Just being contrary, I guess May 6, 2008
Posted by diarykid in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
My school gives a “common assessment” to every English and math class in the district. I have no idea what they do with the data, but we all give the test.
Anyway, the test is the week before exams. It seems silly to have the common assessment much different from the semester exam, and most of us figure that the kids have enough to do to get ready for one test, never mind two. And goodness knows that I have enough to do! So I don’t really WANT to write another exam.
But today, my 4th period class started in. “Mrs. M, it would be so easy if you would just make the exam the same as the common assessment.” “Mrs. M, you don’t REALLY want us to have to study for two tests, do you?” “Mrs. M, just think how easy you could make it for us if the common assessment was the same as the exam.”
I had already told them last week that the exam would be “VERY SIMILAR to the common assessment.” Anyone with “one eye and half sense” (as my mother used to say) should have caught on. But no, even though they had what they wanted, they still felt like they had to manipulate me into giving them an iron clad promise that the two tests would be alike.
So now, rather than have them think that I’m so cotton-headed that they can talk me into anything, I’ll spend 2-3 hours adapting a new version to give as the final exam. Then I’ll spend a few more hours writing a third one, because we have to give senior exams a whole week before everyone else’s exams.
So, bottom line, they did talk me into doing something I didn’t plan to do. It’s just not what they were hoping to talk me into. I guess I’m just being contrary.
More Cheating March 8, 2008
Posted by diarykid in cheating.1 comment so far
I have become aware that cheating is rampant, all around me. The more I look for it, the more I find. This week:
- Marvin had a paper under his desk while taking a make-up test, and when I went to see what it was, I found it was the study guide for the test.
- I gave a multiple choice exam in one class, distributing two different exams. One student, who spent the entire 2nd 9-weeks at alternative school, failed the test, as per his normal performance, but miraculously marked eight answers in a row that matched the test of the person sitting across the aisle from him. The look on his face when I showed him his paper was priceless, because he knew he had copied his answers from a straight-A student. It was an amazing moment, and he couldn’t say a word about it.
- One student (MC) who needs 2 points to pass for this 9-weeks asked if he could turn in late homework. I told him I don’t do that (I really don’t.) and he countered by saying it wasn’t fair and that he’s seen other students doing make-up work in my class for half credit. Of course I argued with MC, because I absolutely DO NOT do that, and I couldn’t imagine about whom he was talking. I later had a chance to privately ask a (more trustworthy) friend of his to whom MC was referring when he said that to me, and the friend told me that MC didn’t have anyone in mind but was simply trying to see if he could trick me into giving in.
- Another student, Lavender, came to me to take a make-up test before the tardy bell for her regular class time. I gave her the test, assuming she would sit down at her desk and get to work. I got occupied with another student, and when I caught back up with Lavender, less than 5 minutes later, she was getting up to bring me a test that was half completed. She had gone to a seat in the back of the room where she doesn’t usually sit. She was coming to ask me if I could tell her how to work the problems on the back of the test. She said that she remembered all the questions on the front but couldn’t remember anything about the problems on the back. I found that odd, since the front of the test was made up of questions about the process used for working the problems on the back of the test. I told her as much. Her response was, “Oh! If I read these questions, it’ll tell me how to do the back?” I said, “You’ve already ready these questions, right? Because you’ve already answered them.” She said, “Oh, right.” I took the test, gave her a different version, and set her down in the front of the room to start over. Today I found out she transferred to another high school. A high school that doesn’t offer the class she’s taking from me. Very strange.
- I gave an exam in my first period class and got back 2 papers with a score of 90. They were identical — even down to the same wrong answers on the same question. This was alarming, since one of the papers belonged to a student who consistently makes 100s, and the other belonged to a student who consistently makes 70s. I took the papers to the office, explained my case to an assistant principal, and asked what could be done. She offered to let the student re-take the test in the office. If he was unable to do as well a 2nd time, it would prove he copied. So he re-took the test, and actually got 15 out of 20 right, missed the same two questions in the same way, and missed three more. The AP decided (and I agree) that the evidence indicates the student probably did the work himself. I hope so. If not, he’ll trip himself up later on.
I’m all worked up now. I’m to the point where I assume students are trying to con me instead of assuming they’re being honest. I don’t like being this way, but maybe I’ll find a happy medium somewhere. Oh well, until then, it’ll be 2-3 versions of every test and watch’em like a hawk.
