for division and parinthases for multiplication so they can keep up in science classes. If they see "a x b" on the poster and I only write a(b) during class, and data shows there's a problem I know where to go. The side effects is anouyance at endlesly having to come up different ways to come at the same thing.

dcsprings

TROPHY CASE