On the quality/quantity topic: period length. In my opinion from my canadian K-12 schooling, the work accomplished/time spent curve maxes at about 45 minutes for early grades, rising to 70 for later ones. Anything more and kids start to get antsy, anything less and it's impossible to fit a lesson's worth of material in. You can't just expect kids to go into class at 8whatever and learn for 7 hours straight, breaks are essential.
Eliminating Geometry from High School?
- Thread starterrochem
- Start date
In Spokane, almost all the high schools have class from 8:15/8:30 to about 2:30/2:45/3:00. Our periods are 52 minutes at my school, it's similar at other schools in the area. For me, 52 minutes often isn't enough time. We do have block days twice a week with access time and periods 1/3/5 or 2/4/6 (depending on the day) with 90 minute periods that are great. We get at least twice as much done, most days more. There are good for tests because we have so much more time, and block days give us time to work with teachers before hand. We did have to have "power blocks" that were 105, 110, and 115 minutes long, and everyone hated them. Those days we started at the normal time and then had insanely long classes where students had a very hard time concentrating and teachers ran out of things to do. The only teachers that liked it were the PE teachers who could do lots of things in one day, and the drama teacher who was working on building the set for our show.
One thing about the video discussion, my geometry teacher (one of my favorite teachers ever, btw) recorded all of his lessons for the past three years, and has them available on Blackboard for free for anyone. [In fact a teacher at the other district high school "happened" to plan lessons one day later then my teacher, and replay our videos the next day when my teacher put them online.] so, because I was visiting my grandparents out of town, I can just go watch his videos to get caught up and then meet with him for things I don't understand. It is a great resource. And, he talks very fast (comically so intact) so you can go play him back at half speed!
(If any words seem weird, it might be the iOS autocorrect)
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I didn't even know Geometry was an individual subject in America. Imagine that- having only five or so subject spaces to fill (as I have) and having to take up two or three of them with individual aspects of Mathematics. It doesn't make much sense to me. I prefer the one core Mathematics course that has a selection of papers which cover all the bases- Algebra, Geometry (+trig), Number, Statistics etc,. You can also choose to take subjects like accounting, economics and enterprise and the only compulsory thing in that regard is half a year of Financial Literacy in Year 11 (year I've just finished) in which you learn how to draw up a budget and understand financial terms and documents. The other half of the year is spent learning about safe sex.
For my second to last year of High School starting in February I've picked:
Mathematics with Calculus
Physics
Electronics
Programming
English
Music
For my second to last year of High School starting in February I've picked:
Mathematics with Calculus
Physics
Electronics
Programming
English
Music
z2oo
Active Member
I didn't even know Geometry was an individual subject in America. Imagine that- having only five or so subject spaces to fill (as I have) and having to take up two or three of them with individual aspects of Mathematics. It doesn't make much sense to me. I prefer the one core Mathematics course that has a selection of papers which cover all the bases- Algebra, Geometry (+trig), Number, Statistics etc,. You can also choose to take subjects like accounting, economics and enterprise and the only compulsory thing in that regard is half a year of Financial Literacy in Year 11 (year I've just finished) in which you learn how to draw up a budget and understand financial terms and documents. The other half of the year is spent learning about safe sex.
For my second to last year of High School starting in February I've picked:
Mathematics with Calculus
Physics
Electronics
Programming
English
Music
That's actually interesting - only having 5 class spots. I have up to 9 classes that I can choose each semester, granted one must be some sort of physical education. I'm a sophomore (10th grade) and I've already taken Algebra I + II, and am now taking Plane and Solid Geometry. Apparently the order my school uses for math classes is strange for American education... Anyway, I have to say that geometry is still alive and kicking. Oh, and class lengths are 50 min each period for me.
Currently though, I'm taking these classes -
English 2 Honors
Plane/Solid Geometry Advanced (woo!)
AP Modern European History (MEAP)
Advanced Percussion Ensemble (APE, two period class)
Chemistry 1 (took Biology last year as a requirement)
Spanish 3
Scout Experience (phys. ed. class)
Our cirriculum isn't half as... varied. We use the NCEA system for HS qualifications. In year 11 (I just finished YAY!) you work towards your Level 1 certificate, Year 12 Level 2, and Year 13 (12th grade equivalent) Level 3. Each level offers standards across the different subject areas, passing them will earn you credits, 80 credits at a certain level will earn you the certificate for that level. Some standards are internally assessed, especially in Technology and Arts subjects, while others are externally assessed (Exam format). Some of the standards in my Y11 Math course were:
-Apply algebraic methods in solving problems
-Investigate relationships between tables, lines, graphs and equation
-Solve problems using geometric reasoning (this included trig)
-Demonstrate understanding of chance and data
Depending on the Levels of NCEA you achieve by the time you've left school you are eligible to enter various forms of tertiary education. Level 3 will get you into most undergraduate degree courses at Uni, but some may have special subject requirements. Level 2 will get you into trade apprenticeships, polytechnics, and Diploma level study.
