Week 6

So the test is over and done with. The students did not necessarily fair well... the mean and median were both around 78, but I still maintain that the test was fair. It did help me better understand, though, where they were not getting things. Specifically, they are having a difficult time fully understanding the concept of the sampling distribution. Why is it important to know that a sampling distribution is Normal and to define both the mean and standard deviation of the sampling distribution. So many people argued with me that since they said it was Normal, that should be good enough, but knowing something is Normal doesn't help much if we don't know the mean and std. dev... hopefully I can reinforce that concept as we move on.

The other aspect I am truly surprised at is, given that not everyone did so hot, how many of them chose to not ask questions about their test, to not try to figure out where they went wrong. I guess I need to let them take responsibility for their own grades. If they don't care enough to improve then I can't do much to help.

One of the areas of teaching that I'm really struggling with is classroom management. Specifically, there are a few students who always start to talk when I'm answering questions and I have not figured out a good way to shut them up. I've tried several techniques, but still no luck. I'm half tempted to split them up because it can be very disruptive. I am also having a heck of a time getting students to participate. I have a few new techniques I'm going to try this week, I'll update you on how they go next time.

The other thing I've been running into lately is problems with time management. I never seem to have enough time to get through the entire lesson. I guess I'll have to continue to feel that out, especially after I get better at assessing when and where the students will struggle and have extra questions.

Well, till next time.