School Visit 5

April 28

At the beginning of this class, Mrs. Qwerty announced that there were only 37 school days left until summer vacation, and there was not a lot of time for students to get their grades up. She told the students that she was not at all happy with the grades in her last class, and that there was a limited time for improvement, and only so much that they could do to get their grades up. She also warned that the projects that they had to do (research a famous historical person, and write a paper with a bibliography of at least three sources, a poster, and an oral presentation) were due in six days.
There was book work that the students had to do today, again about the Revolutionary War. One student that I was working with, “Zeek” was further along in the class, and was a couple of assignments ahead. He was answering a question about the attack on Cromwell’s army on their march to Princeton, and he asked me to help explain it to him. I took a piece of notebook paper, and drew him a diagram of what happened, about how the Americans left the fires in their camps burning to make it look like they were still there, while secretly they snuck behind the British troops, and took them from behind. After “Zeek” realized what happened, he likened it to the game Risk, which he said he liked to play at home with his family. Later on in this class, the same student complained to me about the amount of bookwork that they have to do. He told me that I would get really bored (just like he always is) in that class. He said that it is easy because there are no lectures, but it is not fun doing nothing but book work day in and day out.
In the last class of the day, I worked with a student that I had never worked with before. “Beth” told me that she was worried about failing the class, and wanted to know if I would work with her. I told her that I could, and would be happy to do it. I asked her what assignment she was working on, and she pulled out the work sheet. It was from before I ever came into the class… This girl had a LOT of makeup work to get done. I helped her answer all of the questions that I could in the time that we were allotted, but I was not able to help her accomplish too much work.
All in all, I am not a fan thus far of how this classroom is run. It seems like there is too much emphasis on book work, while there is no room for intellectual development, or critical thought. I see many of these students getting frustrated as they go through the same assignments class in and class out.