Using Blackout Poetry in the Class

I had come across finished examples of Blackout poetry on line and managed to track down one blog post that gave some details about the concept (although I haven't been able to find it again) and I knew it would be a great activity to try with a  class.

It combines the creativeness of making poems with the skills of skim reading (to find words that suit) and course design and art to make a finished piece.

I had tucked examples away in my teaching folder as a possibility to teach but had not created a formal lesson plan to work off.  I did not think I was going to be able to fit it in during my teaching placement anytime soon but new it would be handy.

Thankfully I did as I had a number of students who finished their project quicker than the rest and a sports event that was meant to take up the afternoon get cancelled  - suddenly I had time to fill in!

I did a quick scramble in the class book we were reading 'The Emerald Atlas', which is fill of amazing descriptive language.  I found a page, quickly enlarged and photocopied a class set.  I wanted to see the variety of poems that could be created from the same source.

I had a base idea in my head as to how I would introduce and teach it (thankfully), but was unsure as to how well the students would connect with the ideas or understand the concept.

They were hooked instantly, even my more reluctant students got stuck in with it!!

I explained how they will need to read the text through once to get an idea of the words on the page, then go back and skim the page to find words to link together to make a poem (which will take several re-reads).  As they find words that work for them, circle the words in pencil, re-read what they have circled and see if there are words that they should loose or add to improve the flow of the poem (editing practice, check!).

I did a quick demonstration before sending them off to start.   Using pencil was the best way to go as for a few I did need to suggest a few less words and remind students that with poetry the normal writing rules go out the window - correct sentence structure is not needed.

The students brought me their poems to read through before starting on the art stage and I was blown away by the poems that were created, some of them were very powerful and the students were delighted when I read them out to the class.

Then came out the markers and the felts and their creativity.  There were a couple who failed to understand to leave their words white and block out the rest and coloured in the words as well, but hey they still looked good.  It was amazing to see the art work they created and the variety in the poems.

Lit up lighting flashes,
Hundreds of rock walls was gone
Howls
Path zig zagged
Dancing over
Pointing up
Lightening Forked
Echoed














Lighting flashes
Nothing by sheer rock walls
Cursed their first day
Watching the howls from the face of the cliff
The path was zig zagged
Gusts of wind
Bringing the valley floor into view
The bottom pointing up the cliff
















Hundred feet of sheer rock walls
Plunge howls closer
Face of the cliff was their only hope
Steep, slippery, never more than a couple of feet
Children descended
Valley, hide,
Echo

The students quickly figured out that they could delete the 's' and 'ed' and 'ing' from words to help the flow of their poem, which was not something that I thought to tell them to do.  Great demonstrating of them thinking for themselves.

Would do this lesson again in an heart beat with any class - doesn't always have to be on the A2 size and could easily be standard page size.  However being the large size meant that they made for an impressive art display!

This was completed with 9-11 year-olds, which meant the text was more detailed, but I think you could easily do it with younger children but with a simpler text.

I can not recommend this style of poetry enough as a lesson, if you read this and have any questions just ask and I will do my best to answer :)

0

my full control has finished

My full control of my placement has finished - I still have one more week to go (after the July holidays which gives us two weeks off) but I'm just helping out.

I had so much fun teaching and loved almost every minute of it (there was the odd REALLY!! moments).  I ended up teaching for 5 weeks instead of the required 3 weeks which was fabulous of my associate to let me, mind you she loved the opportunity of being able to get caught up on everything before she headed off on her travels.

Teaching my maths unit was amazing, I loved watching all those light bulb moments happen as the kiddo's really got something.  You can actually see get go across their face as they go from total confusion to oh yeah...in a heart beat.

Through my students lack of knowledge of statistics it meant I had to change my unit plan somewhat to cater for the additional time that I had to spend on areas I was sure I would only be revisiting rather than the complete introduction of the topic/section that was actually required.  This did mean leaving some parts out (the extension activities) in order to cater for their learning needs - but hey that's the role of teaching - things change based on the needs of the students not my need to teach what I spent ages planning.

Introducing foldables as a learning tool to the class was a total hit.  To say they loved them is an understatement.  They loved taking ownership of their own learning and been able to make graphs up that reflected their own knowledge rather than what I dictated that they had to do.  I also included that they had to write an explanation of what each graph style was and was used for in their own words (to further demonstrate their understanding).  The first time they filled it out, they were all checking with me that they had it right, and if what they had done was okay.  By the end they were seasoned pro's and trusting in their own knowledge - so fantastic to see.

