Because of the snow days, I have had to cram the remainder of the curriculum into a few weeks.  Consequently, my genetics unit went from the original 5 weeks to 3 weeks.  This has resulted in a multitude of frustrations, all stemming from the fact that I haven’t had the usual time I take to go through material.

This week, for example, I have been moving forward where I would normally review and I can tell my students are getting frustrated.  At the beginning of the year, when students refused to do work and just talked/yelled at each other, I took it to mean my management was horrible.  However, as I went through the year, I realized that the times I was the most frustrated during class were the times my students understood the material the least.  If I was sure to check for their understanding before giving them indpeendent practice, for example, I knew I wouldn’t have a problem.  They really enjoy doing work they know how to do, but when a challenge comes at all, they refuse to attempt the work.

The past two days have been particularly frustrating because of this.  I have now had two back-to-back lessons where students are refusing to do the work or just attempting half of it.  But I have realized that it’s mostly because they don’t know what to do.  I forget this during the day sometimes, and end up yelling in situations where I shouldn’t blame the students because it is my fault that I haven’t taught as well as I should have.  Hopefully the rest of the week will be better if I break things down much more and give them more practice.

Besides that, the students have really enjoyed genetics.  They are interested to find out why they look like their relatives and how traits can be passed down generations.  I also have learned a good deal about my students’ outside lives because they say things like “Oh- that’s why my son is left-handed.”  It’s been a good unit overall, but hopefully they will do well on their test next week.