Teacher vs. Teacher Update March 6, 2008
Posted by diarykid in Uncategorized.2 comments
At our meeting, Ms. Snip suggested that L’s project be “Which dog treat tastes best?” in which L would give our puppy 4 different treats on several different occasions, declaring the most-often-chosen treat to be the best tasting. I agreed in the meeting because I just wanted the thing settled.
However, after we got home, while trying to figure out exactly how to word the hypothesis, we realized that this experiment doesn’t let us conclude that any one treat tastes best, only which one our dog likes best. And “Which dog treat does my dog like most?” just didn’t seem to be a very ambitious project.
So we came up with 2 alternate projects:
“Which substance melts ice fastest?” in which L would sprinkle ice cubes with each of four different substances (salt, sugar, pepper, and sand), measure the amount of melted ice, compare that to the original weight of the ice cube, and calculate what percent of the ice has melted for each substance.
and
“Which makes a can of soda get cold faster?” in which L would measure the temperature of sodas after keeping them in each of four different environments (refrigerator, freezer, ice bath, and ice water bath) for a given amount of time.
Now, I like both of these because they involve some kind of measurement and they have application to physics, which I love. I think the results of both of them are fairly obvious. Of course, the salt is going to melt the ice fastest. (Even if you don’t know any physics, you know that cities pour ice (edit: salt) (oops) on snowy roads instead of sugar, sand, or pepper.) And I would expect the ice water bath to chill the can of soda fastest.
At any rate, L turned in both projects for Ms. Snip to approve one of them. Ms. Snip called L up to her desk and had this conversation:
Snip: What happened to the dog treat experiment?
L: We decided it wasn’t going to work very well. Our dog is not very choosy; she will eat the first treat she sees, and we won’t necessarily know it’s her favorite.
Snip: Well, I don’t like this project (pointing to the soda can project) because I think the answer here is pretty obvious. The freezer is going to work fastest. That’s why people have freezers. I really think that the dog treat project is best, but if it won’t work for you, then go with the ice melting experiment.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Of COURSE they’re both obvious – they’re middle school experiments! She’s wrong about the results of the soda experiment, and if we’re rejecting projects because the results are obvious, then both of them should be rejected because the other one is even MORE obvious to most people.
It’s almost like she’s going out of her way to make sure they don’t learn any science. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Faster = Better for Assessment Feedback March 4, 2008
Posted by diarykid in assessment.add a comment
Every 9-weeks I promise this won’t happen, and every 9-weeks it happens anyway: I get completely inundated with PAPER. I get bellwork, homework, practice worksheets, tests, make-ups tests, and more. If I were to sift through it all and give it the attention I would like to give it, I’d never do anything else. However, if I don’t take up everything I ask them to do, I have some who just will not do it. So I take up EVERYTHING, and then I have way more than I can grade.
I’m thinking about going to a different system next year. It would require re-vamping things somewhat. Right now, for each new topic, we do an assignment from the book one night, and the next night we do an “extra practice worksheet.” Usually, homework is graded in the first five minutes of class (for completion) and the extra practice worksheets are supposed to be graded for accuracy.
Two problems: Several teachers in my department let students grade their own papers. I have really bad luck with this arrangement — tons of cheating problems. Having them trade papers is not an option in our district. Taking them up is like acquiring another whole set of test papers to grade, and if I try to write meaningful comments on them, it’s even more work than a set of test papers. It’s overwhelming. And if it’s not done the next day, the moment passes & any comments I do write barely receive a passing glance.
I think I need to do more short mastery quizzes, and I need a way to look more closely at homework, at least sometimes. Practice worksheets are fine, but I can’t grade them all and give meaningful feedback in a timely manner without devoting my entire life to the cause. (I could possibly pick out 3-5 problems from each practice worksheet to give feedback on and not look at each individual problem on every worksheet.) Whatever I decide to do, clearly I need more formative assessment going on, for my benefit as well as theirs.
Of course, I’ve found that QUICKER is BETTER for assessment — instantaneous, if possible. Feedback that is delayed by 2-3 days is yesterday’s news. Feedback on worksheets that are older than the last test is completely useless. That’s why I say I think short mastery quizzes will work better. I can get those done in about 75 minutes for all my classes combined.
