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Middle School Math

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Profile Information

School / Work Affiliation: Jefferson County Public Schools

About Me: I am a 7th grade math teacher at Western Middle School. Western is one of many middle schools in one of the largest school districts in America, Jefferson County Public Schools. This is my first year of teaching, and it has been met with many challenges. Nevertheless, I learn more each day and I thoroughly enjoy my job. The woman in my picture is my beautiful fiance Lauren. Yes, that picture was taken in my cornfield in November. I love to play farmer with my off time (whenver I have that, haha). We are getting married in July, so wish us luck!

Strengths and Weaknesses

Being a first year teacher, I have my fair share of strengths and weaknesses. I am getting better all of the time, but I still have a lot of growth to do.

Strengths:

1. Content knowledge. Being that I was a math major, I SHOULD have enough content knowledge to have a thorough understanding of middle school curriculum. Luckily, I think I do.

2. Routines. I have a very strong set of routines in my classroom. Students always know what, and how, they are supposed to be completing a task. I like having this routine, for I feel like it makes the day go more efficiently.

That being said, I still have a lot of weaknesses as a first year teacher. The two most striking ones are below:

1. Routines. Because my routines are so strong, I really hate to deviate from them. I feel like I may lose students in more transitions by going through a different set of routines. This is something that I need to work on.

2. Classroom management. While my classroom management is getting better all of the time, it is still not where I need it to be. This is something that I have attended PDs over, read books on, read articles on, and conducted my own observations on. I do believe this work is paying off, though, for I feel like my classroom management is getting better each and every week.

Purpose of this Site:

I created this site as part of a project for a class that I am currently taking at U of L, EDAP 604: Early Career Support Course. However, this project is more important than that. It allowed me to join a professional learning community, and this is something that I should have done long ago. By joining this site, I can discuss topics with known/unkown colleagues. I can vent my frustrations with my "friends." I can plan on a collaborative unit with teachers who are in completely different districts or states. All of this allows me to become a better, more enthusiastic, and more informed educator.

My favorite places to surf the web

I have a variety of different websites that I like to go to during my school day. So, I will list them in groups.

Hobbies/Interests

http://espn.go.com/ for everything sports

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/ also for everything sports

http://www.ebay.com/ for looking up deals on old tools, pocket knives, chainsaw accessories, sports cloths, you name it...it's ebay!

http://www.usatoday.com/ for all of my news information. It tends to be unbiased and unslanted.

Educational Related Websites

http://nlvm.usu.edu/"> This is the best virtual manipulatives website for middle school math in the world. I have often used this in my classes to bring about a more inspiring lesson.

http://mathforum.org/"> This is the math forum from Drexel University. It is a great resource to look for math ideas that can be used with lessons. It also has the famous "Ask Dr. Math!" section.

www.lessonplanspage.com/"> This is a great resource to look for not only math lessons but any lessons for any subject. It also has thousands of free worksheets. I really like this idea because I hate having to pay for worksheets from EdHelper.

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Ryan Churchill's Blog

Wednesday, April 22

Posted on April 22, 2009 at 2:18pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

Today was a good day here at the ole Western Middle School. Student behavior was great, the lesson was good (teacher directed, mostly, but good), and I was very happy with my student results. The lesson was geared on using cubes to find volume and surface area, then using cubes to find formulas for volume and surface area. At first, I thought my students might not be able to grasp the connection between using cubes to find volume and transferring that information into finding a formula, but… Continue

Tuesday, April 21

Posted on April 21, 2009 at 5:16pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

Today was a somewhat challenging day again. First, let me go through my lesson plan.

1. Sponge.

2. Biggest Gainer review activity over Fractions, Decimals, and Percents.

3. Finishing up Problem 2.2 in our textbook.

Two of my three blocks today did really well. They really strived for, and achieved, success. However, my 2nd block class (which is typically my most difficult anyway) was especially hard today. It's not that they were bad...it's that they were too… Continue

Monday, April 20th

Posted on April 20, 2009 at 4:24pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

Today was a really good day for me. My lessons went really smoothly, and student behavior was impeccable. Today was one of those days where I say, "Do I really get paid for this?!?" Haha, not really, but it did go really well.

Here is how my lesson went:

1. Sponge.

2. Review of Biggest Gainer material (in note-taking format)

3. Problem 2.2 in our textbook.

Problem 2.2 is a complex problem that requires the use of manipulative cubes to find the surface… Continue

Friday, 4-17

Posted on April 19, 2009 at 1:38pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

Well, today was a bit of a wild one here at the ole Western Middle School. Student behavior was not where it was supposed to be (to say the least). Fridays typically are challenging anyway, but today was especially difficult...I feel like it's the warm weather's fault. Last block was especially tough because the students would not get focused. Indeed, there had been a couple of fights in related arts, so the students were especially talkative about that. Furthermore, two of the related arts… Continue

Thursday, April 16th

Posted on April 16, 2009 at 2:30pm 0 Comments 0 Likes

Today was a pretty good day. Here is how my lesson went:

1. Sponge

2. Review for the Biggest Gainer

3. Lesson 2.1 in our Filling and Wrapping textbooks.

The sponge was fine as was the Biggest Gainer review, but the lesson fromt the book was great! We were able to use manipulatives to find volume and surface area. There was a couple of problems (ie, a few blocks were thrown) but overall, it went very well. It even allowed me to show students the formula for volume… Continue