High School

[Johnny1996]

And where do those notes go? Into the trash after school is finished. That's the thing about school- you'll learn this and that and when it comes to summertime or any extended vacation and boom, you forget EVERYTHING. Very little information sticks at all and I question if it ever will be put to use after you graduate (and don't go to college).

One and a half notebooks we filled up in that class.

I already forgot 90% of what I learned in Spanish last year.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

We barely just touch on some of the texts you mentioned. If anything, it's something that we are forced to read because of standards and this is coming from Year 9 and 10. All I'm doing is just getting by each year and I know for sure that I'm not getting any smarter because all we're doing is getting by by doing what we're told and answer measly questions. Oh and FFS I dislike taking notes and dealing with theories especially when the teacher says their own and expects you to agree with them.

Well, your teacher isn't very good, then. In English, the best answer is the answer that demonstrates your understanding, regardless of what I think of its merits. If, for example, you wish to argue that Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" is not about McCarthyism, and is instead a critical account of early colonial American life, that's fine. I completely disagree with that interpretation, but that doesn't matter in the slightest. What matters is how well you make your argument. You don't have to disprove my interpretation - you just need to demonstrate what you know about the text and, more importantly, how you know it.

Something I can't stand is taking extensive notes everyday.

Sometimes, we have to take notes. I usually try and limit that to the necessary theory. But everyone has a different learning style. Some kids need to put it into words. Others will learn from visual representations. Others still will need a more kinetic, tactile approach - to get in there and dismantle it and rebuild it. You generally know how you learn; the challenge for teachers is to identify who learns in which way, and tailor lessons to accommodate everyone.

 

[Johnny1996]

Sometimes, we have to take notes. I usually try and limit that to the necessary theory. But everyone has a different learning style. Some kids need to put it into words. Others will learn from visual representations. Others still will need a more kinetic, tactile approach - to get in there and dismantle it and rebuild it. You generally know how you learn; the challenge for teachers is to identify who learns in which way, and tailor lessons to accommodate everyone.

My bio teacher was about 70/30 on notes to lab activities. As the year went on, he started leaning more toward notes thanks to people who were lazy while doing the lab activities and not cleaning up after themselves. It was only a small few, but after we went to 100% notes, that didn't go too well on me. I'm more a visual and hands-on learner, more so the latter. There's usually a big difference between writing stuff down and actively engaging in a lesson for me.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I have taught in schools where practicum would be impossible. But from the sounds of things, that's just plain lazy.

And where do those notes go? Into the trash after school is finished. That's the thing about school- you'll learn this and that and when it comes to summertime or any extended vacation and boom, you forget EVERYTHING. Very little information sticks at all and I question if it ever will be put to use after you graduate (and don't go to college).

If the problem really is that bad, chances are you're not being taught in line with your learning style. And possibly a disconnect with the teaching theory. I'm guessing your teachers follow the ideas of Piaget, which wouldn't surprise me, given the emphasis on standardised testing (and I can't stand this method). I prefer Vygotsky, who suggested that content should be adapted to fit the student, rather than the student adapted to fit content.

 

[Aki Ko]

I have taught in schools where practicum would be impossible. But from the sounds of things, that's just plain lazy.


If the problem really is that bad, chances are you're not being taught in line with your learning style. And possibly a disconnect with the teaching theory. I'm guessing your teachers follow the ideas of Piaget, which wouldn't surprise me, given the emphasis on standardised testing (and I can't stand this method). I prefer Vygotsky, who suggested that content should be adapted to fit the student, rather than the student adapted to fit content.

Welcome to the US education system. There is standardized testing in some grade every year (elementary school and up) and the sad thing is that majority of the teachers have to teach all of what's on the standardized test in 170 or so days and then do absolutely nothing afterwards. If you're in high school, that's at least 80 days before you get switched to a different class that may not have a standardized test. I know US History has standardized testing, but math, English, and science varies. For me, all we do is go by chapter by chapter getting through the book until the end and I'm not truly learning anything despite being in Honors classes. It would be interesting to me to see any teacher around my area use the Vygotsky idea.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

If I'm teaching in social science, I go chapter by chapter because our texts are written to fit the curriculum. Even then, I use them as nothing more than a starting point. I just did labour market reform with Year 12 Economics and didn't touch the textbook because I didn't need to.

Personally, I hate standardised testing because it simply boils everything down to a common denominator and has a heavy emphasis on academic performance on the day. We use a system of weighted assessment tasks throughout the year so as to grade academic performance more consistently and to get a much more representative mark.

