Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Thursday 6 December 2007

Under the Pump

This is my husband's expression and means you are under significant pressure. Science exam today...finished playing with it at 2am. Still think I could have done a completely different exam for one of the boys but just ran out of time. Mostly I go through checking that the questions are not phrased in ambiguous language or that diagrams are labelled clearly. Often they're not. As teachers we assume so much about how kids will approach a task. The ones with learning disabilities, especially Specific Learning Disabilities such as dyslexia and dyspraxia find sequencing and spatial awareness a challenge, so if an arrow is not pointing at exactly the right place....

They are also very literal, so when graphing three sets of results on the same axes the other day, after the teacher had demonstrated using a dotted line for one and a dashed line for another, to discriminate between the samples, many of my babies only plotted two graphs, cos that's all he'd drawn on the board.

Anyway, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I drafted most of the English exam for tomorrow last night so all that's left is maths. Now there's a whole other story. :-(

I also have a post on the waterbomb afternoon half done but it is too easy for me to get distracted (like now) so I am trying to leave that til the weekend. BRING IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!

3 comments:

A Free Man said...

My sister is a special ed teacher and I have got the utmost respect for people that can do that job. I just do not have the patience. I get frustrated with Oxford undergraduates sometimes in tutorials in the infrequent terms that I actually teach. So you've got my sympathies in your time of stress!

Jessie said...

Wow. I admire teachers so much. I was going to be one, but quit during my third year of college because we moved away. We're back now, but I've lost the desire to teach children other than my own. It's great to see someone who really cares about students. Kudos to you!

Christina said...

Your students are so fortunate to have a devoted teacher like you! You know, I honestly have to admit I never gave much thought to the time consuming effort it is for a teacher to make out a test, taking into condieration the unique approach of each student. Wow, you are amazing!