1

Week 4 of my placement is finished

I cannot believe that it has been four weeks already.

I have just finished my third week of full control and it has been wonderful.  As frustrating, and talkative the kiddos have been at times they have also been funny, and entertaining and interesting and delightful.  I have been loving almost every minute of it.  I know that this is where I want to be - and I think I have actually found the age group I want to teach.

I have always thought I wanted to teach the littlies, thought that that is where my heart would belong and I would not enjoy the bigger kids.   I was wrong I LOVE teaching 9 to 10 year olds.   I love how their brains work, I love doing the higher grade stuff with them, I love their thirst for knowledge and acceptance and success, and I love their sense of humour and the one liners they can come out with!!

The disappointing thing is I only have two weeks left of my full control (I'm extending to five weeks which helps out the relief teacher who comes in for the last week of the term), and then I have to hand my class back.  I don't want to.  I want to keep teaching them.  I don't want to go back to University and study.  I want to be a teacher and get to keep my kiddo's.  It's not fair :(

Yep throwing a sad face fit that its all going to be over soon

0

The crazy train arrived at my class!!!

That's about the some total of it, the crazy train arrived and let every bit of crazy out!!  The whole class was all over the place on Friday and it drove me NUTS!!!

They could not stop talking, mucking around, pushing, shoving, picking on each other, the works.  It was the end of the week which had had some huge pressure with speech finals and practicing new song for assembly, new teacher, big maths concepts (which they are really really starting to get, even the ones who were struggling), and a few changes in schedule.  On top of that the whole schedule was thrown out of the window on Friday with catch up, speech finals (for our top four) and assembly practice. 

It meant I did NO actual teaching, and it felt like all I did was crowd control, and it felt like I was trying to control a crowd of monkeys - and cheeky ones at that.

At lunch time all I felt like doing was crying, it was either that or tearing my hair out.

It did not help that my associate teacher was out of the room either so I had no back up what so ever.  I have learnt that she is trying to stay out of the classroom to allow me to teach without her interrupting - but she's not meant to - but it is also leaving me feeling unsupported.  Even when I let her know what the day was like at morning tea time, she offered sympathy and said some days it just feels like that, but she did not stay in the room to back me up.

I do understand that it helps me grow as a teacher to have to cope in that kind of teaching environment, and it helps develop my coping skills (see looking for the positives) and next year if I get a job I wont have that kind of help so I need to know how to do it....but... I'm still a student and back up would have been nice/helpful and not to mention needed!!

The amazing thing was that despite the bad rehearsals we had for our performance at assembly using the mean, mode and medium song from scholastic's Study Jam (from  http://studyjams.scholastic.com/studyjams/jams/math/data-analysis/median.htm) using the instruments the class had made from recycled materials, the actual performance was amazing and I was so proud of them!!!  I guess what they say is true bad rehearsal great performance -  I just wish it was not 10 bad rehearsals LOL.

The positive assembly was a great way to finish my first week with full control, and next week will be another week, although it will still be all over the place as I have my exams next week.  Will just have to see how it all goes.

0

One of Those Teaching Moments

There is a girl (I will call her A) in my class, she is a sweet girl who at 10 is incredibly hard on herself and does not believe she is good at anything.

A has been struggling at maths for awhile now (before me), she has that total attitude that she does not like maths and that she is no good at it.

I have been trying to keep her engaged with the maths lesson and keeping her self believe at a higher level, but it has been a struggle.


Yesterday we did the dreaded speeches, the class only had a week to come up with their speech (my associate had run out of time and had not been able to give them more), it had to be a persuasive argument on whatever topic that they wanted.  A wrote a fabulous speech about the rain forest and why we should save it.

When it came to A's turn to speak she stood in front of the class and spoke so quietly that you could only just hear her, it was such a shame.

My associate and I had a discussion on the class speeches to talk about who we thought should go into round 2 (there are 2 rounds before we send 4 to the judging panel).  We were choosing 8 students which was quite easy to do, I made the suggestion that we put A through as she had actually met the criteria the best as far as content went and I wanted to encourage her to do better. 

