Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day to all! We actually had to go to work today, although the kids were off. It was a Teacher Work Day and thankfully, we were left to work on our own most of the day. Which is just as well, because I finished grades a few minutes after my “go home!” time came (and went). But yay, first semester is OVAH and my grades are all in. Feels great to be caught up!
It’s always hard to get my head around the end of the first semester – it always goes quicker than you expect. And the second semester – I have this fear I’ll blink and it’ll be over. And as fast as it goes for me, it’s even faster (though for some not fast enough) for my seniors. They’re so close to “freedom” and “the real world” that they can taste it. Ah yes, the joy of “freedom” and debt and responsibility and working and all that. Basically, you know, life. 🙂
My college classes have begun – Statistics for Professionals and a Curriculum class. Although we have a research project we’ll have to design and implement for the semester, I think (for now) that it’s do-able. I’d like to do something regarding children’s science books (not text books – things like the Magic School Bus books in the US and Horrible Science books in the UK), but I don’t know yet what I want to do (or if I have the time to do it). For the Curriculum class we’ll be designing a curriculum. And I think I’ll be able to use this for a practical purpose. Next year, I want to dust off dad’s Advanced Problems in Science course and teach it. The Science and the Public program that I’m getting my Masters in will be a perfect focus for it. The point of the course was basically to help kids get “science” and be better consumers. So I’ll work on the curriculum for that class. (I even intend to use children’s science books in Advanced Problems. Can the HS kids spot the bad science if there is some? And how would you handle that with little kids for whom the book was written?)
Anyhoo, it’s nice, as I said before, to not be drowning at work. Heck, I’m not drowning, I’m raving! 😉 (Hint, look at the song currently playing.)
I’ll reiterate that I wish it were you teaching Xian’s AP Chem class and not the woman he has now. Here — let me ask you one. You’ve given your kids a multi-choice test. You like it when they show their work. But, when a kid gets the right answer, but doesn’t show the work, how do you count it? (hint: the teacher in question takes the entire problem OFF…how’s that for inspiring your students….)
For multiple guess questions, if they’re right they’re right, if they’re wrong they’re wrong. (Though occasionally I’ve noticed I’ve written a confusing question and might have 2 answers which I’ll allow.) I don’t require work for those. (My whole reason for doing multiple guess tests is to make grading easier on me. Heh. Short answer tests are easy to write, tell me a great deal on how kids understand or misunderstand the subject, but are horrible to grade. Multiple guess are horrible to write, usually not the best indicator of understanding, but easy to grade. At the start of the year, I usually have all short answer. By the end, they’re mostly Multiple Guess with a few short answer.) However, in bold, underlined and italics at the beginning of a short answer test, I have “No work means no credit!” There are usually 2-5 problems (maybe more on physics) which might require work. Right answer, no work = 0 points. I want to see the process the student is doing. Conversely, if a student shows their work and comes up with the goobered answer, but maybe it was only due to a calculation error, they get most of the points. (Also, if they forget units, that’s 1/5th off for the question. That means they’d get 8/10 for that question on my short answer tests.) BTW, AP chem sounds like too much work to teach. And at our school, they probably would not provide the total time required to teach AP chem. 🙂