Word Processing; likes and dislikes

Unti planning is chugging along. I wrote my pre-test yesterday. I ran into a problem that I'm sure plagues math teachers everywhere. How DO you write equations in Microsoft Word? Are there special math word processing programs that you can use in order to write these things? Now I know why my tests in calculus were always hand written by my teacher. Fortunately I have decent handwritting, so in the future I might choose to take that route. For the time being however, and the perception of proffessionalism I will continue to try and type them. The pretest required nothing more complicated then fractions and division signs. But I could not figure out any way to make the fractions be vertically aligned rather then on a diagonal from one another. Which is no big deal in every days use, but when you are teaching students the algorithms for multiplying and dviiding fractions (or even adding and subtraction) having a clear sense of top and bottom is key.


I am starting to get a clear list of things that I do and don't want in my classroom. I love the expectations from teh begining. Having the students help compile them. I even sort of like the 'give me five' thing, although I don't prefer it to just generally respecting one another. It's better then shouting. I like the use of comedy and humor that Mrs. Keener uses, she is goofy and silly and makes things fun.

Things I don't like so much, or would do differently: As I've mentioned before, if I ask for questions from students, they will not be allowed to make comments. They should know the difference between questions and comments by now. I also have noticed that sometimes Mrs. Keener makes a big deal out of things that would be less important to me. For instance she criticized one student for having doodles on her homework, or for putting the homework problems in rows instead of in collumns. Another thing that hs be driving me nuts is that there is no generic place where the keys to homework sheets we've done go. I assume this is because Mrs. Keener has been working with the same materials for many years, and she knows where she keeps them. However, when I am dong something like grading late work, and she has already put the key back, I have no idea whre to find it. I think a good play would be to have a binder where all of the keys for the worksheets done each term were kept. They would only be replaced to their fiile after that assignment was no longer going to be accepted as late. Be that the end of the week, the month or the term. I also think that in addition to graded work, I would choose to give students some sort of participation points for being present. Mrs. Keener sort of does this with the warm-up. Students get credit for simply having done the warm up, I like that, and would choose to do somethign similar. But students who are absent do not get marked down on the warm up. With participation points, it would reward those student who were in class every day, even if they didn't necessarily do well on their homework or tests. I have had classes that do this both in Middle/High school and in college and I think it is an effective way to help level the playing field as far as grades are concerned.
I am also not a huge fan of the way that the late policy works here at Briggs. It is something that has been agreed upon by all the sixth grade teachers. Management is the biggest issue with late work. How do you know when a student turned something in? I would perhaps get one of those old-school date stamps like libraries used to have, and when a student turns in some work, they would have to get it stamped, or they would recieve no credit. One day late would be one grade off, two days would be two grades, etc. Depending on the age, late work would either stop being accepted after a week or so (except in special circumstances, this policy would be for older students) or would recieve a maximum of half credit if it is later then a given date, but still be accepted (for 6th and maybe 7th graders, as the continue to try and make that transition from elementary to middle school). This isn't a perfect policy, I would have to do some polishing. If I were in a position to be teaching Pre-Calc or Calc, I don't think I would accept late work at all, except in the case of absence. But then again. I also don't like grading homework. I don't know if this would be functional with Middle School age students, unless it was perhaps with the advanced group, but I would like to assign homework questions, but not have them be turned in or required. That way students did homework if they needed to. The day homework was 'due' the students would have opportunity to ask questions, and then we would move on. Grades would be based upon participation points, tests, quizes, and projects. This was the way my favorite math classes have always functioned.

Between my Behavior Management class and the student teaching, I feel like I am starting to come up with a coherent personal policy/philosophy, which I suppose is the point.