My associate jumped on the idea as at the beginning of the year A had been a lot more confident and she felt A needed a bit of a push.  We both approached her to ask if she would try again, she was surprised to say the least and kept saying 'really, me?' but at the same time I swear she grew an inch!!

I talked to A about how her speech ticked all the boxes she just needed to talk louder, I made the suggestion that she picture her Dad (also a teacher in the school) is sitting at the back of the room and he has to hear what she is saying.

It worked!!!  Today she stood in front of the class, her voice was loud and clear and full of emotion.  When she sat down she looked at me with this big smile on her face, she knew she had done well, and I think my smile was as big back, I was so proud of her.

The smile was even bigger when she was one of the final four going through to the judges round, she was so proud of herself - and rightly so.

It was a good teaching day - I made a difference in a child's education journey (even if it was only a moment in her journey), but just as importantly she made a difference in my teaching journey that will live with me forever.

0

I got to teach my kiddo's

Thursday I finally got to teach the first part of my Maths unit - it went so great!! EXCEPT they knew almost nothing about graphs - no exaggeration at all.  These are kiddo's between 9 and 11 years old and should have had really decent exposure to graphing since they were five.  I should have been building on their existing knowledge, extending them and introducing the new knowledge that the older ones need for next year.

I used the suggestion from Runde's Room (http://www.rundesroom.com/2012/10/math-journal-sundays-pop-up-bar-graphs.html) about doing a diagnostic assessment through getting the class to write down all the graphs that they know...

Out of a class of 24

• 22 knew pie graph (great - except they kept telling me it was because of fractions)
• 20 knew bar graph (not bad really)
• 12 knew line graph (but only 2 could tell me what it was)
• 5 knew tally graph
• 6 said photograph (and yep they meant photograph not pictograph)
• 4 said circle graph (not to bad as it is another name for pie graph)

and then I got a whole lot of words that had graph in it (like photograph) and several kiddo's had blank paper.

When I put that data in a sort of bar graph (no scale, no even spacing, no labelling, no title), half of the class were convinced that it was a great graph and they could see all they needed and were prepared to argue their case!

I was so glad I followed up the idea I got from Runde's Room otherwise I would have gone in rather blindly expecting them to have some quite big base knowledge that is either missing or as happens completely forgotten!!!

Day 2 (Friday), I was meant to start to introduce mean, mode, medium, range however it was planned for a two day event (to then be built on over the weeks) and I knew I would have to start again on Monday, so I talked it over with my AT and said I would rather do one of my graph 'review' sessions and start mean etc on Monday.  She agreed with me.

So I thought once I started talking about strip graphs my kiddo's would show an oh yeah look or sound and they would recognise it from previous lessons (they should have been doing this from 2nd year in school and these guys are 5th and 6th year of school).  It did not happen, not one of them had any idea.

I have realised that I am going to have to completely fold back my lessons and half of each session that I have planned will not happen - all my worksheets that were designed for interactive practice may go out the window or what was meant to be one hour sessions may have to be two hour sessions or I teach two graph styles and then we have a practice day for those two styles otherwise I am overloading them with info and they are not getting to practice.  I am making sure that the lessons have a huge interactive part (so they are not listening to me drone on) and they have to write about each graph in their own words in their foldable (which they are loving!!!).

It just scares me as to how much I have to cover in the four weeks, the older kiddo's need to know this stuff before moving on next year where it starts to become more sink or swim schooling, where the schooling is definitely more build on existing knowledge that you MUST have not teaching from scratch.

I do not want to let these kiddo's down and it worries me that I might.

I tried to discuss it with my associate who really did not seem that concerned!!!  And when the next door teacher came through to talk about the student conferences that are to start next week (need to fit that into my planning now too), she made the comment that she shows the students their data on a graph and that at least gives them some exposure too and some understanding of graphing and covers that area!!!!!!  I had to pick myself up off the floor with that one - that is how she is going to cover graphing in the curriculum for her class. 

I am so trying not to judge and I really bit my tongue about saying anything to my associate - after all who am I to comment but a 3rd year student teacher - BUT I am judging somewhat.  When I see all the wonderful teachers in the blogging world and the extent they go too and who have so inspired my lesson planning and her teaching of stats will be a one hour conference with the students in a group (not even one on one) it makes me wonder if this may be why this knowledge is missing in my class (most of them were in her class last year).  But then again it may have been an off the cuff comment that really did not mean to sound that way, so once again I must be careful in my judgement - and for that matter what I say - no point going somewhere when I do not have the full story.

