So I've been teaching now for a little over five weeks, and I'm just now starting to feel like I'm getting into the groove. I'm more at ease every day, and I feel more relaxed and confident about what I'm doing. I'm still struggling a bit with behavior management, but I think a lot of that has to do with my contingency planning. For example, today I planned a lesson in computer lab, and when the students were done, they were suppose to go to our district's math curriculum website and engage themselves. The website was down and I couldn't believe it, so troubleshooting that ate up a bit of my time and the students acted up a bit. Next time, I'll have an alternate option available. That reminds me of something cool that happened today.
A gentleman from the area, David, a former Microsoft employee, has been developing a website called www.XtraMath.org (I have placed it on the links page). He started this website with the goal of creating a place where students could work on mastering their basic math facts. He has worked quite a bit with a colleague of mine, and the website he has created is outstanding. It compliments our district's spiraling curriculum with it's strong emphasis on math fact mastery. David came over today and gave me a tour of the site and set me up with an account for our school. The site is extremely dynamic, adapting to the students abilities and needs. It also tracks data and displays it in very easy to interpret ways. I can't wait to share it with my math team, and later with the whole school. I am extremely grateful to David for his time today, and his commitment to the education of our young people. If you're interested in trying the site out, go to the site, write David, and ask him to set up an account for you.
Thank you for reading and as always, your comments are welcome and encouraged.
