Post Quiz Feelings

Friday was an interesting day. I gave quizzes to each of my 5 classes. At the beginning of class I reviewed homework with the students, asked if they had any questions before they began the quiz. After answering a few questions students began their quizzes. There weren't a whole lot of questions during the quiz so I felt pretty confident that the students knew their stuff. I am really proud of my Algebra classes, they break down like this:

• 1st hour 12 out of 17 passed, 70% passing rate with 2 students absent
• 2nd hour 22 out of 25 passed, 88% passing rate with 3 students absent
• 4th hour 10 out of 12 passed, 83% passing rate with 1 student absent

I thought these were pretty good for the first quiz after summer break, and adjusting to a new teacher. I would like to do something with my first hour class, I think I am not as enthusiastic with them as I am with the other two classes, so I need to work on that.

My AIMS prep class is for Juniors and Seniors who have taken Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2 and have had trouble passing the high stakes state test. So for their quiz I took questions out of AIMS prep books and websites. I felt pretty confident since the students were able to do the problems in class and didn't have questions before we started the quiz. Not a whole lot of questions during the quiz so I thought everything was well and good. I sat down and graded the quizzes and I feel like a failure. 2 out of 15 students passed, with 2 students absent. That's a 13% passing rate. NOT ACCEPTABLE! Granted I feel like the students don't care about the class, or the test, or graduating. But it makes me feel like a bad teacher because these students are not learning. Granted they should have learned this in their previous 3 years of high school and this should be a review, but I guess it's not.

My last class is College Algebra Prep, students are not getting college credit for this class because they did not pass the exam the college gives as a prerequisite. This class has a whole 7 students in it. 6 of the students are seniors and don't need the credit to graduate from high school, one is a junior who does need the credit. 2 students think this class is a joke which they have made clear to me by showing up half way through class on Friday, talk through class, and sleep through class. This is frustrating because I know they don't care and it's a slap in my face because I could be teaching students who do care.

Hopefully Monday will be better. My Aunt who has been visiting her son in Honduras found an old school bus that was from Show Low! Pretty awesome stuff!