They no longer function.
Remember what I said about my impression that the class was moving too slowly and that kids were getting bored? At least some of the students in the 3rd hour physical science class may have finally found a challenge, though not in the sort of material I was hoping it would be. This Tuesday, the class was learning basic unit conversions--really just one conversion, from cm to inches. The task was very straight forward: measure a set of lines on the page in cm, then convert the values to inches using the method and conversion factor explained earlier in class, and presumably, the day before as well.
Some students got it right away and were done in a few minutes, but a couple didn't really follow what they were supposed to do. I explained it again and worked out an example for a few of the students who then understood, but there were a few remaining who, even after one-on-one attention, still had very little idea of what they were supposed to do. I had a hard time trying to figure out what was so complicated about the process, until I concluded that one young man didn't seem to understand how fractions worked. I'm not sure if he was a freshman or a sophomore (there are a few juniors in the class, so he could potentially be even older than I thought), but either way, I'm not sure how one gets that far without understanding such a critical basic mathematical concept. Unfortunately, I had to leave very shortly after making this realization. I plan letting Ms. Hardy know about this if she wasn't already aware, and hopefully I'll have a chance to squeeze some basic math review in where ever I can for him and any other students that might need it.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
First Week
So far, I've been in the classroom on three separate days. I'm almost to the point of knowing all the students' names, though I think a smaller proportion knows mine as of yet. I'm in Miss Hardy's 1st period chemistry class and her 3rd period physical science class. These classes are comprised of mostly juniors and seniors, and freshmen and sophomores, respectively, though--at least from what I've seen so far--the level of complexity of the material being covered so far doesn't differ much between the two. However, being the first two weeks of school, it's a bit early to judge the classes' curricula quite yet, since the beginning of the semester is generally very straight forward.
The first period class tends to be fairly sedate, and at first I thought this was because of their higher maturity level, but I'm beginning to think it has more to do with the early start time. Speaking of which--not to digress to far--I think the 7:20am start is excessively early. When asking Miss Hardy about it, she said that her high school started at 6:50am, though it was a magnet school and she also attended a regular high school later in the day. I think my high school had originally started at 8:30, and there was a bit of a row among students when it was moved up to 8:15am. I recall hearing about studies that had found the optimal time to start high school classes was about 9:00 because of adolescents' tendency to stay up later, and yet require more sleep than the average adult.
The third period physical science class is definitely more awake and ready to socialize during class than their first period peers. I wouldn't characterize the use of cell phones and music players as being excessive, though it's definitely widespread and regard for any existing policy against them is pretty minuscule. I notice, however, that most students don't use these electronic distractions when they're supposed to be doing work, but mostly when they've already finished the task assigned to them. I interpret this as an indication that they need something more challenging and engaging to work on. I don't want this to be interpreted as advocating "busy work" by any means, but when in the classroom, I think being bored is perhaps a worse condition than "not getting it".
The first period class tends to be fairly sedate, and at first I thought this was because of their higher maturity level, but I'm beginning to think it has more to do with the early start time. Speaking of which--not to digress to far--I think the 7:20am start is excessively early. When asking Miss Hardy about it, she said that her high school started at 6:50am, though it was a magnet school and she also attended a regular high school later in the day. I think my high school had originally started at 8:30, and there was a bit of a row among students when it was moved up to 8:15am. I recall hearing about studies that had found the optimal time to start high school classes was about 9:00 because of adolescents' tendency to stay up later, and yet require more sleep than the average adult.
The third period physical science class is definitely more awake and ready to socialize during class than their first period peers. I wouldn't characterize the use of cell phones and music players as being excessive, though it's definitely widespread and regard for any existing policy against them is pretty minuscule. I notice, however, that most students don't use these electronic distractions when they're supposed to be doing work, but mostly when they've already finished the task assigned to them. I interpret this as an indication that they need something more challenging and engaging to work on. I don't want this to be interpreted as advocating "busy work" by any means, but when in the classroom, I think being bored is perhaps a worse condition than "not getting it".
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