Ready to start!

I believe my classes are established, students schedules are set now. I am worried about the size of the classes, they are larger than I anticipated them being. I hope I can manage the classroom and become a facilitator of learning instead of a lecturer. I am ready to make the change! I am working on the last of the plans this weekend for an angle exploration using the TI-Nspire to start on Monday. Other members of the geometry PLT are concerned about my being "behind" in the geometry curriculum. I just can't teach geometry to students that are not engaged, and every time I start teaching a new group of students I can stand at the front of the room and watch them drop one by one!
I am concerned about the students learning the required curriculum before the end of the semester. However, I am placing my hopes in acquiring the students' attention at the beginning of the course so they will be eager to learn when they enter the classroom and we will "catch up" very quickly. I will check back in later in the week with the good (and the bad).

An Every Day Object

I have begun to make some changes!!  I am feeling less stressed about making sure to "cover" all the material and focusing my energy on making sure students are mastering the objectives.  The first step in my journey has been to assign a project for students where they will choose an everyday object, take it apart to see how the parts function to make the whole.  Geometry is about the study of the relationships and students often miss the relationships of the parts of a figure. It is my hope students will become intrigued by this project at least enough to stay engaged. I need to design a rubric for this project I don't have much experience with grading projects but I hope to get better.
Snow is in the air, I hope we only have a delay in the morning rather than a snow day!