We were told in Uni that a lot of teachers have hang ups about teaching maths and for some if a change in the programme comes up that is the first thing to go out the window.  When I was discussing it with my associate she reckons most of the problem is that there is such a focus on number knowledge that things like statistics and time and geometry and measurement (the strands) get forgotten.  I do not think my associates argument is all that valid as everyone of the strands builds on base number knowledge - there is adding, subtracting, dividing, multiplication and fractions in all areas!

Oh well I cannot change what previous teachers may or may not have taught this class all I can do is go in and teach them as best as I can and hope that what I am doing will make a difference to their knowledge base - I so do not want to fail them.

0

Learning a lot about myself...

Uni has finished for the semester and I am trying to cram in study before I start my school placement on Tuesday.  Although I still feel I have a lot of work to do on my time unit, I have all my resources in place and an outline of where I will go with the topic depending on where the kiddo's are with their understanding - yahy diagnostic assessments.

I have spent the last two days having to come up with my philosophy of teaching as that is one of the biggy questions that will be in the exam.  Although it was sort of answered in the assignment we did part way through the semester, the purpose of the assignment was not aligning our thinking with any traditions (progressive, critical or liberal) but rather theorist (Vygotsky etc), and now we have to move it more towards the traditions. 

For most of my classmates they can really just work off their assignment, but I got mine rather mixed up and as a result did not achieve to my best and its rather off the mark.  Therefore I sort of feel like I am writing the assignment again from scratch but maybe with a slightly better understanding.

I would have said two days ago that I was a progressive teacher, in that the child is the centre of the learning process and that the knowledge and experiences they bring into the classroom are a valuable resource.  Although as it turns out that rather links to the critical tradition as well. 

What I have learnt is that I am a big mix of both the progressive and critical.

I want my kiddo's to be able to go out into the world knowing who they are, that their opinions matter, that they can make a change, that education empowers them, that they are valued, that their voice was heard and that throughout life you are always learning - it never stops.  I want my teaching to involve them, not be taught to them, I do not want to just be about book work and the all important literacy and maths (more towards liberal thinking) but rather how to work as part of a group, how to get along with others, include the arts and fun, include their lives, their opinions, their views and overall help them grow. 

I want to not only teach them the information, but teach them why the information is valuable to them, whats the relevance to their lives, and hopefully there is more than one way of looking at something and learning something.

I know that perhaps I am hoping for a lot, and maybe more than I can achieve, but hey if I do not give it a go I never will achieve.  I know it will come with heart ache (especially with those kiddo's so beaten down by life already), and there will be some I am just not be able to get through too no matter what I try - but I will keep trying.

The best part about getting this sorted in my head, is I know what sort teacher I want to be and that will grow and evolve even further with time.

Hopefully I'm not to far off the mark.

0

It's been a llllooonnnggg few weeks

It has really felt like my cup has been over flowing for the last couple of weeks but not with good stuff just work load.  University has been full on been course work, assignments and of course getting my lesson plans and unit plans ready for teaching which starts in less than two weeks. 

Scared me nah.....OK maybe just a little, after all despite how well I do in my exams and assignments, doing badly at my placement can stop my plans for teaching in its tracks.

The good news is that I completed my presentation of Rousseau and his influence on Education (along with my group) and past with flying colours (A+ anyone). 

So that is one assignment down. 

This Friday I hand in my Mathematics which includes legalities and lesson planning expectations and Literacy. 

All that will be left after that is exam prep and teaching (until next semester that is). 

I am almost there with my mathematics assignment except I keep re writing it (it's worth 60% of our over all mark) so I keep second guessing myself again and again and again... My literacy I'm not so on top of and it will have to be my focus for tomorrow cause I seem to be spending an awful lot of time on line blog and pinterest stalking rather than working, so I don't see myself getting beyond maths today..but you never know ;)

On preparing for my teaching, I think I am almost there, I have completed my Literacy unit with studying features of picture books and then writing their own (I so cannot wait to teach that) and my first maths unit on statistics.  I am only part way with my second unit on maths (time) as so much depends on the assessment of their current understanding before I can really plan for it.  So at this stage I am amassing resources and concepts as I wont know if it will be whole class, grouping or a mixture.  I suspect it will be a mixture as I can not imagine that in a class of 8.5yr olds to 10.9 yr olds that they will all be at the same level of understanding (if only life was that easy).  It will just depend on how diverse the range of knowledge is.

