Teach!

As most of you know, my senior project involves comparing the Saxon math curricula to the "traditional" math curricula. For the first three weeks of my project, I stayed at BASIS and participated in math classes from Algebra II through Calculus II. In fact, I was allowed to teach some lessons to the classes, which was very fun in my opinion. Now, I am at the Immaculate Heart middle and high schools--and there is no chance of misspeaking and calling it the lower school, which is a good thing. Yesterday was my first day at the school and it is interesting to see the differences in teaching styles and the challenges that students face, especially those who do not care for math as much as myself.

Next week, if everything goes as planned, I will be giving the kids a quiz on some material they are learning in their Algebra I and Algebra II classes, to see how well they are retaining the information learned in class. The reason for this is because the "traditional" style teaches topics in blocks whereas Saxon revisits topics throughout the year. Hopefully the students don't get too mad at me for making them take more quizzes this quarter...

I just want to share one more thing I find common between both schools. Students really enjoy the thought of having a substitute, but should probably look around for their teacher who is usually standing right behind them when they ask the question "Are you the sub? Is the teacher gone?"

-Matt