The biggest lesson I have learned is that my students need to practice. 3 or 4 problems is not enough. They might whine somewhat about the worksheet, but they are hopeless without a lot of practice. The thing to do is not to have other activities replace practice, but to have a lot of practice [...]
Archive for the ‘students’ Category
My first quarter is over
Posted in chemistry, homework, planning, students, tagged lessons on March 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
They get to do it in English class….
Posted in assessment, students, tagged revision, tests on March 11, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Revision, that is. My MIL sent me some tests from some high school student she knows, and this girl had failed her chemistry tests the first time around. She went back, fixed all the problems, and wrote one to two paragraphs explaining her mistake and the correct answer. If they were good enough, she got [...]
Touchy Feely Flower Child
Posted in chemistry, difficulties, math, students, tagged intuition on March 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of my students referred to a task we were doing in class today as “touchy feel-y flower child” methods. Not something that one expects to hear in chemistry class, when classifying compounds as either ionic, polar covalent, or non-polar covalent.
This was because I was discouraging the method in the book, which no one except [...]
Playing Favorites
Posted in students, tagged favoritism on February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I really don’t have favorites in my head. I like all my students, and, as I said before, am very idealistic about their potential. However, I can be shy towards those who do not reach out to me, or who do not want to be in my class, and this looks like favoritism. My mentor [...]
Resolutions
Posted in assessment, planning, students, tagged assessment, grading, planning, resolutions, students on February 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I find making resolutions very useful. The only time I don’t make resolutions is New Year’s =). Progress reports are in for my students, and I am going to try to give myself one. Come to think of it, I should make an online survey for them so they can give me one too.
1. More [...]
Idealistic Realism, or Realistic Idealism
Posted in difficulties, students, tagged idealism, realism on February 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I am an idealist. In many ways, this is a great help as a teacher. I truly believe that every single one of my students can improve, learn, and achieve in my classroom. They might not all get A’s, but in my heart I know that they can at least all get B’s, if they [...]
Wasted Time
Posted in difficulties, students, tagged wasted time on January 25, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
First period has it rough. First of all, they are so sleepy that everything takes longer. They are at a definite disadvantage just by class starting so early. Second, on homeroom days, the most minutes are taken out of first period. I thought all the classes were treated equally, 5 minutes from every period or [...]
My students, part 1
Posted in students, tagged interests, public speaking, students, suggestion box on January 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
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 [...]
