I have about 22 students in each of my three sections. They are mostly sophomores, with a few juniors. I would say most of them are in Geometry or Honors Geometry, with few in Algebra 2, and a few in pre-calc.
Apparently the two main differences between Honors and Regular chemistry are the math skills of the students, and the speed at which the material is covered.
My students do not reflect the overall demographics of the school (see previous post). Out of my 67 students, I have 7 or 8 non-white students.
Some of them like chemistry, some do not. A good number think they are bad at it (I don’t let them say that, however.)
Many of them are interested in the arts. There are a lot of artists, musicians, and dramatists in my classes. A few play sports.
Most of them are very friendly, and very warm to me. Most of them seem to like my teaching style. They really like having the desks in groups instead of in rows. They like the fact that I do actual demonstrations instead of showing videos.
One student has actually used my suggestion box, and asked for me to have a weekly calendar on the board, use fewer abbreviations, and have more structured notes. It was a very polite friendly note. I was afraid the suggestion box might be too corny and not actually get used, so I am glad that she let me know. I should know better than to use too many abbreviations with sophomores. I have found it to be confusing for them in past. I implemented the calendar today, and I have also been hoping to have a little more structure to my notes, but I need to be more than a day ahead in planning to accomplish that.
I had them fill out index cards with some basic information on them, and one interesting thing is that most of the students for whom math is their favorite part of chemistry are girls. There are a lot of math loving girls.
In general I would say they are very used to working independently, very used to being lectured, taking notes, and worrying about details.
A lot of them have expressed large fears of speaking in front of the class. I have mentioned some assignments that would involve brief presentations, and I have asked them to explain an answer they have to the class, and they often asked to be excused out of a fear of speaking in front of their classmates. This goes along with the general desire to not speak out in class. I need to think of a compassionate way to get them to present or speak in front of the class. I don’t want to make anyone afraid or uncomfortable, but I think its an important skill.
