How did it get to be October already?

It seems like just yesterday that I was worrying about setting up my classroom and making copies of my syllabus for the first day of school, and now there’s postseason baseball on TV and the first set of grades due in just over a week.

The good:

• Started the year in AP Calculus off with six days of group work based on Paul Foerster’s Calculus Explorations. It went fairly well, and it gave a chance for my students to get right into the two big ideas of first year calculus without slogging through a precalculus review first. I snuck some algebra review and calculator skills lessons into the explorations as well.
• Overall, I get a positive impression about all of my students and the classes in general. I can sense potential issues with a handful of students, but overall I got the feeling that this will be a good group.
• One of my AP calculus students came up with the slogan “There is no ‘I’ in calculus — there is only ‘us’.”

The bad:

• It took a mere seven days before I felt burned out and ready for June to arrive.
• I have felt more overwhelmed than usual this fall, although I do not have any extra work or responsibilities. I’m not sure where this feeling originates, but it has had a negative impact on my motivation to do important things like plan good lessons and effectively implement standards based grading.
• I very nearly overreacted and got personal in response to a “When will I use this in real life?” question during class. Caught myself in time and gave a general answer that may not have been the most effective ever but avoided any sort of personal confrontation. At that moment I realized how thankful I was for a three day weekend.

The ugly:

• It took all of four weeks or so for me to come down with my first cold of the year.

Hopefully it won’t take a month to post another entry.