To give you an example of Piaget and Vygotsky in action, look at the basic principles of physics - lift, weight, thrust and drag. Under a Piaget model, you would introduce these concepts incrementally and only introducing the next when you are confident everyone is comfortable with the one you just did. But under Vygotsky, you would teach the four, but adapt it. The text may give an aeroplane as an example to illustrate these principles in action, but if one kid isn't getting it, you can change that example to something relevant to them - like, for example, a Formula 1 car, which uses the same principles, but applies them differently. The catch is that, in order to be effective, you need to know your students. And you need a curriculum that gives you a bit of flexibility.

 

[Dan]

Does anyone remember the part in Fahrenheit 451 where

Spoiler

Montag is reading the Bible on the train but he can't remember anything? He compares it to grains of sand falling through a strainer.

That's basically me... with everything.

 

[Doodle]

Senior year is great so far. I've made a few new friends, most of my classes are great, homework load is slightly more than last year, but slightly easier. 👍

 

[Bhowe83]

From my experience under the US Public Education System [with this being my 12th and final year, all in Georgia], it's become very evident to me that the problem is lack of qualified teachers in the baseline classes (Gen-Ed, Regular Classes, etc. whatever you wish to call the basic courses). These unqualified teachers in these classes do simply as the standards say; Take notes, drill notes, take assessments on vocab and notes, pray large % of class passes the state standardized tests. In these classes, which for me was mostly my history/social studies classes, I could exceed in the classes because I was able to transfer information to short term memory pretty easily, and then in turn retained the bits I needed in long term. However, I never had to think about what I was learning, I just had to regurgitate it. We always learned the Where, What, and When but then we've always neglected the Why and How, and to me those are the most important questions to truly learning something. They make you engage yourself into what you're learning, and now mere facts and notes can't give you an answer.

I feel like that is the biggest separation between On-level and Honors/AP classes and the teachers of each; in Honors/AP the Where, What, and When take back seat to the important questions of Why and How. To understand a concept, which is basically what the standards are, you need to be able to analyze the information and be able to apply it to other aspects of the class or even other classes.

There is a big difference between knowing that 2+2 is 4, and knowing why it's 4; There is a big difference in knowing that Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" is about McCarthyism, and understanding why you can claim that it's about McCarthyism.

Does anyone remember the part in Fahrenheit 451 where

Spoiler

Montag is reading the Bible on the train but he can't remember anything? He compares it to grains of sand falling through a strainer.

That's basically me... with everything.

I feel like Simon from Lord of the Flies

Spoiler

where everybody just runs around hysterically yelling Kill the pig, cut its throat, spill its blood and I have to sit here and tell everybody hey, it's probably not actually some beast, but actually a rather manageable problem that can easily be resolved in a few steps but instead I get swallowed in the hysteria.

 

[Gerarghini]

Just finished reading "The Crucible" in class yesterday. It just feels like with every book that I'm assigned to read, I end up disliking it (except for BNW).

On another note, it feels like with every band rehearsal I go to, I end up disliking it more and more. I'm a section leader yet disliked by most of the other leaders and now we have to go to a football game tomorrow (yippee...).

 

[Bhowe83]

Just finished reading "The Crucible" in class yesterday. It just feels like with every book that I'm assigned to read, I end up disliking it (except for BNW).

On another note, it feels like with every band rehearsal I go to, I end up disliking it more and more. I'm a section leader yet disliked by most of the other leaders and now we have to go to a football game tomorrow (yippee...).

What section are you leading?

 

[Turtle]

We've been watching Schindler's List in my Lit class; I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel just a little uncomfortable with some parts of it so far. Additionally, I missed my first day today, we aren't even two weeks in yet! I'll miss next Friday, too.

 

[LeadFootLiam]

So far, I have used barely anything from high school, and not by choice.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Just finished reading "The Crucible" in class yesterday. It just feels like with every book that I'm assigned to read, I end up disliking it (except for BNW).

Here's what you need to know:

1) It's a play, so see it performed if you can. It will help your understanding, but remember that the written version is the version you have been prescribed, and so it is the text you should refer to in your responses.

2) The play is not about the Salem witch trials. Sure, it's set in Salem and it hinges on the events in the woods, but it's an attack on McCarthyism, with witches standing in for communists. The people of Salem wouldn't know a witch if they saw one, but they're convinced that witches are among them and intent on destroying their way of life because they hate it for simply existing.

