Learning

What an exhausting week! I don't think I could ask for a better one, though.

Yesterday I received my semi-annual evaluation. It's actually a 3-day process, but yesterday was the last day of the process for the spring semester. I know that most people truly despise evaluations, but mine I generally look forward to. My evaluating administrator is always so full of wisdom and good advice; she keeps me sharp and always wanting to improve. She has a way of creating a desire to succeed. Even the students that I have sent to her have come out with that same desire (although they are also threatened by Saturday Morning Detention).

Today just started on a good note. I was able to have a student's schedule changed because we just were not getting along and we were never going to get along. If he were teachable, I would have kept trying, but I was scared that I was going to commit murder and people typically frown on that kind of behavior. (On a side note, I am really surprised that we don't hear more stories in the news of high school and middle school teachers just losing it in their classroom and killing students. I mean, really, try dealing with all those adolescent hormones and behaviors in a single room.) Also today I gave a test; probably over the second most challenging topic that I teach all year. My students ROCKED! Their efforts these past few weeks have been remarkable, and when that is the case, I am a happy person.

The one thing that I've learned this week about "Learning" is that in order to learn something we must abandon the idea that we (as the learner) know anything. There must be trust that the person teaching us really is smarter than we are. When I reflect, I see this in my students and their success on this challenging chapter as well as in me and the success that I am experiencing daily as a teacher. Maybe this kinda goes along with what Paul was talking about when he said that only when you lose your life that you will gain life. Maybe if I ever truly figure out that God is smarter than me, then I will trust him more and really learn about life.

Sudoku

Recently a friend introduced me to Sudoku. If you haven't tried it, you must. Be warned, though, it is addicting. Sudoku is a number game of logic. I bought a book with several of these puzzles in it, and they come in four different levels. I find the first level, which requires basic logic and reasoning skills, to be quite simple yet entertaining. When I try the next difficulty level, I find myself becoming stumped and frustrated most of the time. I've yet to complete one of these. I can admit this now because I do still feel like a novice with this game, but I really thought that I had more than basic logic and reasoning skills.

I think about school (that is about all I think about for 11 months out of the year). I wonder if my students could complete the first difficulty level. I think that most could. What about the next level? To be honest, I don't think I want to know. :) They sit in class day in and day out as I help teach them the rules of Algebra. They are simple rules and they always follow a pattern. You just need to know what pattern you are looking for. One student this week finally figured out word problems. The story is generally different for each word problem, but in Algebra most problems fit into one of two different formulas. She just needed help seeing the pattern. It is amazing to see the difference in this girl now that she sees the pattern. I see a confidence in her that I've never seen, and there is a bond between us now--she trusts me to teach her, and that is huge.

I sometimes wonder if what I teach really does have much of a point. To be honest, I always made A's in math, but it wasn't until I started teaching it that I really understood why I did what I did to get the correct answer. I don't think if I were my own teacher, that I would give myself an A.

Maybe the whole point in math is like Sudoku. Sudoku pushes me and makes me focus and think. I can spend hours on a puzzle just to erase the whole thing and start over. When I finally see the pattern and solve one that I didn't think I could solve, maybe I'll get the confidence like my student did this week.