Hey everybody!

So here's what I'm thinking: I should have a blog where I talk about stuff concerning my students and myself!
To be honest I would like to use this as a reflection tool so that maybe I will become a great teacher some day. I want to be the kind of teacher that reflects on what he does and what his students do. I want this to be a tool in my tool box to not only help students but also help me reach them.
For instance, here lately I have been working with my students about doing action research. Granted I modified this lesson and the idea of action research so that they would have a better chance of understanding it. I mean my students are sixth-eighth grade and I'm talking about a subject matter that I didn't begin doing until I reached graduate school, but I still felt it was a good way to put measures of central tendency in context. Also I thought it would be cool to introduce some statistical ideas to them like z-scores and standard deviation.
It has been kind of a tough sale at some point and for a long time I had trouble with my second period class. They were standoffish and didn't want to do the project and they really didn't want to try.
It was frustrating because my other classes were having fun and enjoying what they were doing, but my second period class was almost being obstinate about it.
So I went from it being a group project to being a solo project and they responded.
I was really surprised because the other classes had really enjoyed working together and getting the work done, but they made progress while working on their own.
One of the things that this has taught me is that I have to constantly monitor and adjust my lessons and lesson plans. I mean what works in one period may not work the next.
I've been really proud of my kids though because they've done really well. I mean they have come up with some research topics or research questions that were excellent, from "what effects do listening to music while studying have on a students performance in a class" to "what effects do fun (and engaging) lesson plans have on student learning?"

more to come.....