3) Miller deliberately avoids describing the events in the woods for a reason - with no clear evidence (there's contradictory and apocryphal bits and pieces here and there implying vodou rituals, lesbianism and the use of an LSD-like substance), we're forced to rely on the girls for testimony, and it quickly becomes apparent that they are unreliable as they have every reason to lie.

 

[Bhowe83]

Here's what you need to know:

1) It's a play, so see it performed if you can. It will help your understanding, but remember that the written version is the version you have been prescribed, and so it is the text you should refer to in your responses.

2) The play is not about the Salem witch trials. Sure, it's set in Salem and it hinges on the events in the woods, but it's an attack on McCarthyism, with witches standing in for communists. The people of Salem wouldn't know a witch if they saw one, but they're convinced that witches are among them and intent on destroying their way of life because they hate it for simply existing.

3) Miller deliberately avoids describing the events in the woods for a reason - with no clear evidence (there's contradictory and apocryphal bits and pieces here and there implying vodou rituals, lesbianism and the use of an LSD-like substance), we're forced to rely on the girls for testimony, and it quickly becomes apparent that they are unreliable as they have every reason to lie.

It's becoming relevant again in the post 9/11 ordeals with terrorism (though to a lesser extent than in the cold war)

 

[prisonermonkeys]

It's becoming relevant again in the post 9/11 ordeals with terrorism (though to a lesser extent than in the cold war)

It's always been relevant. It deals with the ugly reality of faith (the belief in an idea) being replaced with conviction (the belief that you're right). Just about every character displays some quality or value that could be described as fundamentally American, and yet when faced with an unquantifiable threat, they quickly become as corrupted as the evil they are trying to root out, and all the while claiming that they are the righteous simply because their convictions tell them so.

This goes back to what I was saying about "Othello" - the meaning behind a text can and does change depending on the social context in which it is examined. "The Crucible" has always dealt with those issues; September Eleven simply made them the most relevant to audiences.

 

[Gerarghini]

What section are you leading?

Trombones. I'm all good friends with them, it's just I'm the least strict of all the leaders. That alone causes a gap between me and *some* of the other leaders. I figure it also has to do with the fact that I only attend rehearsals once a week now due to my schedule. Heck, the silent peeps in my sections were all really quiet during band camp, but now they've changed drastically and talk more.

 

[Bhowe83]

Trombones. I'm all good friends with them, it's just I'm the least strict of all the leaders. That alone causes a gap between me and *some* of the other leaders. I figure it also has to do with the fact that I only attend rehearsals once a week now due to my schedule. Heck, the silent peeps in my sections were all really quiet during band camp, but now they've changed drastically and talk more.

What do you mean only attending one rehearsal a week? I'd get shot by my director for that

 

[Gerarghini]

What do you mean only attending one rehearsal a week? I'd get shot by my director for that

Bring bulletproof armor

But the reason why I can only attend once a week is because I take my classes at a college campus that's half an hour away. The bus I use to take home takes on average an hour to get to my drop-off zone. On Wednesdays we rehearse from 5-9 and that, plus Saturday rehearsals, are the only ones I can go to. My director did get mad for that but I'm good enough with the music and steps that I can make it up in a relatively short time.

 

[Bhowe83]

Bring bulletproof armor

But the reason why I can only attend once a week is because I take my classes at a college campus that's half an hour away. The bus I use to take home takes on average an hour to get to my drop-off zone. On Wednesdays we rehearse from 5-9 and that, plus Saturday rehearsals, are the only ones I can go to. My director did get mad for that but I'm good enough with the music and steps that I can make it up in a relatively short time.

What size band are you in and how complex is your music/show?

 

[C-ZETA]

Year 13, Day 9. First contact of the year with one of the fitties. She didn't want me to sit next to her in media, 'in memory' of her mate who dropped the subject. She's the only real girl left in the class. Isn't it sad.

In other, less important, news, English Language is basically History with a light serving of RS in Year 13. Apart from the whole language investigation, where I've already gone and made my first small F1 transcripts.

And in Media we watched The Conjuring. For some reason, my class chose that over The Shining, a frankly foolish choice. Mildly surprised to find the former actually has 87% on Rotten Tomatoes. It's not terrible, but plot is hole-filled and disjointed. Oh, and not scary.

 

[Gerarghini]

What size band are you in and how complex is your music/show?

