The Worst Class

This year was the single most difficult year I have had in my [short] teaching career.

The students would not listen.
They would not stay still.
They would waste time.
They would get up when they felt like it.
They would speak out when I was talking.
They would fight and cry.
Teaching them was like a daily game of Hit the Mole.
They put me to bed at 8:00 on many occasions.

All this, and yet I will miss them immensely. I would teach them again in a second.

How Many Squares in a Chessboard?

I don't know what, but this math problem had my students hooked. I wish we didn't run out of time that day.

I got the idea for this while reading the book, The Elephant in the Classroom. It was great to see the working together and comparing answers. When I posed the question I had one student right away shout out, "64"! And after I told her there were many, many more than that, they went to work.

We got right to the point where I opened their eyes to how the squares can overlap  - until that point they were counting the squares as if they were bricks side-by-side.

It was interesting to watch them. They were more engaged than I expected.