Success!

Last time I posted, I was writing about introducing Fantasy Football. I have been waiting until after we had finally done it in class. The whole week I was so excited and ready for it to be Fantasy Football Friday. I compiled all the necessary stats, and had it all ready to go for when the students walked in. They all knew what day it was, and I could tell that they were excited. 

Overall, I thought it was a great success. There was a brief period where they had to be reminded how to calculate their score, but that was expected since it was the first time. As the weeks go by, I think the process of calculating the score will become much easier and more of a routine. It was cool to see the kids get so excited when they found out they won, but that was quickly masked by the sorrow of the losing team. Many teams wanted to ditch the players they picked, but I told them give it another week because Fantasy Football is basically luck. That didn't cheer them up much... 

With the help of Miss A, I had made four anchor charts with the teams logos printed out on them to show the number of wins each team has. I decided to place football stickers for each win that the teams earn. Once I found out who won each game, I placed a sticker above their logos. The kids were so amused looking at the charts and seeing all of the logos. I'm glad that I have something set up in class so that they can see the progression throughout the season. 

I already can't wait for this Friday!

Second topic is we had our first test today. Our first unit was over Place Value, and I had heard in summer training that this was a difficult topic because it introduces them to decimals. I was a little nervous about what the scores would be on the test. My feeling going into it was that most of my students seemed to be understanding the material, but had that nervous feeling in the back of my mind. I graded all the tests before I went home. The results were awesome. I have around 85 students, and all but three of them passed. The scores I did have were all relatively in the 80's and 90's. I had multiple 100's. Tests scores aren't the only way to judge a student's success, but it is a good feeling as a teacher to see that your students pass the test. I'm not going to sugar coat it, I was very happy with how the results. Of course this is only just the beginning, and I have a long way to go. This was a good start, and I can't wait to build off the progression each student has made thus far. 

On a side note...

We had a parent conference after school with the team. One funny little takeaway. The mother told us that her child rated his teachers from favorite to least, and I was the least favorite... My initial reaction was wow I can't believe she just told us that. It was then followed by her saying that there was a disclaimer... it was because of the subject that I teach, math. I knew people didn't like math but wow. However, two people in the meeting with us were quick to step up and have my back. I thought it was really fun. Hey, you win some you lose some. I'm not going to let it stop from impacting my students!