Monday, April 24, 2006
They Always Think They are Wrong
I have many students that do this. They go to turn in their tests in a folder at the front of the room and as they are turning it in they check their answers with the person who turned theirs in before them. No one is cheating here they know once they open that folder that their test is over, and I would prefer that they didn't do this but when I'm more worried about cheating I don't always notice it. The interesting thing is they ALWAYS assume that if they got a different answer from the person who turned it in before them then they MUST be wrong. They use this assumption whether the person right before them is the smartest person in the class or not. Where did they get this idea? How do they know there aren't different test versions out there? WHy don't they trust their own work?
Friday, April 21, 2006
It's Like People Watching...
Watching students take a test is one of the most entertaining thing. Many are hard at work pencils, paper calculators all going a mile a minute. Although the positions that they deem comfortable is "creative" to say the least. Then there are some (who probably will ask for more time when it is over) that are off day dreaming, playing with their hair, drawing pictures on the test, taking more sips from their water bottle then looks at the test. Watching how these students waste the time allotted to them is AMAZING.
I also love the frustrated sighs, staring at the board as if the answer will appear there, and the constant checks of the clock.
I feel somewhat wrong knowing I am causing all this stress but it IS entertaining.
I also love the frustrated sighs, staring at the board as if the answer will appear there, and the constant checks of the clock.
I feel somewhat wrong knowing I am causing all this stress but it IS entertaining.
Ain't it the Truth
I stumbled across, apparently its from men in black. "A person can be smart, people are stupid
Some Days it's all worth it...... and some days it isn't
Today my algebra kids made my day. This is a mid to low level algebra class and the students struggle with very basic number concepts like -2 - -9. Also they have been apparently trained by the middle school that if you answer isn't a whole number then it must be wrong. So they have often assumed that their answer of one half or .75 or something similar must have been incorrect (and if it was a negative fraction they must have made a big mistake!) Today I gave a test filled with answers that were not positive whole numbers and they kicked butt!!! I got fractions, decimals, negative numbers, it was incredible! They are finally more confident in their work than in their idea of what a right answer "looks" like.
My geometry students though.....apparently giving them problems EXACTLY like the ones we covered in class isn't easy enough and they need more time for a 25 question test where one quarter of those questions were vocab words where they just had to identify parts from a drawing. And why in the world would the CENTER of the circle be called the "midpoint of the circle." Did I even use the word midpoint once this chapter????
My geometry students though.....apparently giving them problems EXACTLY like the ones we covered in class isn't easy enough and they need more time for a 25 question test where one quarter of those questions were vocab words where they just had to identify parts from a drawing. And why in the world would the CENTER of the circle be called the "midpoint of the circle." Did I even use the word midpoint once this chapter????
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Privatizing Education
Here is an interesting post about making public education a thing of the past. The idea is that each student is worth a dollar amount and they can make their choice of any school to attend and whichever school they choose that is the school that gets the dollar amount (from the government). The idea being if schools had to compete for students then they would be better from the competition and poor schools would go "out of business." Capitalism of education.
The idea is very interesting to me. My question is would this mean that since students could choose their schools then schools could also in turn choose their students? Meaning if my school has a child that won't do any work or is a constant behavior problem can we "let them go?" Will we as a district also have a right to refuse to teach some students?
Obviously there is much that would need to be worked out. A school built for 2000 students that had 5000 students that wanted to attend it would have to turn some students away, but could schools turn away students even if they had the room? I personally love the idea! The kid who refuses to pay attention or even open his eyes in my class, gone. The guy who has been suspended more than he has been in school, gone. It makes my life much easier if I can essentially "fire" students.
BUT, who will teach the "problem students?" Who will educate those we let go? Anyone? Does it matter? (I'm not saying it doesn't I'm just saying it as a question.)
The other question I have is how does this dollar amount per student work? I think there is some flawed logic going on. I would guess that my school spends the same amount on my classroom whether there are 25 students in it or 26 students, but under this capitalistic style my school would have $x less because my class only has 25 students instead of 26. I would be intrigued to see a study that would show how the costs break down and how that would affect a schools budget.
Now all of this really is for nothing because I am very doubtful of any change as radical as this happening in the US because of how proud we are of everyone getting an education but it raises some very interesting questions.
Thoughts?
The idea is very interesting to me. My question is would this mean that since students could choose their schools then schools could also in turn choose their students? Meaning if my school has a child that won't do any work or is a constant behavior problem can we "let them go?" Will we as a district also have a right to refuse to teach some students?
Obviously there is much that would need to be worked out. A school built for 2000 students that had 5000 students that wanted to attend it would have to turn some students away, but could schools turn away students even if they had the room? I personally love the idea! The kid who refuses to pay attention or even open his eyes in my class, gone. The guy who has been suspended more than he has been in school, gone. It makes my life much easier if I can essentially "fire" students.
BUT, who will teach the "problem students?" Who will educate those we let go? Anyone? Does it matter? (I'm not saying it doesn't I'm just saying it as a question.)
The other question I have is how does this dollar amount per student work? I think there is some flawed logic going on. I would guess that my school spends the same amount on my classroom whether there are 25 students in it or 26 students, but under this capitalistic style my school would have $x less because my class only has 25 students instead of 26. I would be intrigued to see a study that would show how the costs break down and how that would affect a schools budget.
Now all of this really is for nothing because I am very doubtful of any change as radical as this happening in the US because of how proud we are of everyone getting an education but it raises some very interesting questions.
Thoughts?
Friday, April 07, 2006
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
When am I ever going to use this?
I love math. I think it is a fantastic subject that really does have many real world applications for people of all professions. I can even make the argument and not feel like it is a cop out that some of the math the students may never use in the real world but the logical and analytical thinking skills they will. So I'm okay teaching my students about factoring knowing they won't ever factor for a living some day.
But some days I just don't know. I'm teaching about circles right now in my geometry class and I firmly believe that I am basically giving them a bunch of formulas and teaching them which situations require which formula. Why? Besides the fact that the curriculum says so what is the point to it all? Why do they need to know how to deal with situations such as the intersection of two secant lines to a circle drawn from a common point? How can we get them the skills they need to do the real world math without boring them and shoving in a lot of state standards that really do have no real use?
But some days I just don't know. I'm teaching about circles right now in my geometry class and I firmly believe that I am basically giving them a bunch of formulas and teaching them which situations require which formula. Why? Besides the fact that the curriculum says so what is the point to it all? Why do they need to know how to deal with situations such as the intersection of two secant lines to a circle drawn from a common point? How can we get them the skills they need to do the real world math without boring them and shoving in a lot of state standards that really do have no real use?
For Homework Tonight
How in the world do you get kids to complete homework? My current system is to check their homework for completion on a random basis and award them points if they have completed it and no points if they haven't. Note this is just for doing it not necessarily doing it correctly. This system makes my life easier because I don't have to grade individual problems all the time nor waste class time checking it everyday, but hopefully the thought of it being checked is enough to make the students do it every night. Instead it has become a game of I'll try and guess when he is going to check the homework and only do it then, or even I'm just not going to do it at all. I even started giving homework quizzes in my one class when less than half the students did their homework and it did nothing but punish the kids who actually did the work because they have trouble understanding it but worked hard anyway. How can I make them see that homework is useful and is helping them learn the material and that it is worth doing well and not just scribbling something down for credit?
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