Teaching High School Science

Here is antoher article I found: http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/no-child-left-behind-more-high-school-dropouts-15531.html  I think it is interesting that what was intended to help students is in fact harming them.  I personally have no problem holding teachers accountable as long as students can also be held accountable.  We all know that each student learns differently and some are not able to learn as much as others, but the students that do not care about their education need to be held accountable too.  Then you have some school disticts who are really trying to get the kids do improve and others that put band-aids over gaping wounds.  Well now I am off in other directions.  Read the article and let me know how you feel

Tags: NCLB

Here is another link to an article on teaching in hisgh school: http://www.thechemblog.com/?p=755 The author talks about parents being too involved or not enough and the state mandating too many things.  He ends the post with:

“To be a teacher these days requires more than just starry eyed optimism, it requires blind idealism.

In all, I wouldn’t do it. That noise is for chumps.”

While I agree to some extent to what he says I do not think teaching is for chumps.  I am however an optimist.  Tell me what you think.

Tags: high school, science, teaching

I had a student this year in my AP Chemistry class who was very smart and, when he put the time in, was the best in the class. He chose to goof around most of the time and was getting a “C” in the class during the second semester. He felt he could be getting an “A” if he applied himself and did not want to ruin his GPA so he dropped out of the class with about 8 week to the end of the year.

I received an email from him today. He has his binder from class and he is keeping it in a special place as his motivation as he goes to college. Let me quote him on this, “to me, it symbolizes that I do have the potential to beat even the smartest students when I really study and put my mind to it. Yet, it is a class that also symbolizes the horrible effects of bad work ethic, poor decision making, and of course, laziness. Furthermore, AP Chemistry was one of the first classes that taught me there is no reason in blaming others for one’s problems, nor can one make excuses, especially when someone else in the same class is successful.”

Now how much chemistry did he learn? Who cares! I think he just did a LOT of growing up. He learned what he needs to do at college and in the future. I still think he learned some great chemistry, but at his point in his life, he will be a college freshman next year, I think the life lesson he got from it is much more important.