2009/11/09

Journal Entry #7

It is a flu season and many students are missing. There were just one half of the students (eight) present on the beginning of this class. Moreover, only two guys were actually present during the last lesson on Friday of the previous week. And the major dilemma arose – what to do? Although the AP system pushes forward to utilize each classroom due to highly demanding expectations, Ms. Ringquist decided to use this lesson for catching up. First, the class went over the previous quiz/test in order to clarify any previous misconceptions. Then they recapitulated random variables and reminded the key concepts. At this point, a few more students arrived from a theatre play they were organizing for underclassman. Thus more students could benefit from this lesson which did not include any new material but solidified all previous concepts. We also read a sample example from the book and went over examples of calculating expected values, variances and standard deviations. Homework problems were also reassigned and the emphasis was on material revised during the class (expected values, variances and standard deviations).

One could argue that a teacher should always proceed ahead in curricular, but I agree that under certain circumstances I have just witnessed today there is no point to do so. Considering the fact that only two students were present the last time and some of them might have no problems catching up, there would be a majority of students who would lose the connection of syllabus´ progress. It is crucial for students to recognize the perspective of material taught and anticipate upcoming development of ideas (like walking on a path) instead of rushing through unknown trails of dark forest.