I like NCEA because it means I could get credit for a Drama standard to do with lighting/technical roles without actually taking the whole subject.
Sorry for the novel. XD
-Apply algebraic methods in solving problems
-Investigate relationships between tables, lines, graphs and equation
-Solve problems using geometric reasoning (this included trig)
-Demonstrate understanding of chance and data
Depending on the Levels of NCEA you achieve by the time you've left school you are eligible to enter various forms of tertiary education. Level 3 will get you into most undergraduate degree courses at Uni, but some may have special subject requirements. Level 2 will get you into trade apprenticeships, polytechnics, and Diploma level study.
I like NCEA because it means I could get credit for a Drama standard to do with lighting/technical roles without actually taking the whole subject.
Sorry for the novel. XD
In my area the order of math is Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Trig, Calc and any AP math you qualify for. Geometry used to come between the two Algrbra classes but they found they were spending too much time getting the kids back up to speed on the algebra. By the time you have two years of it, then back it with geometry then you can go into trig and be fine.
Math is a touching spot for me, they need to go back and just teach the **** subject and forget all this creative crap to make kids more successful. Math came very easy for me so I help found a math tutoring club to help other kids. We found many times we could take what the teachers were saying and put it in language they could understand. For the ones of us the excell at a subject we should do our part to help others along.
Because I worked so late every night I tended to sleep through trig class. I would sit center row, first seat, put my head on the desk and sleep. I did my homework and aced the class, drove my teacher nuts.
My point is, if you are spending your evenings watching videos of your teacher's lecture, seems to still be sit and listen, how are you to ever do any extracurricular activities? How could you play sports, do shows, work, learn karate, join scouts and just sit around and be a kid? While I agree there should be a small amount of homework to assure you understand the subject, teaching needs to done at school.
It is like saying you need to work at the office for eight hours, but we need to have meetings to plan the work and assign responsibilities so they will all be in the evening. Idiotic!
Math is a touching spot for me, they need to go back and just teach the **** subject and forget all this creative crap to make kids more successful. Math came very easy for me so I help found a math tutoring club to help other kids. We found many times we could take what the teachers were saying and put it in language they could understand. For the ones of us the excell at a subject we should do our part to help others along.
Because I worked so late every night I tended to sleep through trig class. I would sit center row, first seat, put my head on the desk and sleep. I did my homework and aced the class, drove my teacher nuts.
My point is, if you are spending your evenings watching videos of your teacher's lecture, seems to still be sit and listen, how are you to ever do any extracurricular activities? How could you play sports, do shows, work, learn karate, join scouts and just sit around and be a kid? While I agree there should be a small amount of homework to assure you understand the subject, teaching needs to done at school.
It is like saying you need to work at the office for eight hours, but we need to have meetings to plan the work and assign responsibilities so they will all be in the evening. Idiotic!
Is that order of math subjects spread across one year? Or do you spend your first year or two of HS doing Algebra and Geometry and then move on the the others over a period of years?
Once you get to year 12 (11th grade) you have the option of dropping math altogether. The only compulsory subject is English. So if the university/polytech course you're applying for doesn't have a great math component you don't have to take the subject.
Once you get to year 12 (11th grade) you have the option of dropping math altogether. The only compulsory subject is English. So if the university/polytech course you're applying for doesn't have a great math component you don't have to take the subject.
My choices for PE is take it at school or pay around $500 to quasi-private school to maintain an online log for physical activity. Why does it cost so much? That would probably be the easiest credit to get outside of school but I don't think that it should take so much money. For comparison, my Spanish class from the University of Washington at the high school is $299 and carries 5 easily transferrable credits.
Yes, a year a subject, so from Algebra I to calc it is five years.
Ah, that makes more sense. Sometimes I wish I could only take Geometry for a whole year or whatever, but Math isn't my absolute strongest subject (falls behind English and Music) so I think revisiting Algebra, Geometry and Trig etc in smaller units that get progressively more complex each year has served me well. It means that if I wanted to, I could drop Mathematics altogether in my second to last year and still have a well rounded knowlege of Algebra, Trigonometry, Statistics, Probability etc (but not Calculus) before I turn 16. However I need the full five years for an Engineering degree so I'm sticking with it.
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