Day 3: Baseline

What Went Well: The baseline is kind of a painful time for me. I'm not really supposed to help students so we get a true idea of their floor. I also do not have papers to correct or anything to pass the time and be productive. Since I do not know the students, I decided to call up about eight or nine per class as they were working on the baseline and just ask them questions about themselves. In a way I was building up my own baseline for the year in terms of how to develop relationships with the students for the year ahead. I relied heavily on their Welcome to Math warm up from yesterday in which I asked them what they did for fun, who they admire, and the hardest thing that they have ever done. 

Regrets: I still have not gone over the syllabus through three days of school. This is a huge mistake on my part. I think next year we have to force it in within the first two days. I hate rushing like anyone else, but in all honesty students forget what's on the syllabus inevitably anyway and the fact is that I think the students would rather be engaged in the curriculum than talking about it on day four. They clearly want to be challenged based on the reactions I got to completing Pascal's Triangle yesterday and arranging the numbers one through nine in a 3 by 3 square to find an equivalent sum vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.