The sad thing is I have not managed to get to class to see my kiddo for a over a month now with how overload in work I have been feeling.  I hope to get in next week, to check in before I start and make sure nothing else has changed with my Associate Teachers expectations (she has changed my maths focus 4 times on me now - which has meant a lot of wasted planning time).  I will just have to see how next week goes as it may also be my last chance for studying for my exams which happen part way through my teaching time.

Okay enough dodging my assignments, time to log off and get back on with it...wish me luck

0

These are not holidays!!

Supposedly I am on holidays.  

Unfortunately no-one told my work load that!! 

I have three assignments due after the holidays which thankfully I am almost on top of.  The hard part is that in four weeks I go on placement (back to my wonderful kiddo's) and almost straight away  I start teaching, which means I need to get all my lesson plans sorted out. 

I start my placement early (due to my associate teacher going away), which means I am teaching during what is meant to be my study break for exams (which I will have during my placement).  This means I also need to sort out my study notes and start studying them if I have any chance of passing my exams. 

In all it is feeling very overwhelming, and I haven't been sleeping that well - all my planning keeps going round and round in my head along with dreams of failing everything.

The upside - I am really pleased with my maths and literacy unit plans and I think they are going to go down really well with my kiddo's (fingers crossed).

The worst thing is I am putting all this pressure on myself - I am my own worst enemy when it comes to this sort of stuff :).  Oh well one more week to go and I'll be back at University and I will have other things to think about than lesson plans....gulp.

Anyway back to the books - hubby arrives in an hour for a weekend visit and I have no intention of visiting this computer again during that time!!

0

loving maths

Things have been full on this year at Uni, with a focus on Maths, Literacy and developing our teaching philosophy (with a hint of politics thrown in for good measure).  The assignments are bigger and the expectations of us are higher (as they should be).

Unfortunately I seem to be struggling more this year as well. 

I had my first low mark for an assignment (in philosophy), I had the info I just did not organise it properly which meant it did not meet the brief.  Now the marks not too bad (B-) but considering my consistent A's I have really beaten myself up about it. 

It has really thrown me for a loop, talk about doubting myself!!!!  I have two more assignments due soon and I am second guessing myself left right and center. 

Thankfully I have great lectures so I will need to take advantage of going and seeing them tomorrow and getting some feedback to ensure I am on the right track and I'm just being silly.... Now if only I could get that voice in my head to start taking notice that I'm just being silly and to let it go it would be okay, but the way its going on you would think I failed the paper (mind you it sort of feels like I have).

One positive this year is until now I would have always said I am an all rounder teacher - great skills in maths, literacy (reading/writing) and art with a head start in reading difficulties.  This year I have realised that I have a real interest in Maths.  I always loved maths as a kiddo at school myself and have for the most part been good at it, I also think I have skills in find alternative ways of looking at problems. 

Its interesting sitting in a class at Uni, full of adults ranging from the young to the more mature student (like myself) and hearing how much they just never got maths at school and how much they are finding their associate teachers avoid maths in the class today!!  I must admit it annoys me how easily teachers put maths aside for other things. 

I know just because a person has the label teacher does not mean they excel at everything and they go out into the classroom with some of their own hang ups about areas, but kid's are struggling in senior schools due to still not having a grasp of the basics and they now have teachers who no longer have time to deal with it, they have a whole lot of higher order maths to get through.

So much of what we need to teach in regards to maths is part of every day life and form building blocks for learning the 'higher order maths'.  I have realized it is fast becoming a passion for me and my soap box is rapidly growing.  I have finally found the area for which I want to specialize
in with complimentary skills in the other areas as well..

okay so enough soap boxing and on with study!!

0

Last Student Teaching Placement has Started

I cant believe how long it has been since I posted, life has just taken over.

I had my placement for three weeks at school where I got to see the setting up the new year and getting to know the kiddo's before I go back and teach for over a month in three months time.  I have once again been so spoilt by both my school and children and associate teacher. 

This is a school from a low economic area, however they buck all the stereo types that are out there.  The school demands the best from all their students in both their work ethics, efforts and attitudes. 