As far as I can tell, our bellwork system has several major flaws: First, since it gets graded once a week at best, by the time the kids get it back, it’s a week old. Second, since it is kept in folders that the kids leave in the classrooms, it’s a pain in the butt to grade. I have to open each folder and flip to the work I want to grade. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but just opening 150 folders and finding a particular page in each one takes quite a while – never mind actually grading anything I find there. Half of them don’t usually label the work correctly, so it’s not always easy to find. And third, if I need to grade folders in the teacher’s lounge or at home, I have to lug all those folders home. (My room is used by another teacher during my planning time, so I can’t stay in my room to grade. But that’s another story.) And fourth, since it’s done while I’m calling roll or dealing with one-on-one issues, I can’t monitor it, so it’s not like a quiz. There’s lots of helping & consulting going on, which is fine — there’s a place for that kind of work. It just makes that work useless for (what my students would call) an accuracy grade.
Oh well — I guess I’ve got the summer to think it over.
Teacher vs. Teacher February 22, 2008
Posted by diarykid in Uncategorized.Tags: communication, parenting, teachers
add a comment
I’m certainly no helicopter parent, but something happened yesterday that made me have to set up a meeting and have a face-to-face with my daughter’s science teacher.
It seems that it’s science fair time, and the science fair at our middle school (7th grade) is required. It’s so required that it’s their 9-weeks test grade for the 3rd 9-weeks. Anyway, yesterday, the “problem statement” was due. We had gotten on the Internet and researched possible projects, and the project she liked best was entitled “The Birthday Paradox” where you perform a statistical experiment that demonstrates that in a group of 23 people, the probability of 2 or more people in the group having the same birthday is over 50%.
So L looks at the list of potential projects, and they are things like “which brand of detergent produces the most bubbles?” and “which brand of paper towels can absorb the most water.” So she crafts the following problem statement: What’s the probability that, in a group of 23 people, at least 2 have the same birthday?” And she turns it in. And Ms. Snip says, “This isn’t a problem statement. It’s a math problem.”
“OK. I thought it would be OK because my mom found it on the Internet.”
(bear in mind that math is considered a separate and valid category in science fairs, and L’s project is not a math problem – it is a statistical experiment)
(more)
(more…)
Futile Tutoring February 16, 2008
Posted by diarykid in teaching.Tags: frustration, teaching, tutoring
add a comment
I always tell my students that if they have trouble with homework, they should come in the morning and ask questions. I try to set aside time from 7:50 to 8:15 to answer student questions. For the most part, students don’t do this. I hardly ever have students come by during this time.
Occasionally, when a student is not doing well, their parents will insist that they come by, but if they don’t have questions, this is hardly ever productive. I don’t want to sit down and just re-teach the material to them — I used to do that, but then I learned the hard way that these students weren’t trying their best during class and they were only too happy to goof off during class and then use my planning time to try to make up what they missed so that they wouldn’t fail the test, and then they wanted me to be excited that they cared enough to come for extra help. Also, if they’re coming just because Mom said they had to, then my explaining the material again won’t do anymore good than it did the first time.
Yesterday was test day, and I had four of my weakest students come by for help – on test day! I can’t do a lot to help on test day! So I had four completely clueless students asking for my undivided attention all at the same time. By their questions, I could tell that they really hadn’t learned much at all from the homework assignments or from our in-class review. When I would tell them how to do something, they could do it, but they were mixing up all kinds of methods and processes.
Of course what they will say is that they did their best by going for extra help, so it’s not their fault that they failed the test. I really believe I could spend entire days with some of my students, and they still would be just as confused at the end, because in order to learn the material, they have to WANT to learn it. Whether they want to because they find it interesting or because they want a good grade, on some level, they have to want it. I can’t teach someone who is determined not to learn.
My offer of early-morning tutoring sounds good, but it’s not really doing what I put it out there to do. The moment that any significant number of students take advantage of it simultaneously, it is immediately useless. In fact, I had one of the students who came yesterday tell me that he was coming because it made his parents feel like he was doing something to improve his grade — not that tutoring was improving his grade or helping his understanding, just that coming to tutoring made it look that way. (His parents have grounded him for bad grades, and he’s trying to get un-grounded.)
What I’m learning is that it’s not enough for me to explain clearly or question well or assess frequently or offer my free/planning time for extra help or communicate with parents regularly. The rest of the circuit does not lie in my control, and yet I am responsible for it! I’m very frustrated right now.
