Yesterday after exams were finished the school put on the annual Faculty Christmas Party. The name is somewhat misleading because it is actually for all the school staff, not just teachers.
The gathering is an opportunity to talk with people you do not get to see every day throughout the year. A luncheon was served; roasted pork, rice, salad, and desert. I found myself at a table with one of the Physics teachers, a good friend from the Theology Department, two women who work in development, and the two others who I don’t know—though I have seen them around the building. About 15 minutes into lunch the choir performed Christmas carols (this lasted about 30 minutes), names were drawn for prizes related to the school fundraiser, and someone led the gathering in a satirical version of “The 12 days of Christmas.” The chairman of the faculty committee that organized the function spoke for a few minutes thanking everyone for coming, and then we were told the party was over. I still don’t know who the two women at my table are.
All everyone wants to do is mingle and talk to each other, while all the planners do is fill up the gathering with activities that prevent conversation. I’m just not going to attend next year—the meal was not that good anyway.
When I began teaching the Christmas gathering was very informal. We all gathered in a common meeting room and enjoyed Christmas cookies, punch (always spiked with something), and conversation with anyone we wanted to talk with. The party was the only time all year I had a chance to talk with some of the staff. Back then there were 50-60 staff members, and I knew everyone. Now we have close to 200 people who work in the building and I don’t know the names of probably 1/3 of them. If someone is not in my department, has a different lunch period, or is free a period when I teach, I will have virtually no contact with them on any regular basis—unless we work together on some committee.
As a general rule, other gatherings of this nature are handled in a similar manner, making me think that we are an excellent educational institution, but socially retarded.
Take the alumni gathering organized after each homecoming football game for example. The Development office sponsors this event which is attended by anywhere from 100-150 former students each year. As a rule it has been set up in the gym where drinks and food are available. The alumni want to find their classmates or former teachers, some they haven’t seen in years, and talk. This would work out great if the Development Office didn’t hire a DJ to play music at 140db in the gym. The only way you can talk to the person next to you is to scream at the top of your lungs.
Oh well---maybe it’s just me.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
End of Semester Thoughts
It is semester exam time and I am sitting at my desk watching my 2nd period Honors Chemistry Class take their Semester I Exam. The exam covers the first 9 chapters in the text book we use and contains 70 multiple choice questions, about 1/3 of which are problems that require a calculation. The students have 90minutes for the exam. Last period the first student was finished in about 63 minutes, the last quit when the bell rang to end the test period.
To prepare for the exam, students were given a review sheet the Monday after Thanksgiving. The review contained a set of 50 review questions—with answers—and an additional 15 problems. I scheduled several days for review where students worked on the review sheet in class and one period, yesterday, for asking questions. In 4 Honors Chemistry classes I had only one question about a problem on the review. This could mean that the students are so well prepared that they did not need my help at all, or none of them had the review done the day before the test, so no one had a question. I will not know which is true until I check the exams later this week.
Last year the average on the semester exam was approximately 84%, not bad for a comprehensive exam over 9 chapters. While nobody got a perfect score last year, the highest grade was 69/70. Those numbers are pretty typical for the exam, at least in the last 5-6 years that we have used this book.
The text is the 4th edition of the text and the third we have used since 1986 when it was adopted. The last 3 editions are almost identical. In 2000 a few parents complained that the 3rd edition was old and out of date. Our school president asked me to pick a new, more up-to-date textbook because of their complaints, and I choose the 4th edition of the same text. The 4th edition combined two chapters from the third into one—otherwise it is page-for-page identical to the 3rd edition. The 3rd edition was a “state text book” and so is the 4th. The state shelled out more than $44,000 to replace the old edition with an identical new edition. Your tax money hard at work!
The new edition has a more attractive cover and is blue instead of yellow—I guess that justifies the cost. The 5th edition is out and is virtually identical to the last two, with the exception that some new “Teacher Resource Materials” have been developed to use with the text. These new materials can be ordered by schools using earlier editions—something I have done. Within a year or so some parent, probably a physician, will complain that their children are being “cheated” by using an outdated text book and the state will shell out $65,000+ for “new” text books with a different cover and identical insides.
The text book we use covers the same concepts as the one I used in high school, the 1966 edition of “Modern Chemistry.” Except for the addition of photos to replace drawings, 30 year old high school chemistry text books are pretty much the same as today’s, though the problem sets in the older texts are better.
Author’s Note: After grading the first two periods of Honors Chemistry the average is 85.3% and the highest grade is 70/70.
