Another Ph.D comic that tells the truth. If you're a teacher, don't click if you're in the middle of grading a bunch of papers. Fortunately, I didn't see this little jewel until after I had decided (after grading) to not count 30 percent of my most recent Chemistry test.
2/18/2008
PASS THE ST. JOHN'S WORT
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5 comments:
While I haven't had Cecilia's experience, I have come across old grading keys and not recognised my own handwriting (these days I find it easier to recognise my own typing)
Ok, this is slightly tangential, but:
I remember back some 25 years ago when in freshman algebra in high school, we took a test and the highest score was 55%. Needless to say, the teacher was quite put out over this. So, whose fault is it? I can’t blame Mr. Millsap, he really did try is best, and he was a skilled and talented teacher, as well as fairly popular. But I also can’t really fault the students, if the HIGHEST score was 55%, then there was a failure to teach/learn the concepts. I'm sure you have experienced this as an educator, and am curious what runs through your mind when this happens. (I'm lucky, I just have to deal with roughnecks on drilling rigs not students, and I drive a jeep so they all like me)
I'm afraid that there is no hard and fast rule. Sometimes you kinda know in advance that there will be massive failure, and in fact you plan for it to a degree. Translation: you PLAN on using their FAILURE to MOTIVATE them.
Other times, there is simply a breakdown between expectation and understanding. Usually this is a sign to reteach. I expect a bimodal distribution on my next Biology test, for example, and I further expect to use the test results to figure out what I'll need to reteach.
My daughter's high school Chemistry teacher is the baseball coach. She swears this is true:
When announcing each student's test grade to the class, after calling a student's name, he'll state an incorrect score, followed by the option "Take it or leave it?" But since Coach C typically states a score that's lower than what was actually earned, the wisest students have learned to leave it.
For Chemistry Team members who take it, that's how Coach C grades their tests.
ROFL... great comic.
On the other hand. I vividly remember my physics teacher in the final year of high school. After one test, he gave us all the answer sheet in the form of his own submission to the exam, marked at 100%. I got 95%.
The punchline is that I found three mistakes in his paper. As a result, his paper was regraded to 97%, and mine to 98%. The nice thing is that Mr Fisher got a real kick out of the whole thing. It made his day.
I was not the only one who enjoyed his irrepressible bubbly enthusiasm for the subject. The whole class adopted as a theme "Physics is Phun with Phisher", and a couple of wags relabelled it to "Ghozox oz ghun goth ghother" ("o" as in women, "gh" as in enough, etc). It was periodically scrawled on the board before he came into class.
I've only just found your blog; and will continue visiting! I'd love to hear more about secondary teaching in general. Not just dealing with hot topics, but dealing with students, with their different levels of ability and enthusiasm. I'm hoping to join the secondary teaching profession myself (maths).
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