Ask a teacher on Summer Break

[ignoramus]

C'mon ...you sneak one in between classes. We're friends here ...We never tell.

[The Valkyrie]

C'mon ...you sneak one in between classes. We're friends here ...We never tell.

She deals with kids all day. She probably drinks even more than I do before surgery...

[pocaracas]

I feel that some math teachers give out too much homework.  Though that's more from a parent's perspective than a teacher's perspective.  I think Math in particular is difficult to teach, because every student doesn't learn the same way--and some methods will be harder for some students to get than others.  Nothing but respect for anyone who teaches (and takes their job seriously, obviously).

As a coach, I'd never make my cheerleaders run laps for failing to perform a stunt. I'd just have them try again. Because only through practice can you really learn.

Maths can also only be learned through practice... that's where homework comes in, if there isn't enough time to learn the techniques in class.
How many hours a week do kids practice maths VS hours practicing those cheerleading stunts?

As for the punishment... that thing of making kids do laps if they get something wrong... imagine if you got some maths exercise wrong and the teacher made you count to 1000! LOL!!

When you say European History, do you go way back to Celts and Vikings and Romans and Gauls and Goths, or is it mostly 18th century and onward (to keep up with the US?) What does that AP mean?

[Cecelia]

C'mon ...you sneak one in between classes. We're friends here ...We never tell.

lol!  I wish.  I make it a rule never to drink alcohol unless I've got at least two days afterward before going back to work. 

She deals with kids all day.  She probably drinks even more than I do before surgery...

Some of them can be a real pain.  Especially one who insisted I follow ALL the school rules (I usually don't.  Like gum?  Yeah,  I'm a gum addict.  So I let the kids in my class chew gum, as long as they don't put it under the desk and spit it out when they leave.  I'm also okay with kids having a soda as long as they aren't constantly opening it).  So glad I only had him one year...

Maths can also only be learned through practice... that's where homework comes in, if there isn't enough time to learn the techniques in class.
How many hours a week do kids practice maths VS hours practicing those cheerleading stunts?

As for the punishment... that thing of making kids do laps if they get something wrong... imagine if you got some maths exercise wrong and the teacher made you count to 1000! LOL!!

When you say European History, do you go way back to Celts and Vikings and Romans and Gauls and Goths, or is it mostly 18th century and onward (to keep up with the US?) What does that AP mean?

Yes, but I think there's such thing as too much math practice.  I see kids with like 50 problems to do.  That includes my own kids.  Practice is good, but too much practice can make you hate math.  Cheerleading is fun!  How much they practice those stunts each week varies.   We typically practice a few hours each week--maybe a little more when we're practicing for a competition.

Can't imagine counting to 1000.  But I doubt it would be any more helpful than the laps!  It'd take at least 5 minutes, assuming no breaks. 

AP Euro goes from around 1400 (starting around the Habsburgs) to present.  AP means Advance Placement.  Which means it's worth more than normal classes.  It's a little like Honors.  It's basically a college level course for high school students. There's also an exam they have to take to get credit for the course.  And it's actually fairly difficult--though I haven't had a student fail yet.  Something I'm particularly proud of!  (I have had students fail my other classes, though not too many).

[pocaracas]

Maths can also only be learned through practice... that's where homework comes in, if there isn't enough time to learn the techniques in class.
How many hours a week do kids practice maths VS hours practicing those cheerleading stunts?

As for the punishment... that thing of making kids do laps if they get something wrong... imagine if you got some maths exercise wrong and the teacher made you count to 1000! LOL!!

When you say European History, do you go way back to Celts and Vikings and Romans and Gauls and Goths, or is it mostly 18th century and onward (to keep up with the US?) What does that AP mean?

Yes, but I think there's such thing as too much math practice.  I see kids with like 50 problems to do.  That includes my own kids.  Practice is good, but too much practice can make you hate math. 

50 problems in how much time? one night?! yuck!!!
A week? 10 a day? totally doable!

Cheerleading is fun!  How much they practice those stunts each week varies.   We typically practice a few hours each week--maybe a little more when we're practicing for a competition.

A few hours and it's fun! It's like when I found out that they have a table tennis table here at work.... Every day, after work, me and another guy are hitting that table.... and we stay there for over an hour. In a week, we end up doing more than 5 hours of "practice". But we do maths and programming for most of our work, so we deserve it!

Can't imagine counting to 1000.  But I doubt it would be any more helpful than the laps!  It'd take at least 5 minutes, assuming no breaks. 

That's my point.... it's equally useless.

AP Euro goes from around 1400 (starting around the Hapsburgs) to present.  AP means Advance Placement.  Which means it's worth more than normal classes.  It's a little like Honors.  It's basically a college level course for high school students. There's also an exam they have to take to get credit for the course.  And it's actually fairly difficult--though I haven't had a student fail yet.  Something I'm particularly proud of!  (I have had students fail my other classes, though not too many).