To prepare for the exam, students were given a review sheet the Monday after Thanksgiving. The review contained a set of 50 review questions—with answers—and an additional 15 problems. I scheduled several days for review where students worked on the review sheet in class and one period, yesterday, for asking questions. In 4 Honors Chemistry classes I had only one question about a problem on the review. This could mean that the students are so well prepared that they did not need my help at all, or none of them had the review done the day before the test, so no one had a question. I will not know which is true until I check the exams later this week.
Last year the average on the semester exam was approximately 84%, not bad for a comprehensive exam over 9 chapters. While nobody got a perfect score last year, the highest grade was 69/70. Those numbers are pretty typical for the exam, at least in the last 5-6 years that we have used this book.
The text is the 4th edition of the text and the third we have used since 1986 when it was adopted. The last 3 editions are almost identical. In 2000 a few parents complained that the 3rd edition was old and out of date. Our school president asked me to pick a new, more up-to-date textbook because of their complaints, and I choose the 4th edition of the same text. The 4th edition combined two chapters from the third into one—otherwise it is page-for-page identical to the 3rd edition. The 3rd edition was a “state text book” and so is the 4th. The state shelled out more than $44,000 to replace the old edition with an identical new edition. Your tax money hard at work!
The new edition has a more attractive cover and is blue instead of yellow—I guess that justifies the cost. The 5th edition is out and is virtually identical to the last two, with the exception that some new “Teacher Resource Materials” have been developed to use with the text. These new materials can be ordered by schools using earlier editions—something I have done. Within a year or so some parent, probably a physician, will complain that their children are being “cheated” by using an outdated text book and the state will shell out $65,000+ for “new” text books with a different cover and identical insides.
The text book we use covers the same concepts as the one I used in high school, the 1966 edition of “Modern Chemistry.” Except for the addition of photos to replace drawings, 30 year old high school chemistry text books are pretty much the same as today’s, though the problem sets in the older texts are better.
Author’s Note: After grading the first two periods of Honors Chemistry the average is 85.3% and the highest grade is 70/70.
Friday, December 7, 2007
An Investment
No private school can remain open without being able to attract students. Preferably, students who can pay the required tuition. Families able to afford the $8000+ required each year to attend our school have high expectations concerning the quality of our facilities and programs. To stay open, we need to offer a quality of education that exceeds what a student can receive at the local public school. The 100+ feeder junior high schools that our student population comes from also feed into 20+ public high schools. Some of the public school options are unacceptable to our families, so they choose us. A few of the public schools our students reject in favor of us are truly bad; some to the point that a parent would be neglectful if they sent their child there and could afford not to. Others are among the best in the state. To compete with the best public schools we have built and maintained a modern, up-to-date facility, and offer an outstanding curriculum including extensive access to advanced placement courses. Our fine arts program is probably one of the best in the country, and our standardized test score averages are always in the top 5% nationwide.
Assuming that the average tuition for the last 4 years was $8000 and last year we graduated 320 seniors, parents spent a little more that $10 million total for last years graduates to attend. A local public school spends $14000+ on each student, adding up to a potential cost of almost $18 million had our students attended there. The local public school district that includes 4 high schools proudly announced that their 2100 graduates earned $5 million in scholarships, at a cost of $110 million for 4 years of education. Our last graduating class earned $13+ million in scholarships, about 30% more than the cost of their education. I mentioned before that I had a child who attended the school where I teach. Her 4 years of high school cost between $25-$28 thousand including books and fees. The scholarship she earned for college will add up to more than $50,000 in 4 years. A high quality high school education is an investment.
All this being said, last weekend we had our annual open house for prospective students. The open house is our opportunity to “show off” for the community; let families know what programs we offer for their children. Current students conducted tours of the building for the 429 families who visited us that day. Another 20 or so families toured on their own without a guide. The numbers are up and the administration is happy. We accept about 350 freshmen each year and usually have between 500 and 600 students take the entrance exam. This number has been over 700 and as low as 450 in my memory.
My wife and I had dinner with friends the evening before. The husband is a chemistry teacher, like myself, and once taught with me. His wife is a grade school teacher at one of our local parochial feeder schools. She commented at dinner that she had never been in our building and wondered if I would give her a tour sometime. I suggested that she come to open house and offered to personally show her around. She was amazed at our facilities. She had attended a public high school and always thought that our facilities would be inferior. Her husband left us 16 years ago for a public school job and more money. He reports that he is now ready to return, even if it means a cut in pay.
Assuming that the average tuition for the last 4 years was $8000 and last year we graduated 320 seniors, parents spent a little more that $10 million total for last years graduates to attend. A local public school spends $14000+ on each student, adding up to a potential cost of almost $18 million had our students attended there. The local public school district that includes 4 high schools proudly announced that their 2100 graduates earned $5 million in scholarships, at a cost of $110 million for 4 years of education. Our last graduating class earned $13+ million in scholarships, about 30% more than the cost of their education. I mentioned before that I had a child who attended the school where I teach. Her 4 years of high school cost between $25-$28 thousand including books and fees. The scholarship she earned for college will add up to more than $50,000 in 4 years. A high quality high school education is an investment.