Turn About February 13, 2008
Posted by diarykid in Uncategorized.Tags: classroom, funny
add a comment
I have a great kid in my 7th period class who has decent grades, but he could have really great grades. He’s smart & funny. (He comes in every day and talks to me like a regular person — they don’t all, you know.) But he hardly ever does his homework. I guess he figures that there are better things to do, and I know he has an after school job that keeps him out too late for a 16-yr-old. Anyway, yesterday after I handed back homework after a quick check, the conversation went like this:
Jim: Mrs. M, I didn’t get my homework back.
Me: That’s because you didn’t turn in any.
Jim: No, I swear I did. I worked hard on it! I turned it in!
Me: Really? It’s not here. Check your binder.
Jim: No, I turned it in. I know I did. If you don’t find it, can I still have credit?
Me: Well, it’s not here. You’re just yanking my chain.
Jim: No, I promise I did it!!!
I knew better than to believe him, but still he kept insisting. He kept bringing it up all during class.
Then later in class:
Jim: Mrs. M, tomorrow is my birthday. What are you gonna get me?
Me: I sent you an iPod! Didn’t you get it? I had it sent to your house!!
He couldn’t keep a straight face anymore. – “You got me good that time, Mrs. M.”
Cheaters February 8, 2008
Posted by diarykid in cheating.1 comment so far
*sigh* I caught a kid cheating on a make-up test the other day. When I gave the test originally, one of the items worked out in a very unusual way, so I changed that problem on all the remaining copies. When this student took the make-up test, he wrote the work using the new information, but wrote the answer to the old question. Someone had told him what the answer was, and he didn’t trust himself when he got something different. Because I had hard proof, he received a zero on the test and got paddled. (seems a little odd to paddle a senior.)
Then today, I let three other kids do make-up tests, and their grades are “unusually high” as well. (Two of the students have nearly identical papers, and the third, who rarely makes above 70 and never makes above 80, made a flat hundred and GOT THE BONUS RIGHT.) I guess I look stupid to them.
The standard procedure at my school is to let kids take make-up tests in the hall so that the noise from the classroom doesn’t disturb them. However, from now on, my students will have to endure the noise. I’ll never ever trust another student to take a test out of my sight again. And though it’s been difficult to write more than one test per chapter during my first year, next year I’ll be SURE that I have 2-3 different versions of every test and every quiz.
Unfortunately, I think they’re going to get away with this because I don’t have any hard proof that I can nail them with.
Oooohhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HATE to be made a fool of!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I guess I asked for that. January 27, 2008
Posted by diarykid in teaching.Tags: classroom, funny
2 comments
Two kids, Morris and Janet, were trading insults before the tardy bell. Morris told Janet that she’s “the ugliest thing God made.”
Me: Well, since everything God made is beautiful, then you’re still saying Janet’s beautiful.
Morris: No, she’s still ugly.
Me: Don’t worry about it, Janet. Guys don’t pick at girls unless they like them.
(I knew that would make him hush!)
Morris: Well in that case, Ms. M, you ugly too!
Everyone laughed. I guess I asked for that. 
Marvin January 26, 2008
Posted by diarykid in teaching.Tags: marvin, teaching, tests
add a comment
Marvin is a free spirit — a one-with-the-universe type of person. He is really a great kid, but he couldn’t care less about his education or his grades. He wishes he could live on a beach and sell cotton candy.
Marvin never even attempts anything in class unless he realizes that the test is the next day. (OK, I guess he cares a little about his grades.) But by then, it’s too late.
The day before last week’s test, he told me, “Ms. M, I think I get this stuff now. I couldn’t get it before, but when we review and you just tell us what we have to do without throwing in all that other stuff, I can kinda get it better.” I thought, “Fine. Whatever works.” But then the next day, he made an 18 on the test.
So two days ago, on the day before the test, we were reviewing, and I was trying to give Marvin just the bare basics so that “all that other stuff” wouldn’t confuse him. And he said, “Mrs. M, I guess I can just memorize the steps or whatever, but I would do better if you would tell me WHY this stuff works the way it does.”
Sigh.
I said, “Well Marvin, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last week and a half.” The bottom line is that no matter what I do for Marvin, he’s not going to succeed because he’s not putting any effort into it, and to add to it, he’s figured out a way to always make it my fault that he can’t get a good grade. I never teach it “right.”
