End of the School Year

Here's a look at all the students I had in class this year:

First Period - Geometry

This class was always very quiet and sleepy and hard to wake up in the mornings!!

Third Period - Geometry

Mid-morning math classes are always the best ones, and this class was no exception. They always had lots of energy and were excited to help each other learn.

Fifth Period - Geometry

Another quiet class, but I blame this on the lunches. The students had lunch either 4th, 5th, or 6th period, so these 5th period students showed up either in a food coma from just eating lunch or with low blood sugar and general crankiness/tiredness from having to wait another period to eat! :-)

6th Period - Geometry

A highly entertaining and engaging class that always made my long afternoon a positive experience. The best part was...they always laughed at my jokes. :-)

7th Period - Pre-AP Pre-Calculus

This class was my guinea pig class for teaching Pre-Calculus. Luckily, they weren't shy about pointing out my mistakes and helping me learn as much as I was teaching them!

8th Period - Pre-AP Pre-Calculus

This class was absolutely the best way to end the day. Filled with brilliant minds, they kept me on my toes and really made me think about what I was teaching them. They also had a wonderful collective sense of humor and were a very enjoyable group of students to teach.

Overall, I would say this past 2010-2011 school year was a good one. I worked a lot and it wasn't easy, but I am proud of the work I did this year. I feel like I taught my students well, and hopefully they are walking away knowing something about either Geometry or Pre-Calculus. They weren't always happy with me because I made them work hard, but I think I can believe that most of them learned something (and hopefully it was math related).

TAKS scores, of course, ought to be mentioned. I had a mixture of 10th and 11th graders this year, and I had about 60% of all my students pass their tests. For my 10th graders, I had about 48% pass and 52% fail; for my 11th graders (mainly the Pre-Cal students), I had 80% pass and 20% fail. The nicest feedback I had was an email from the parent of one student who I had struggled with all year long. She was so excited because her 11th grade son had never passed the Math TAKS on the first try and thanked me for all the hard work I had done for him. He managed to pass the Exit level test (the one they have to pass in order to graduate) on the first try and will be going into his senior year without having to work about taking the Math TAKS!

The most exciting thing for me, however, was hearing some feedback from last year's students. Many of the students I had worked with last year passed their tests (again!!) in their 11th grade year! They were really excited to come and tell me about it, and I was super proud of them!! I even had one student write me a letter, thanking me for all the things I taught her last year and how I had affected her confidence in math for the following year. I was really excited for her and all my other students who did so well!

This year marks the end of my six year teaching career. I'm putting it on hold for a few years while we figure out what we are going to do next in Travis' Air Force career. Packing, moving, selling our house, taking care of our baby, and figuring out how to make up for the loss of my income is going to be my full time job for the next few years!