Being Prepared

I believe I mentioned before that I didn't feel as if anyone really trained me to teach this particular curriculum. I know I'm education trained, so I should be able to do it. And I know I can and am. It's just that this math curriculum is unlike anything I've ever seen before. To add to it, this is the first time I've taught in 90-minute periods. I'm not sure that anyone, adult or child, has the attention span to get through a 90-minute period. I must say that being prepared to teach this is fairly difficult. I've been doing OK so far, but some classes work faster or slower than others, so at the end of the period, I'm searching for more to do. I don't like to give extra work as a punishment, so we have been doing trivia at the end of class.

After talking to one of my assistant principals, I have realized I need to work more on ice breakers in the middle of the class. Take those last five minutes from the end of class and do a break in the middle of the period. Do trivia then. Stand up and stretch. Bathroom break. Short non-educational game. Anything to give the class and me a break. I have some Marcy Cook brainteasers that could also be a good idea. I either need to put them on transparencies or get them on a slide, so that at any moments notice, I can pop up something unrelated to what we are doing. It changes the mood for those few moments, mixes things up. The only thing is that I would need to stress that as soon as those five or so minutes are up, we are back to business. I think that the class would appreciate it enough that they would get back on track. It would need some getting used to on everyone's part, me included, but it is definitely necessary to keep sanity (and take up some time) !! :)

Until later...
Ms. K