I see... 1400's onward...Going through all the cool architecture and music periods, missing the black plague by a few years... then war war war.
In Portugal, we end up learning a lot about the discoveries along the coast of Africa, Brazil, the Americas, and the maritime path to India that then brought cheap(er) spices and other stuff to European markets. Political intrigues in central Europe mean little in comparison (it seems... ) so we don't learn much about them... we just go straight to Napoleon and then WW1.
[disclaimer] This is what I remember, from some 20 years ago.... maybe they've changed the curricula a bit to be less Portugal-centric in their teaching of High-school level History... maybe...

[Cecelia]

50 problems in how much time? one night?! yuck!!!
A week? 10 a day? totally doable!


A few hours and it's fun! It's like when I found out that they have a table tennis table here at work.... Every day, after work, me and another guy are hitting that table.... and we stay there for over an hour. In a week, we end up doing more than 5 hours of "practice". But we do maths and programming for most of our work, so we deserve it!

That's my point.... it's equally useless.

I see... 1400's onward...Going through all the cool architecture and music periods, missing the black plague by a few years... then war war war.
In Portugal, we end up learning a lot about the discoveries along the coast of Africa, Brazil, the Americas, and the maritime path to India that then brought cheap(er) spices and other stuff to European markets. Political intrigues in central Europe mean little in comparison (it seems... ) so we don't learn much about them... we just go straight to Napoleon and then WW1.
[disclaimer] This is what I remember, from some 20 years ago.... maybe they've changed the curricula a bit to be less Portugal-centric in their teaching of High-school level History... maybe...

50 problems a night, yeah.  Sometimes more at the high school level (though my girls aren't there yet). 

It's always good to be able to find something fun to relax with!  Especially when you're doing hard work all the time.

Yeah, they're both pretty useless as teaching methods.

We spread all over Europe.  Covering Napoleon, Peter the Great (one of my favorite subjects) the end of the Romanov Dynasty, The Renaissance, the incestuous Habsburgs (you can tell it's summer, I misspelled Habsburg)  The World Wars, the Catholic Reformation, Mary Queen of Scots, Guy Fawkes, The French Revolutions, Oliver Cromwell, Catherine the Great, and so much more.

[pocaracas]

50 problems a night, yeah.  Sometimes more at the high school level (though my girls aren't there yet). 

50 a night?! yikes! Maths classes every day? O.o
But not high school level.... so... "easy" and quick problems, huh?

[vorlon13]

In a school district in neighboring Nebraska when I was a kid there was a student 2 grade school teachers had 'tested' for developmental disabilities (a less polite term was used at the time). In the fullness of time, that student graduated from Caltech with honors (a full scholarship too) and went on to found his own software engineering and consulting firm in Silicon Valley.

Are you aware of any other similar 'fails' amongst your peers for mistaking an incipient genius for a kid that needs placement in a 'special' program ??

I'd like to think there is a greater awareness now of how many ways significant academic achievement might manifest itself these days, but maybe there are still a kid or 2 not recognized these days for being 'smart' ??

[Cecelia]

  50 a night?! yikes! Maths classes every day? O.o
But not high school level.... so... "easy" and quick problems, huh?

Sometimes.  At the high school level (at least here) you only take classes every other day.  Some kids have complained about how much HW they're given.  My three eldest are going to be in 7th grade this year. So the math isn't too bad--but sometimes it just seems like busy work.

In a school district in neighboring Nebraska when I was a kid there was a student 2 grade school teachers had 'tested' for developmental disabilities (a less polite term was used at the time).  In the fullness of time, that student graduated from Caltech with honors (a full scholarship too) and went on to found his own software engineering and consulting firm in Silicon Valley.

Are you aware of any other similar 'fails' amongst your peers for mistaking an incipient genius for a kid that needs placement in a 'special' program ??

I'd like to think there is a greater awareness now of how many ways significant academic achievement might manifest itself these days, but maybe there are still a kid or 2 not recognized these days for being 'smart' ??

No, but I think that identifying students with disabilities has improved significantly.  They have names for things now that they didn't before.  I remember one girl who was struggling with reading.  She wasn't a dumb girl--she was reasonably bright.  But I started to think she might have dyslexia.  I told her parents, and unfortunately they never got her tested for it.  I mean I might have been wrong--but if she had been, and they had her tested, she could have been accommodated to help her by giving her more time on tests.

[Alex K]

I spent the senior year at a high school in TX and took a pretty decent AP calculus class. But still, I noticed that we got a very large amount of homework of the same type (simplify these 20 expressions). Lots of quantity, little variety, way more than I myself do assign.