Well, today I was a floater at a middle school, meaning that I would sub for different teachers throughout the day as they went to meetings. When I arrived they gave me a list. Four classes. Were they serious? I thought I had it fairly easy yesterday with five classes (in middle school six is typical, with a planning period, team meeting- subs not invited, and lunch). In this district one period is homeroom, making a total of ten periods of which a sub usually works seven when homeroom is added in. This meant that I had three extra periods off! A half-day of work for a full day’s pay! Then again, this is me we’re talking about. I didn’t feel quite right about this so I asked at the office a few times if I was needed elsewhere during these breaks. They didn’t have anything as was typical, so it would seem that I would get all the time off after all. However, in the afternoon the teacher I was subbing for for 7th and 10th periods decided she could use me after all to help out while she tried to get some other work done. I stress tried because in fact since she was in the room her students still came up to her and asked questions. By the way, they were doing research in the LMC so I mostly babysat as I couldn’t answer a lot of the questions since I didn’t know all the expectations of the project. Still not bad- a very easy day.
Now, some may think the title of this post applies to the above paragraph since I asked for extra work instead of just saying nothing and sitting in the lounge all day. Well, it always pays to not get on their bad side- I already don’t take TA positions which pay about $30 less per day- and besides, I would have missed the situation I am about to write on. 🙂 Well, what happened was during one of the periods a couple of students came in who weren’t a part of the class. Remember, this was the LMC and not a classroom. That would be very strange if random students just came into a classroom where they were not a part of the class… Anyway, I wasn’t aware of this at first and so questioned them when I saw they were not doing the research with the rest of the class. They told me they were here while their class was on a field trip. Were they being punished? Nope. They were seventh graders in an eighth grade math class, and all the eighth grade was on the field trip. Now I thought I was pretty good at math being in algebra in eighth grade, but here they were, two seventh graders in the eighth grade class. And to make matters worse, this seemed to be the top eighth grade math course, algebra 2. That’s right, 2. I didn’t take algebra 2 until my sophomore year (they split the two courses with geometry in the middle, which I took as a freshman). These two seventh graders were two years ahead of where I was when I was in middle school. They expect to be bused to high school next year for math as they apparently were bused to the middle school when they were in 5th grade… I guess if this keeps up they will be taking calculus in their junior year instead of in college, unless they bring themselves even further ahead in the next three years. Definitely two top engineers in the making.
Hmm… our school did algebra in 8th grade also, at least for the kids who were in the advanced track which was a year ahead of where their class was supposed to be. Those who were able to keep up with the advanced track (me not included in this group) took calculus senior year. Those of us who had to drop down to our regular level were still stuck a year ahead, but now with “intermediate” grade credit and not advanced. Meaning, if we got a B in the advanced class, for our GPA it counted as an A, etc. But once you dropped down, you were still a year ahead but now your grade stayed the same – UNFAIR! Don’t remember what year geometry was, but just that the proofs killed me… could not grasp that concept at all, not to mention what the heck learning how to do proofs had to do with math! Ahhh, memories!
I had precalculus in high school, but I didn’t take calculus I until college I THINK. I took math all four years, and come to think of it if it’s as I said above then I don’t remember what the fourth course I took was. Geometry, Algebra II, Precalculus, and… something else. What if Calculus I was that 4th course? Hmm. Anyway, I’m not sure how the grading worked here, but it does sound unfair in your case.