2009/10/05
Journal Entry #3
The third lesson I attended was a combination of the first two: a lecture-type discussion. Ms. Ringquist was following through the textbook with her students and as they were proceeding, and she kept warning them about common misconceptions. The topic of influential points is quite difficult to understand thoroughly and therefore the teacher did not present any other new ideas that day. She just wanted to make sure that students were to leave the classroom with a clear picture about the influential points and how they affect correlation and slope of the regression line. Ms Ringquist prepared a few handouts to compute and discuss too. Their purpose was to work with different understanding of the same concept and to continuously check on what the class really gets. Students had to work with graphs and scattered plots of lines and their visual attention was necessary. Also, they had to formulate a few conclusions from observations in order to realise core points of the lesson.
There were 7 minutes left before the end of the lesson and, as usual, Ms. Ringquist gave students a chance to start working on their new homework. She also introduced the newest grading assessment program the Middlebury Union High school was about to implement – the parents´ portal option. The idea of the web portal is to post all the grades and feedbacks online, and give the access code to parents who can (and most probably will) share it with their kids. Then the students will be able to check on missing assignments and they will also have a clear picture about assignments they should re-write (in case that teachers leave “open for revision” option posted). This is an apparent attempt to go with the technological flow of the 21st century because benefits in education are from faster and easier access to assessments too. Thumbs up!
The next week is going to be Fall Break at my Middlebury College (Monday and Tuesday) Thus; I will not go for a lesson observation although Middlebury Union High will have classes in session.