Elementary vs. Secondary

When I was a little girl I had an "ah-ha" moment. I realized that math was easy if you understood basic concepts. Oh course when I had this "ah-ha" moment, it was from the perspective of a student and not very ground breaking. However, it was a determining factor in what I wanted to do when I grew up.  I had always loved math. I loved solving problems in my head, I loved to do puzzles, and challenging myself to complete a problem quicker and better than everybody else. I also had amazing teachers help me grasp the fundamentals of math and see the patterns that existed within every math problem.  I knew I wanted to do this for other people.  I had friends that HATED math...but when you investigated further it wasn't because it was boring or whatever it was because they couldn't see the patterns! They struggled with the basics which made the higher level mathematics almost impossible.  I knew when I became a teacher that I wanted to help students stop struggling with math.  However, I have been teaching 6th grade (long story how I got into that grade) for 4 years now....and I have to admit I am burning out. Being in an elementary setting is really difficult.  I am asked to teach all subjects, deal with homeroom stuff, monitor 24-30 students (depends on the year), deal with field trips, school fundraisers, sign agenda books, have parent teacher conferences, among many more things. I am not saying that teaching in a secondary position is ANY easier...but I know colleagues that have made that switch that say they are a lot less stressed out...so why is it? Did I make the wrong career choice?

Numberline

 This year, I am trying to stress Fractions, Decimals, and Percents on a number line as a math concept in my classroom.  It is not enough that the students can do the calculations to convert a fraction to a decimal and then a percent.  They need to visually understand that 2 3/4 is greater than 3.6 because it is closer to zero.  It is a hard concept for them. In our elementary schools we rarely go above 1 on a number line. Even then we rarely put all three different forms on the same number line except to show equivalency. My 21 students were put into 7 groups of 3.  Each group of students had a different denominator that they had to place. *In hindsight this probably wasn't the best plan. I then gave the students the task to place their fractions on the number line.  The conversation that came from this open ended task was AMAZING.  The students were able to compare the fractions using their previous knowledge of equivalent fractions and non-mixed fractions.  In the upcoming days we will continue putting decimals and percents on the number lines so that the students can see the whole correlation.