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I'm in a great district. It's just very small. You have more kids taking AP chemistry than we have kids in the entire 10th grade class if you have 8 AP chemistry classes. We don't have enough kids to offer 8 sections of anything let alone 11. How big is your school? We have less than 200 kids in each class.
Out of curiosity, what percentage of your students get a 3 or better on the AP exam?
There are about 450 in each class in our school. Of the 450 seniors last year 88 of them got 3 or better on 4 or more tests, 55 kids scored 3's or better on ALL of the AP tests they took (more than 4), 19 kids got 4 or better on all the AP tests they took, 37 kids got 4 or better on 4 or more tests, and we had one student get all 5's on every AP test he took-for him that was about 28 AP tests (he started taking AP classes in 8th grade)-the kid is unbelievably smart (but you can't hold a conversation with the kid because he has no social skills). They had a news article about this in the fall which is why I know these numbers. This is about 200 kids so I would say 70+% or so. I don't know exactly how many kids took at least 4 tests. At least 3/4ths of the school takes SOME AP classes over the years, most of the college bound kids take 4-6 AP classes each year (junior and senior year). Our sophomores are taking 3 AP classes this year, which is pretty typical for the college bound kids.
Not everyone that takes the classes take the tests. Some of the kids know that the college they are attending doesn't give credit for Ap's so they don't take the tests even though they took the classes.
No one learns that way I was trying to get you to understand why some kids need to spend 3 hours doing homework in elementary school and I was talking about elementary school-not high school. It seems like you think kids should have 15 minutes of homework and be done no matter what. The child I was talking about DID have all kinds of interventions but he still NEEDED to do 3 hours of homework to stay up with his classmates. I don't know what else I can do to get you to understand this. It isn't as cut and dried as you make it seem. What if this were your child, would you not spend the 3 hours to keep him up to grade level??
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OK, I admit, I still don't understand it. Yes, I understand WHY some kids take a long time to do things... what I don't understand is when it's worth it to make a third grader spend three hours doing homework. I do think that's a totally separate issue from the general homework discussion, however. I'm not well-versed in the ins and outs of children with learning disabilities, but if it were my child, I think I'd still need to spend a long time thinking about pros and cons of such an approach. Kids still need to be kids. I don't know that I would spend three hours a day doing homework just to keep my son at grade level. It would certainly depend on circumstances, and I don't think it would be worth it if it left him at grade level but hating school or not having the time to simply enjoy life and be a kid. Obviously that's an extreme choice (and one I hope I don't have to face), but one that is certainly not easy. That's a very extreme example, though, and while I hope that my child and any future children are at or above grade level, I also don't want to become a parent who is obsessed with that, particularly in the case of a child who has a learning disability. When we're talking the average child, though, yes, I do think that elementary school children should only have to do homework for a set length of time before being able to call it quits for the night.
I don't actually think they learn much with PowerPoints, to be honest -- the nature of PP restricts them to pretty basic information. If the purpose of any project or homework is "to master content" or "to practice skills," I'm not convinced PP really does either one very well -- not surprisingly, given that it was not intended to do that in the first place. This is true for English, however; for other classes, YMMV.
A Powerpoint is there to teach kids how to compile information in a manner that is easy for the audience to follow and to teach kids how to give an oral presentation in front of an audience-a skill that is VERY valuable. The PowerPoint itself is a visual aid. In the 'old days' we used note cards and poster board to the same effect. How can you think that giving class presentations is not a valuable skill
There are about 450 in each class in our school. Of the 450 seniors last year 88 of them got 3 or better on 4 or more tests, 55 kids scored 3's or better on ALL of the AP tests they took (more than 4), 19 kids got 4 or better on all the AP tests they took, 37 kids got 4 or better on 4 or more tests, and we had one student get all 5's on every AP test he took-for him that was about 28 AP tests (he started taking AP classes in 8th grade)-the kid is unbelievably smart (but you can't hold a conversation with the kid because he has no social skills). They had a news article about this in the fall which is why I know these numbers. This is about 200 kids so I would say 70+% or so. I don't know exactly how many kids took at least 4 tests. At least 3/4ths of the school takes SOME AP classes over the years, most of the college bound kids take 4-6 AP classes each year (junior and senior year). Our sophomores are taking 3 AP classes this year, which is pretty typical for the college bound kids.
Not everyone that takes the classes take the tests. Some of the kids know that the college they are attending doesn't give credit for Ap's so they don't take the tests even though they took the classes.
