Learn and Serve week 3

This week at Gaskill Prep. I got to help the kids with a small in-class project using Algebra Tables. Algebra tables were very new to me, I have never seen them before in my life and I came to find out that they are REQUIRED by NYS to teach in the classroom and it will be testable material.

I honestly do not know why they introduced FOILing in this fashion because it is the most confusing method I have ever seen. To show this to a student who has never seen two bi-nomials being multiplied together before, and expect them to understand this is crazy. I am in Calc III and I had trouble the first time I saw it. Tuesday was actually one of the very first times I enjoyed myself at learn and serve. I had time to discuss topics with my teacher including the testing that every student beginning in 1st grade has to endure up to graduation, ONLY these "tests" don't count until you reach highschool(Regents Exams) their only use is to determine whether or not the teacher is teaching the required material, and whether or not theyre teaching it correctly. If the student fails, it does not matter, they continue onto the next grade level without consequence, these examinations are purely for comparison purposes. I personally find this outrageous. We should not be putting such elaborate tests down 7year olds throats. And to continue doing so until graduation is even worse. All this testing is leading to higher levels of drop outs in high school, and lower over-all GPA's because by the time the students reach high school they are burnt out from all the testing. Also, they figure because the tests they took at the end of the year didn't matter in previous years, the one they have to take called the Regents Exam, won't be worth anything either. WRONG. Students won't understand the difference between the tests, and all the ciriculum forced upon teachers does not allow much room for the teacher to actually TEACH her students. No room for creativitiy or variation. Its all about knowing the material for the end of the year state exam....ridiculous.

The textbook discusses in chapter 8 that students with autism will typically have a difficult time performing well on a state examination such as these because they compare his results to other student's results. Chapter 8 goes into detail about the symtoms of those students who have autism and how they over come it. A better way to help a student with autism feel successful about the progress he/she has made throughout the year wouldn't be an exam, but perhaps a hands-on activity with his/her teacher demonstrating some of the skills he/she has been taught throughout the school year.

Anyway! Learn and serve came to be a good experience because I loved helping the students understand their math better and actually getting to be involved and not just stand and observe!!!! =D

It was like a breath of fresh air...or a beautiful beam of sunlight through the trees!!