Thursday, August 03, 2006
From the Unblogged Files of the Invisible Ben: Day #4 (Favorite Subjects)
Longtime readers would probably not be surprised at my assertion that the typical Underwood High School student does not possess a particular fondness for the realm of academia. However, this should not imply that students did not possess any preferences so far as their favorite classes or teachers. Nowhere was this more evident than among the school's honors students. The honors program at Underwood is rather tightknit, consisting almost entirely of teachers located on the northern side of the third floor. The program's director, one of my favorite people at Underwood, has a piece of prime classroom real estate smack dab in the middle of the hallway, perfect for the countless occasions where she is called upon to abandon the menial paperwork that keeps her academy running to regulate traffic.
Right next to her door, the honors program posts the names and pictures of each grade's "Students of the Month". Each student also has the chance to tell something about themselves including where they want to go to college, their hobbies, and their favorite teachers and subjects. The student profiles are shifted to the side with each month, so that by the end of the year there were 54 different students pictured. (2 for each grade per month for 9 months) Now around halfway through the year, I had an opportunity to have my last period class covered. (Given how miserable that class behaved in general, I appreciated the break!) And as I wondered toward my chemistry class on the third floor I noticed the decided to take notes of the subjects that the honors kids to that point had marked as their favorite. I wrote the tally on the back of a worksheet on electrochemical cells.
The results are as follows:
Social Science/Law: 3
English: 6
French: 1
Mathematics: 7
History: 8
Technology: 1
Journalism: 1
Music: 1
All Subjects: 1
Quick thoughts:
Longtime readers would probably not be surprised at my assertion that the typical Underwood High School student does not possess a particular fondness for the realm of academia. However, this should not imply that students did not possess any preferences so far as their favorite classes or teachers. Nowhere was this more evident than among the school's honors students. The honors program at Underwood is rather tightknit, consisting almost entirely of teachers located on the northern side of the third floor. The program's director, one of my favorite people at Underwood, has a piece of prime classroom real estate smack dab in the middle of the hallway, perfect for the countless occasions where she is called upon to abandon the menial paperwork that keeps her academy running to regulate traffic.
Right next to her door, the honors program posts the names and pictures of each grade's "Students of the Month". Each student also has the chance to tell something about themselves including where they want to go to college, their hobbies, and their favorite teachers and subjects. The student profiles are shifted to the side with each month, so that by the end of the year there were 54 different students pictured. (2 for each grade per month for 9 months) Now around halfway through the year, I had an opportunity to have my last period class covered. (Given how miserable that class behaved in general, I appreciated the break!) And as I wondered toward my chemistry class on the third floor I noticed the decided to take notes of the subjects that the honors kids to that point had marked as their favorite. I wrote the tally on the back of a worksheet on electrochemical cells.
The results are as follows:
Social Science/Law: 3
English: 6
French: 1
Mathematics: 7
History: 8
Technology: 1
Journalism: 1
Music: 1
All Subjects: 1
Quick thoughts:
- The history major part of me is thrilled to see that the study of history seems to be the most popular!
- And math isn't far behind? That's even better! Given the difficulties our students face in mathematics (as reflected in our test scores), I'm glad to see that our honors kids seem to like them.
- A few subjects are electives and therefore probably can and should not be judged the same way as fewer students have the opportunity to take, for example, journalism or music than English or Math.
- Not ONE student chose a science as their favorite class. Admittedly, one marked down biology as his second favorite. But this is just a shame, and not because they didn't pick me specifically as a favorite teacher when I marked down this list. What worries me is that not one student had an inspirational or enjoyable science class, whether in physical science, chemistry, or physics. The hard sciences, for some reason, are not proving appealing to Underwood students. My theory is that in contrast to English or history, these subjects require more than the acquisition of vocabulary and can be more difficult to connect to everyday experience. In addition, unlike the typical high school mathematics curriculum, where new terminology is subordinate to problem solving, in science the two go hand in hand...and the sheer amount of new material in any given unit can be overwhelming.
- These statistics are neither conclusive nor comprehensive. (After all, one of my students actually marked me as a favorite teacher in June. Not sure if chemistry was her favorite subject though...) Were I to consider this question again in the coming school year, I would compile the tally at the very end of the year instead of halfway. I also would not then take that tally and shove it a pile to be blogged before ignoring it for several months. Hindsight is 20-20, I guess.