We have about 170 students in each class. Some AP classes are offered but there isn't enough interest in AP chemistry to offer the course, though I do have enough students who could do well in the course to offer it. Right now, I have about 25% of my class earning A's in chemistry and they earned them.
There is more interest in AP physics and AP bio. We offer one section of each of every two years.
Chemistry is just scary. It's kind of funny though. I tell my kids to study everything and they stress out. I hand them a 10 page study guide that is, basically, the Reader's Digest condensed version of the semester and off they go to study. I think they're just overwhelmed when they get to pick what they study. They're afraid they'll pick wrong.
AP is another animal. You have to be self motivated to pass AP chem. I'd like to teach it some day but, so far, we don't have enough students wanting the course so the school offers an online version. I was hoping I would get to do the labs with the one student I'm advisor for (can't say I'm advising him because he never comes to ask questions) who is taking the online course but they don't require the labs.
I can understand teens being overwhelmed by having to study for a midterm in a difficult subject like Chemistry.
My son is terrified of Physics. He does very well in Chemistry.
I wouldn't waste a lot of time with PowerPoint, but within reason it's a useful skill, and today's kids probably don't have to spend much time figuring out at least the basics. When I was in grad school (not SO long ago!) we still did all of our presentations using slide projectors. In more recent years I've organized several academic conferences and not a single speaker used projectors. It was ALL PowerPoint. I think offering students the opportunity to use PowerPoint for class presentations is a good one, but it's also a good opportunity to remind students that even the fanciest of bells and whistles are not enough to make up for quality content, and that in all presentations the purpose of the medium should be to get across the content effectively, not to show off fancy design skills. (then again, my PP presentations are not very fancy; they're essentially slightly fancier slide shows. It works for me, though.)
You are REALLY making this into a bigger deal then you need to. Of COURSE we asked more probing questions which is why I said "did you take it at FACE VALUE" that doesn't mean they are lying, just not telling the whole story .
I think it's a big deal to assume that kids always lie. If it irritates you don't answer.
OK, I admit, I still don't understand it. Yes, I understand WHY some kids take a long time to do things... what I don't understand is when it's worth it to make a third grader spend three hours doing homework. I do think that's a totally separate issue from the general homework discussion, however. I'm not well-versed in the ins and outs of children with learning disabilities, but if it were my child, I think I'd still need to spend a long time thinking about pros and cons of such an approach. Kids still need to be kids. I don't know that I would spend three hours a day doing homework just to keep my son at grade level. It would certainly depend on circumstances, and I don't think it would be worth it if it left him at grade level but hating school or not having the time to simply enjoy life and be a kid. Obviously that's an extreme choice (and one I hope I don't have to face), but one that is certainly not easy. That's a very extreme example, though, and while I hope that my child and any future children are at or above grade level, I also don't want to become a parent who is obsessed with that, particularly in the case of a child who has a learning disability. When we're talking the average child, though, yes, I do think that elementary school children should only have to do homework for a set length of time before being able to call it quits for the night.
He still had plenty of time to "enjoy life". He got home from school a little after 3, homework right away, done by 6 or so. Ate dinner, played outside with the neighbor kids for a couple hours, went home to go to bed. It wasn't really any different then the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. He was also in Tae Kwon Do and played hockey. In high school he was manager for the Football team and senior year he was even voted Homecoming King. He is a great kid who is now in college because his parents spent 3 hours each evening (or most evenings) helping him with homework. I couldn't imagine you would really not do that with your son if it was necessary.
Honestly, it is not an extreme example, it is very common with kids with various learning disabilities.
Even with so called "normal" kids having time determine how long you do your homework is really not a good idea. If you have a boy, and you DO, just wait until he starts school. Boys especially are very good and finding other things to do while they "look" like they are doing homework. . How about your job (when you were working), do you just get to work on a project for as long as you want and then just not finish because you thought you worked long enough (and if you did how long did you keep that job)? There is a valuable lesson to be learned with starting a task, working through the task and completing a task, nevermind what the clock says.
This is not to say that there won't be a day or two where he won't have a lot of homework but there will be plenty of days with no homework too.
I believe in the task approach when it comes to middle school and high school -- just not for elementary school. Then again, I'm philosophically opposed to most formal assigned daily elementary school homework. I think teachers should simply encourage reading, give some longer-term projects, and skip the nightly stuff.
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. How about your job (when you were working), do you just get to work on a project for as long as you want and then just not finish because you thought you worked long enough (and if you did how long did you keep that job)? There is a valuable lesson to be learned with starting a task, working through the task and completing a task, nevermind what the clock says.
