When students get 'it'

I got a very welcome surprise from 4th period today, they got 'it'. 'It' in this case was the importance of checking your answers for accuracy in math. It's the one thing that assured me of getting an A in my college algebra class since I'm pretty good with the formulas and not so good with the arithmetic. I had noticed that many of my students were having the same issue so today I had put up the 'board work' and made them check their answers for accuracy, and because I had noticed that some students were trying to check but not sure exactly how to go about checking their solutions (I guess that I had not modeled it enough) I modeled one more example on the board for them to see the fast and easy way to check an answer.

x+3=42 (subtract 3 from both sides and you get your answer) x=39
To check it you substitute the answer for x so it looks like this 39+3=42. Then you add 39 and 3, which gives you this 42=42. If the numbers match then it's all good. If they don't then you probably made a silly little math error.

Now I had some success with all five classes, but it was fourth period that really had it figured out. Page after page filled with checked answers to the six problems on the board. Now not every student checked every answer or did it correctly but at least 75% of them did at least three of the six correctly and many more had tried to do all six and simply did not finish checking their work.

This more than made up for the last 10 minutes of class when all they did was talk and not work on their homework, so much so that I made them put their heads on their desks and wait for the bell to ring.

Now you probably figured that I'd be complaining about 6th period again and are upset that I have nothing to rant about. All I can say is that I have six kids coming for detention on Thursday and five of them are from 6th period. What part of 'keep talking and you get detention' do people not understand?

Sheesh...



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6th Period

Update #1: Now they've gone and done it. I handed out three detentions today and then discovered that someone stole the jump drive that was attached to the computer. I have my suspicions and reported the theft to the dean's office, but my chances of seeing it again are slim to none and slim is leaving town on the next bus...

I dislike this class very much. They're rude, chatty and don't work. They're also in for a very rude surprise. After the spit-wad incident a couple of days ago I've been following procedures for discipline. I've talked to the punks er students in question and in several cases I've pre filled out detention forms and referrals. I've also written down when I've talked to students and what they did to deserve some 'special' one on one time and the date that conversation(s) took place.

Tomorrow I am going to find out exactly how the whole detention system works so I don't make any mistakes when I fill my class up with my future inmates er students, or if I send the little hoodlums er students to another room for detention.

In addition I've changed the seating arrangement and highlighted the chatty students on my seating chart so I don't make any mistakes. Lucky for me I have about 6 empty desks to put kids into solitary confinement er separate them so they can concentrate on their work. And given the fact that the class average is about 52% and more than half of them are failing, they really need to buckle down and start learning.

I don't care if they like me or not. But I care very much that they don't respect me as a teacher. And that is going to change weather they like it or not because I am not going to let 6 jackasses ruin it for the rest of my students.