getting better all the time

recap:

Ms. K has been away for nearly 2 weeks; no classroom instruction occurred in that time; no homework was sent home; worksheets were done in class but answers were not checked.

Then of course there was Monday's punishment-by-polynomials event. This occurred, I gather, because C's class has 3 or 4 of "the rowdy boys," who are rough on subs. So I'm told.

Tuesday — yesterday — the kids took a pop quiz.

This may be C's only A on a quiz or test all year. He has an A on this quiz because I have required him to complete polynomial multiplication worksheets at home.

Everyone else could have been multiplying polynomials at home or — and here's a thought — at school during Ms. K's protracted absence.

But no.

I think this situation is going to change. It's too late for these kids, but it's good news for the younger ones.



in which Mom senses a pattern

I hadn't quite grokked the fact that Christopher's math class had the rowdy boys.

Now I'm curious. I don't have a problem with rowdy boys; I like rowdy boys! I know they can slow down a class, but my own extended family has so many kids with behavior "issues" that I feel a sense of relief when, for once, my kid isn't the one upending the apple cart. Also, Christopher has such a strange family life (for newbies: 2 autistic siblings) that when it comes to social life at school I've always thought the more rowdy boys the better.

That said, I'm thinking: hmmmm.

Christopher has been telling me all year long that his ELA class is "bad." I think that's how he puts it - "bad."

That class also has the rowdy boys.

Third data point: at the Civil War Museum exhibit the other night I was telling one of C's teachers how fantastic the class had been, and the teacher mentioned that he/she had "used Christopher as a buffer." That class is loaded with rowdy boys.

So now I'm wondering whether the school balances classes by putting the most active kids in with the most compliant kids.

I don't know whether that would have made sense when placements were being done last spring. Christopher talked in class too much last year, though I don't know if this was still the case by spring. I should find out.

In any event, I'm curious whether this is a factor in classroom placement decisions. I'm thinking a school would want to spread the active kids amongst the classes, rather than concentrating them in one classroom.

But maybe not?

Maybe it sometimes makes sense to balance the most active kids with the most cooperative?



come to think of it

I just realized: I would love to know whether the kids who were punished-by-polynomials did better on the quiz than kids in the two classes that were rewarded for good behavior with games and chat.

The punishment worksheet was a series of embedded FOIL problems so complicated that Christopher completed only 2 in 45 minutes; the smartest girl in the class, I am reliably told, completed 3.

The pop quiz was on FOIL multiplication of polynomials. Even an overly complex worksheet of embedded FOILs is probably going to provide practice for a test of reasonably simple FOIL problems.


2 weeks off
the return of Ms. K
getting better all the time