New Semester, New Job

While technically I still have the same job (and the job I signed up for) and I'm still at the same school, last week marked the beginning of a significant transition from teaching 6th grade to Calculus.  I've taught both before (sometimes back to back), but going from all sixth grade all the time to all seniors (and a few juniors) all the time has been more jarring than going from one to the other in the same day.


I miss my sixth graders a lot.  They were excited and eager and energetic and brave.  We'd built a pretty fabulous learning environment.  Yes, I still had kids who were struggling with the content, with my style, with the transition to a new school, etc, but I knew who those kids were and they were making real, measurable progress.


Now I start all over again (never mind the fact that if there had been a memorizing/remembering names course in high school and if this course had been a required course for graduation, I'd probably still be sitting on the other side of my teacher desk).


Don't get me wrong.  My calc students are friendly, studious, and smart (in both traditional and non-traditional definitions).  


One gave this great "proof without words" of why 1/3+1/9+1/27+...=1/2

  
See it?  Beautiful!