I believe we're a 3A band with, I think, 80ish members (1/2 are freshmen and 8th graders). We're doing Cirque du Solei (spelling?); the music is easy for most of us. The way we do our show is quite odd; there's a heavy emphasis on visuals and we're learning the sets as we go about them, negating the use of a dot book. It's different than how we did it last year where we knew our dots and such but now it's sorta "go here-ish in 12 counts"

 

[AnthonyD1993]

I believe we're a 3A band with, I think, 80ish members (1/2 are freshmen and 8th graders). We're doing Cirque du Solei (spelling?); the music is easy for most of us. The way we do our show is quite odd; there's a heavy emphasis on visuals and we're learning the sets as we go about them, negating the use of a dot book. It's different than how we did it last year where we knew our dots and such but now it's sorta "go here-ish in 12 counts"

I know this year's band at my high school has about 60 or so members. The theme is apparently eras music since they're playing GNR (Sweet Child O' Mine), Bon Jovi (Wanted Dead or Alive), and Donna Summer (Last Dance). When I was a high school freshmen (2008-2009) the band had about 85, but my Senior year (2011-2012) had about 50 members. Anyway, this year's show for the 2014-2015 season isn't complete yet, but the first Sweet Child O' Mine alone has 23 sets. Last year's show had 20 for the entire show.

 

[Brutaka]

My school has this afterschool program called Brotherhood, it's basically just a hangout program where guys (and 3 girls) chill, talk about high school, and do college tours. Today we had a blindfolded maze run. One person is in the maze blindfolded, and the other is outside the maze giving instructions. I was teamed with one of the girls whom i've known since freshman year, sadly I did horribly. who knew you couldn't see out of a blindfold

 

[Bhowe83]

I believe we're a 3A band with, I think, 80ish members (1/2 are freshmen and 8th graders). We're doing Cirque du Solei (spelling?); the music is easy for most of us. The way we do our show is quite odd; there's a heavy emphasis on visuals and we're learning the sets as we go about them, negating the use of a dot book. It's different than how we did it last year where we knew our dots and such but now it's sorta "go here-ish in 12 counts"

I know this year's band at my high school has about 60 or so members. The theme is apparently eras music since they're playing GNR (Sweet Child O' Mine), Bon Jovi (Wanted Dead or Alive), and Donna Summer (Last Dance). When I was a high school freshmen (2008-2009) the band had about 85, but my Senior year (2011-2012) had about 50 members. Anyway, this year's show for the 2014-2015 season isn't complete yet, but the first Sweet Child O' Mine alone has 23 sets. Last year's show had 20 for the entire show.

We're marching 180+ this year and we're close to 100 sets now. Being a first trumpet, the show might as well be called "Tunnel Vision"

Is Pre Calculus hard? I have it next sem...

I had it last year and I'm currently in AP Calc [AB]. I don't know how your class structure is, but in my Pre-Calc class we mostly dealt with the skills involved with factoring (Especially factoring and manipulating trigonometric values) and analyzing functions and their graphical properties. You'll probably also learn about and use radians, polar coordinates and their graphs, and parametric graphs.

I passed the class with a ~93 (So an A or any other value that use to represent a very good grade depending on where you're from). It was all down to writing down everything our teacher wrote down when we were learning, and doing as much work as you could when you got worksheets. We went very in depth into every concept and we understood why and how each theorem or idea or computation worked. Many of our tests were taken completely by hand (no calculators allowed for any reason) so knowing how and why each concept worked and being to explain what was happening was a very high priority.

As long as you focus and try as hard as you can to learn the concepts taught to you, you should be fine.

 

[DRIFT3R_X7]

Well, the Marching seasons been going pretty good... Thats about all I have to say

 

[Astroboy2215]

Well the first day of spirit week has ended and it actually was a blast (for me at least). Had to wear neon yellow and the seniors had a pretty good showing, my friends and I took it a step forward by painting our faces half neon yellow haha. Tomorrow I have to dress up as a construction worker, good thing my mom kept my old bob the builder belt lol.

 

[AnthonyD1993]

One good thing about being a trouble free student when I was in high school is that people let me use high school equipment now that I'm an alumni. Of course, the fact that I knew and graduated with the principal's daughter might help, but it still is nice to be able to go back without being yelled at by staff. The band will be going to a local invitation for some of the bands in the area on Wednesday, and I'll probably go watch them so I can get out of the house.

 

[Bhowe83]

Well, the Marching seasons been going pretty good... Thats about all I have to say

What type of show are you marching?

 

[Doog]

So Sheriff Joe Arpaio's gonna come and talk to my criminal law class sometime in the near future. Should be interesting, what with the reputation he's garnered.