Math Lessons

So I had my first math class today by myself. I only had two people show up (the class is optional, but it went really well. I was nervous before hand but then I just took a big breath and relaxed. I did some preparing, and then the rest I went with the flow. In the class we talked about the U.S. census. The students made guesses as to what the census charts (race, gender, age, household, employment, etc.) and then went over what was actually on there. We talked about controversies in the census lately including race and ethnicity (the census used to only allow people to select one race, and many identities were lumped together) and also relationship status/household regarding gay and lesbians ability to identify as a family. Also, we talked about what populations might be underreported in a census. Then I proposed taking a census of the school. The students decided what information they wanted on the census of the school. We typed it up on the computer, printed it out and the students will administer it later this week. Next week we will analyze the results, find modes, median ages, etc. and percentages, ratios and compare it to the statistics for their neighborhood (found under area code on the internet).

School has been growing on me as time goes on, more connections and relationships, more comfortable. Today I played football with the 5th through 8th grade boys. I read woman empowerment fairy tales to some young women and I spoke up when a 3rd grade boy called half push-ups "girl pushups"

Yesterday we had our teachers meeting. It is the first school I have worked at where the teachers dedicate a part of the meeting to discussing gender and race issues among students and teachers. The discussion went well and some important issues were brought up. We talk about intimate details of the students lives, but it really allows to support them better to have similar understandings of where they are at and what they need. Teachers meeting went from 3:30 to 5:00. Then from 5:00 to 6:30 we had a once a month "teachers advisory" where past teachers and community elders are invited to be a part of our discussion regarding school policy and issues.