Post from Tom on 10-18-2007

• I am feeling a lot of what James is. My science classes seem to be well engaged but when I test the algebra classes the average is down in the forties and fifties. I honestly don't know what to tell you, with my algebra class we simply reworked the problems and retook the tests. This process went on for over two weeks but we did finally get the class average around 75 percent. Same as James, some students just seem to be extremely different to motivate. On the other end of the spectrum, I wanted to share a great experience from physics. We were going over a practice test the students had done on UTIPs and the entire class got it wrong. I could tell by the way they were acting that they were not going to accept the correct answer just because I said it was right. The question was asking a problem about elevators so I promptly invited them all across town to the district office to take a ride in the elevator. The kids loved it, I had one of them get a set of bathroom scales from their home on the way down and we went up and down over and over (with the superintendent's office just out side mind

you) until the light bulb had clicked on for all the students. We spent 45 min. on one problem, perhaps a waist of time but to have the kids talking about what they had actually observed was worth it.