futurebird's Diaryland Diary
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failing
Outside of my school at night. I stayed late on thursday to grade papers.
I�m feeling a bit overwhelmed. Nearly all of my students failed their first math test. There are a variety of reasons for this I think, some of my students don�t do homework or study�some have entered the 9th grade at a 5th grade or 4th grade level�a few have learning disabilities. Many of them do not read or write English terribly well. But, most are bright�and could do well, I think. If only if I knew how to show them how.
Out of 40 or so students I have in 9th grade, two scored Bs , three Cs, 8 Ds and the rest answered less than half of the questions correct. I would venture that the exam was simply too hard, but I used questions from the regent�s identical to many we did in class and as homework.
I�m depressed about giving them the tests back�I don�t want them to give up hope. Especially the ones who do their homework and who I know try hard. But, they still have not grasped the concepts of our first unit. I can�t lie to them�Besides. I didn�t think the test was too hard�I timed myself taking it and it took me about 4 minutes�so, I gave them 40�many were still working when the bell rang. How can it take so long to answer a question like: -3-8 ? We did dozens of examples in class. They did OK on the homework. Maybe they were just stressed by the test? I don�t know.
I teach 90 minute periods so I spent the first half of class working with them on example problems�maybe I�m just a bad teacher.
I don�t know what to do.
12:28 p.m. - 2003-10-05
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