All this being said, last weekend we had our annual open house for prospective students. The open house is our opportunity to “show off” for the community; let families know what programs we offer for their children. Current students conducted tours of the building for the 429 families who visited us that day. Another 20 or so families toured on their own without a guide. The numbers are up and the administration is happy. We accept about 350 freshmen each year and usually have between 500 and 600 students take the entrance exam. This number has been over 700 and as low as 450 in my memory.
My wife and I had dinner with friends the evening before. The husband is a chemistry teacher, like myself, and once taught with me. His wife is a grade school teacher at one of our local parochial feeder schools. She commented at dinner that she had never been in our building and wondered if I would give her a tour sometime. I suggested that she come to open house and offered to personally show her around. She was amazed at our facilities. She had attended a public high school and always thought that our facilities would be inferior. Her husband left us 16 years ago for a public school job and more money. He reports that he is now ready to return, even if it means a cut in pay.
Friday, November 16, 2007
The PLAN Test Dilemma
The other day I had a meeting with one of the assistant principals at our school. This person was concerned because of the results on the recent PLAN test our sophomores had taken. Our goal is that at least 70% of our students answer each question on the exam correctly. I don’t know how it was decided that 70% was the number to shoot for. There were 11 questions on the exam that seemed to be a problem. Of those, 5 had rates of 64-69% correct, only two were below 50%--the lowest being 26%. Seven of the eleven questions were in the “Earth Science/Physics” passages. We do not offer Earth Science, and sophomores have not taken Physics. The assistant principal seemed to think that the problem was the content we were teaching.
The PLAN Science test covers topics in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth/Space Science. By their sophomore year students have taken Biology and a quarter of Chemistry. There is no way to cover all possible topics that could be on the exam in five quarters, but the PLAN test is not a content based test—it is a reading comprehension test. Students do poorly on some of the questions, not because they haven’t covered the content in class, but because they haven’t learned how to acquire information by reading.
My solution to the problem was to help students to acquire this essential skill, rather than to force them to take Earth Science.
My feelings are that some required material in every chapter should be learned by reading only—independent study. Students must be held accountable for this material, and teachers must fight the urge to lecture on it. Classroom tests could routinely contain passages from outside sources that introduced new material related to the main ideas of the unit. Test questions should be asked about this material, requiring students to read and understand it. Students should not be allowed to get their “A” by regurgitating what they are spoon feed.
Some of the best activities that help students acquire these skills were part of the BSCS Biology curriculum of the 1970’s. There were several “dry labs” in the text that challenged the students to read with comprehension and develop an understanding of a concept. The experiment about why oat stem tips bend toward the light is a classic, as well as the peppered moth and natural selection activity, and bacteria that cause pneumonia experiment. Every science student should be required to complete each of these activities sometime during their schooling.
The students will complain. “This is unfair; he/she never taught that ” But please understand, what is really unfair is to cheat students out of the opportunity to master these skills because they are difficult to acquire.
The PLAN Science test covers topics in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Earth/Space Science. By their sophomore year students have taken Biology and a quarter of Chemistry. There is no way to cover all possible topics that could be on the exam in five quarters, but the PLAN test is not a content based test—it is a reading comprehension test. Students do poorly on some of the questions, not because they haven’t covered the content in class, but because they haven’t learned how to acquire information by reading.
My solution to the problem was to help students to acquire this essential skill, rather than to force them to take Earth Science.
My feelings are that some required material in every chapter should be learned by reading only—independent study. Students must be held accountable for this material, and teachers must fight the urge to lecture on it. Classroom tests could routinely contain passages from outside sources that introduced new material related to the main ideas of the unit. Test questions should be asked about this material, requiring students to read and understand it. Students should not be allowed to get their “A” by regurgitating what they are spoon feed.
Some of the best activities that help students acquire these skills were part of the BSCS Biology curriculum of the 1970’s. There were several “dry labs” in the text that challenged the students to read with comprehension and develop an understanding of a concept. The experiment about why oat stem tips bend toward the light is a classic, as well as the peppered moth and natural selection activity, and bacteria that cause pneumonia experiment. Every science student should be required to complete each of these activities sometime during their schooling.
The students will complain. “This is unfair; he/she never taught that ” But please understand, what is really unfair is to cheat students out of the opportunity to master these skills because they are difficult to acquire.
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