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Re: What to do now

Hi Tina-
I guess there have been times in my life when I felt pretty much
as you describe. So here is some of what I think I learned from the
experience:
1. Each student has his own agenda, which doesn't necessarily
coincide with yours. If you don't find out what the student's agenda is,
then, man, it's like you just can't talk to him, and she certainly won't
talk to you.
2. You are probably talking over the students' heads, as, I
suspect, are many of the people on this list. My recipe for this is to
read and absorb the introduction and first chapter of Arons' <Introduction
to the Teaching of Introductory Physics>. Then set about developing a
mutual vocabulary with exercises on such concepts as "ratio", "up",
"down", "distance" (does distance mean the same in "distance across the
room" as it does in "distance to the moon"?}, and similar notions.
3. Your students almost certainly have no understanding of
"derivative" as the slope of the tangent to a curve, still less as
measuring a rate of change. Nor do they have any understanding of algebra
as a method to make problem-solving easier. You can make some headway on
these two issues in the course of 1 year.
4. Do not expect your students to remember anything that you say
in the course of a lecture. They were probably mostly thinking about
something else. When you want a student response it must be in the
context of a specific, assigned task.
5. Remember that your students "learned math" by being given a
sample problem that they can copy and then repeating endless minor
variations of the same problem. They expect you to teach them physics the
same way.
6. Don't be driven by what you expect that some university
requires of you. The universities are not doing any better than you are.
That's why our top schools are largely populated by foreign students.
7. Don't rely on the admissions office to weed out people who
haven't taken the requisite math courses. That's not like how
administrators get promoted.
8. Don't try to be like another student to the students. They
will respect mature leadership and care with speech and grammar.
9. Distinguish among your foreign students. Some are terribly
unprepared, and some are far beyond their fellow classmates. Find out
which are which. If you are lucky enough to have any in the first
category then try to use them to help teach the others.

They will talk to you when you have won their trust.

Regards,
Jack



On Tue, 18 Sep 2001, Tina Fanetti wrote:

Hello all
And now for something completely different.

I was called into my supervisor's office yesterday. My physics stude=
nts think I am a bad teacher and accuse me of not answering questions=
etc etc.

I am like they don't ask questions. I ask them if they are getting i=
t and I get no response. =20
They just had their first test. They did horrible. This is a calc b=
ased class and they are all going to be engineers at a much tougher s=
chool than this.

I don't know what to do. I can't slow down anymore. I have to do so=
mething.

I also have a problem relating to some of the foreign students. I wo=
uld like some advice regarding this too.

I had a long talk with my students today begging them to ask question=
s telling them I can't help you if I don't know what you don't get. =
It makes perfect sense to me and if you don't tell me that it doesnt'=
make sense to you...I assume you got it.

Tina

Tina Fanetti
Physics Instructor
Western Iowa Technical Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City IA 51102
712-274-8733 ext 1429


--
Franz Kafka's novels and novella's are so Kafkaesque that one has to
wonder at the enormity of coincidence required to have produced a writer
named Kafka to write them.
Greg Nagan from "The Metamorphosis" in
<The 5-MINUTE ILIAD and Other Classics>