They have the mindset that where you come from is not what defines you but rather it is your starting point, what you do from there is up to you.

The class is a mix of 8 to 11 year old's with all excelling in their reading - the lowest level in the class is achieving at level!! (this pattern is throughout the school). 

There is one exception child but she has a number of issues and may never be at level, as a result is getting assistance in all areas of her schooling. 

This is going to make teaching the class a lot of fun in the different things I can introduce them to...the ideas I have running around my head!!  It has been quite a different experience observing the class this year, I came with a much more critical mind and knowledge to back it up. 

While I really like my AT and she is a great teacher and really into teaching me as well, there were a few things she was doing that I would have done better, and even better rather than it just been a criticism, I could justify my thinking. 

Thankfully this was only in my own notes that she does not see as I have no right to tell her how to do her job and I sound like a know it all with just writing it here with out saying anything out loud!!

I go back to Uni next week for a full on final year and I am looking forward to it (although I would rather stay in the classroom), but I am also looking forward to it being finished so I can start teaching.

0

first day of teaching done!

Well I have completed my first of seven days of teaching for this placement and it went so well.

I came away feeling so great with how it went, I did cheat somewhat as half the class was away doing other stuff but it was a nice way to ease into the teaching, getting my feet wet so to speak.

The kiddo's were just fabulous and the cheeky ones didn't play up to much, but I have two of my own so I know all the pushing button tricks (or at least I hope I do LOL). 

They were really happy about doing something different and doing it with me which was great.  My AT was amazed at how long they sat at the mat to have a discussion on values and attitudes. 

It was only meant to be a 10 - 15 minute talk before sending them off to do a follow up activity but they kept talking and coming up with such great ideas and thinking and so into it we just couldn't stop the conversation!!

The only down side of this placement is all the paper work I have to do to meet the requirements, there is the normal lesson plans, weekly plans, unit plans but then there is all the reflection statements, observations, what it means to me statements, what I would do different etc it seems never ending. 

I have spent all day typing or on line getting resources for next weeks lessons or typing out what happened last year and I still haven't finished!!

 I am not however doing much more this weekend, I have printing to do and that will be that as hubby will be here in under two hours and I am spending my time with him and my boys.  I can't wait, it feels like my life has been consumed by teaching this last fortnight and the boys have had very little of my time (guilty Mum anyone).

Anyway talking of my boys its time to go and put them to bed, Dad's going to be too late for them to stay up for tonight and my arms and fingers are tired from so much time on the computer!

0

first week finished

Whew one week down...seen lots of great stuff that will help me for the future.

I am in total awe of teachers who let student teachers like me into their classroom and let them loose on their kiddo's.  At the end of the day they don't know who we are getting and how good we might be or not be!!!

The generosity of knowledge and help is amazing and hey at the end of the day without teachers being prepared to do this there wouldn't be new teachers (unless they change the program).

Listening to some of my fellow students I do sometimes wonder why some teachers have agreed to be associate teachers when they appear to not want to share knowledge and/or have lost the passion themselves for teaching. 

I have been very lucky so far not to have that issue, both my past AT and my current AT have been great. 

The only down side of my current AT is it will appear she will be away a fair bit of my placement, thankfully she has a regular reliever who is also great and more than happy to both help me and listen to me.

Time to go back and type up my observations and lesson plans so I am ready for the new week. :)

0

so far so good in my new class

I have spent my first three days in the classroom and so far they have been really great.  The class has a vast range of ages and levels which will provide challenges when I do my full control in a few weeks but hey that's all part of the job of being a teacher. 

I had a double whammy today by agreeing yesterday to take on a Maths group and teaching fractions while I was being assessed by my visiting lecturer. 

Apparently there was no expectation of me to do that and my Associate Teacher had misunderstood the instructions.  I didn't mind however as I'm happy to jump in boots and all, I find the sooner I do the better and the less chance I have of letting my nerves taking over :) 

My review went fabulous and I ticked most of the boxes which is a nice start as I thought I was bumbling somewhat but apparently I wasn't coming across that way (once again too hard on myself).  I got a few valuable tips from her for my next few lessons which I look forward to implementing.

The best bit was getting the fractions right, its been a long time since I have had to do any fraction work, I actually knew what I was doing and got it right...now for the next lesson tomorrow!!

0