Wednesday, March 30, 2011

New Projects!

I had time to stop in my local yarn store this week, and now I have more knitting projects than I know what to do with!

I promised my roommate I would make him a Jayne hat, from Firefly:
Photo courtesy of <http://mytumultuousadventure.blogspot.com/2010/07/jayne-cobb-hat.html>
I also bought yarn to make this adorable knitted top from my new Stitch 'n Bitch book, Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics!

Finally, I signed up at the Yarn Garden to take a class this summer.  I'll be working with ridiculously tiny needles and seed beads to make this cuff:
Photo courtesy of <http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTmaryella.html>

I've finished Danielle's scarf too!  I'm excited to get started on these new ones (and maybe finish a blanket I started this winter...)


Friday, March 25, 2011

Spring Break!

This sounds silly, but I never realized that teachers looked forward to breaks just as much (if not more) than the students.  I'M ON SPRING BREAK.  Be back in roughly a week!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Upping the Math Requirements

I'll admit it: I subscribe to a daily email from ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) that contains daily news about education.  I do this partly because Earlham is paying for my ASCD membership, partly because each email ends with an interesting quotation, and partly because there are some articles that grab me.  Today's email contained the quotation: "Whenever the world throws rose petals at you, which thrill and seduce the ego, beware," from Anne Lamott.  It also contained an article about the state universities of Massachusetts raising the number of math classes applicants must have taken in high school.

The article can be found here, on Boston.com.  The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved it in an effort to boost college completion rates and expose students from lower-income backgrounds to a curriculum that will better prepare them for college.

I have mixed feelings about this.  As a scientist, I strongly believe that students need math.  Not just so that they can function if all the calculators in the world died, but also the learn the problem solving skills that they can apply throughout their lives.  However, after spending a year in the classroom, I have realized that there are some students who, despite their best efforts, will not be able to pass four years of math in high school.  In fact, the school I am currently at is adding a new math class next year, as a step between 8th grade math and algebra.  We are doing this in order to better prepare students who struggle with math for the Algebra End of Course Assessment.  The state mandates that you must pass this test to graduate.  If the school keeps this class after the first year, it will not count towards the credits needed for their high school diploma.

Which would create a situation similar to my friend's placement in a neighboring school.  He teaches pre-algebra to 9th graders.  Essentially, he is teaching the same class as I am to my 8th graders.  But his students cannot count the math class towards their diploma.  They are still required to take 3 more years of math afterwards.  If they fail one of those years, they will not be able to graduate in time, significantly hurting them, and the school's ratings.  There is no way that the majority of students in this area could take four years of math before college.  I really like that Massachusetts is trying to raise the expectation, but it could also turn away students who would succeed in college.  Maybe a better way would be to require all incoming freshman to take a survey of math course fall of freshman year.  They could option to test out of the class if they were advanced math students.  Many colleges have freshman take a writing seminar, yet math is just as important.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Work samples, lectures and scarves, oh my!

Today, I will start the process of printing and organizing a 80ish page work sample.  It encompasses the past unit that I taught in my 8th grade math class, and analyzes five different domains:  Planning/preparation, classroom environment, instruction, professional responsibilities, and "awakening the teacher within" (a.k.a. the Quaker bit).

After I get bored with that, I'll work on Danielle's scarf.  Whenever people find out that I knit, they always want me to make them a [insert object here].  I tell them that if they buy the yarn, I'd be glad to make [object] for them.  But nobody actually follows through with it.  Until this year.  One of the ACP Chemistry students did, so I am making her a scarf.
Danielle's scarf
She bought the yarn, and picked a pattern out of a book I have.  Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stiches was randomly on sale in the teacher's lounge this fall, and I'm really glad I got it (for $10!)  The stitch is called 3 color honeycomb, although I'm working it in two colors.  I'm about  20 inches into it, and hope to have it done during spring break.  I'm working it with Red Heart yarn, on size 11 needles.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

I am currently getting my Master of Arts in Teaching, and student teaching in rural Indiana.  My favorite hobbies are knitting and crocheting, so I've decided to create a space where I can share what I'm trying in both these worlds.  I only have a few weeks of teaching left, so I'll probably focus on my crafting and job hunt for the few months.

-Melanie