Front and Center

On Thursday, I actually had a chance to teach for the first time this year in a classroom setting. One of the 8th grade math teachers had to take his father to the hospital and left the class with one of my aides. I was called in to the classroom by my aide who wanted me to check on a student that she had sent to the office. I brought the student back to the room and decided to hand around for a second and check in on the class.

It was just before I was about to leave the class to get some office work done that one of the students asked, "Mr. Sanburn (they all say my name this way), can you help me with the problem on the board?". I the scanned the classroom and noticed the visibly frustrated and helpless faces of the students look up to me for my answer. I realized that these students were left high and dry with a tough math problem that the aide could not teach. Having seen the teacher use the same problem in an earlier period to convey estimation and long division skills, I jumped at the opportunity to go over the problem with them.

In a flash I was up at the board asking for the student's attention, which was immediately given. From there I furiously began to break down the word problem into important and unimportant information, asking all along the way for student input. Together we worked out the estimation, and I called on some students to verify or reject answers and walk me through my mulitplication and division. After only 10-15 minutes, the students and I were finished with the tricky word problem.

It was so refreshing to get up in front of students and teach. It is something that I have come to miss with this position that I have. Fortuntely, at Wanbli Wiconi Tipi and sometimes at TCMS, I do get a chance to teach, although it is more one on one or small group work. Today I worked with students in math on simplifying fractions using the greatest common divisor. And I have to admit, it was really great to dust off those old algebra brain cells and get them back into gear.

The farther I get into this job, the more I am able to play teacher, rather then office manager. While the paperwork is still there and takes a lot of time, I am now starting to get myself more settled into the job and focused on student progress.

And I have to remind myself that student acheivement is always the goal. Always.