This week I have my senior Pre-Cal students for only four and a half days. And on one of those days, a third of the students will be on a field trip.
I teach at a Vocational-Technical high school which means I see my students every other week. Because of the way state testing happens in the spring, administration has to get very creative to make sure the right set of students is in their academic cycle at the right time, and sometimes we have some cycles that are longer than 5 days, and some that are shorter. It's complicated.
What this means for my seniors is that the last time I saw them was on Dec 18, 2015. They are coming back to me on Jan. 11, 2016. And I have them for just 4.5 days. And some of them will missing one of those days because of the field trip!
Here is my dilemma: I just do NOT have time to have them derive the formulas I need them to have. We are already way behind because of short cycles (holidays) in the fall. So I am going to just give them the formulas. Or maybe just show a power point where the work fades in and out.....if I have time to make such a thing.
Just tell me I am not a horrible teacher for doing this......
you. are. not. horrible.
ReplyDeletei'm not a fan of flipping the classroom the way most people talk about it, but this could be one solution to allay your fears for having them see the derivation. but: ugh. i know the feeling of not enough time and having to make tough decisions. i think we all do. so go forth, do what makes sense to you with the constraints you have, and think no more about this "horrible teacher" nonsense.