Student Profiles: Their World in Mine An Artifact for Standard #6 With ninety Algebra I students and twenty AP Statistics students, it was a challenge to learn their names at first. Given the period of time that I observed their test-taking in January, it was clear that the outspoken, active students would earn their names with more than just a title, but with an outstanding character and they will always be cherished. For this artifact, four students were selected from the classes I taught at B-CC. Two seniors and two freshmen would represent the AP Statistics and Algebra I classes, each having one boy and one girl. Although not promised any reward or incentive, these four students enjoyed the spotlight for their interview and had already a great deal of rapport built with me. You could claim that this was a biased survey, but these students had all experienced a learning moment with me at some point where they showed frustration. They earned their way to these profiles and I owe them greatly for their input, because I believe that I learned off them too. For each of the students, I have compiled their interview into different sections to demonstrate the depth in which I know these students to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom. Following those areas, I have reflected upon what each student brings to the classroom and their usual discourse patterns. Since each student is unique in the way they bring their presence to the classroom, along with their peers, I have striven to be as specific as I can be by drawing on the relationship I have built with each one of these students inside the classroom, and outside of it. Algebra I The first two, Demetra and Deaunte, are in periods four and one respectfully, and both are very different. Demetra is riding in at low grades but is attentive in class, bringing all her equipment and always excited to learn. Deaunte arrives to ask for a pencil most of the time, poorly equipped but yet achieving high scores on his tests. His character is one of humor, mixed with some mischief that landed him in In-School Suspension, yet he is a student that “gets the grades� in tests and quizzes. AP Statistics Jacob and Lauren are both in period three AP Statistics, which is a class filled with many outstanding students. A smaller section than the one before it, these folks also have a harder time grasping the material. Lauren's sister, Emily, is in the period two section, and is more proficient at mathematics. Both Lauren and Jacob are more humanities-based students, but can handle statistics because of its real world application. Although a reflection is embedded for each of the four students, a conclusive reflection appears at the end. 1
Demetra Eftimiades
Class: Algebra I Freshman, Class of 2012 College: Plans to go to either Maryland or Georgetown for an athletics or coaching program Extracurriculars, Activities, and Interests Demetra is an outstanding member of the JV Lady Barons basketball team at BCC, and I watched her play an intense and aggressive game. Her advance as a freshman on the team gives her a great opportunity for leadership which is apparent both on the court and in the classroom. In the spring, Demetra also plays lacrosse and kick-boxes year round with her family. She plays the piano too, showing a diverse range of talents and gifts. This summer, she will attend a United States Navy camp for high schoolers, something Demetra is very excited about and shares enthusiastically to her classmates. Thoughts on Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Demetra attended a Spanish Immersion program at Rock Creek Forest elementary school before coming in from a private school. While her brother remained at the private school, Demetra felt the impact of a “big change: more people, a bigger school, but it was still my first choice. My sister goes here too, and the other school had only 32 kids in each grade. Coming to B-CC expanded my options for college, including a chance to play basketball.�
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Thoughts on B-CC Teachers The teachers here are better than my old school. They’re stricter, better at what they talk about, and give more discipline. Ms. Campbell, who is downstairs by the locker room, is one of my favorite people—she’s not my teacher though, she’s a sports teacher interested in my interests. Those who are bad teachers don’t put stuff up on Edline and aren’t good with administrative things. Journal on Learning I need someone to describe to me what I need to do. I’m a visual learner and it helps for me to sit at the front of the class. Since I was moved to the other side of the room, I’m distracted when I sit with my friends and need to control that. Being short and sitting in the back is also a disadvantage. I like the Activoting and being able to write on the board shows other people that I know what I’m doing. If I don’t get something, I’ll ask people around me the questions, like Sarah King—she usually knows best! Self-Evaluation Right now, I feel like its mediocre—not the best I can do. My favorite section [in Algebra I] is when we did trinomials and factoring—those are my favorite! Word problems are the hardest for me because making an equation out of words is hard. If you don’t get that right, the whole problem is wrong. Simulations are hard to figure out since they are word problems too. In this class, I’m at a D right now, but learning more math this year than last year even though I got a B last year. I worked hard last quarter too, and got a C in math. Third Quarter Interim Report (March 2009) Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Subject Specialty PhysEd Honors Biology B Foundations of Tech B Algebra 1B Honors English 9B Honors US History B Honors Spanish 4B
Score 94.0 43.6 86.6 68.6 90.7 82.8 55.7
Grade A E B D B B E
Reflection on Demetra Eftimiades Demetra is an exceptional student—that is, she learns, grows, and studies well. She is anything but a quitter, and demonstrates leadership in any role. I watched the JV team warm-up before a basketball game and Demetra had “the stuff”—she knew what she was doing and helped others prepare for the game time too. Demetra's grades have seen the effect of the basketball season, dropping significantly from what the first quarter grades showed. However, in the more technical courses that need a lot of study, Demetra needs study skills for Spanish, biology, and algebra. To help her out, we spend extra time with Demetra at lunch and after school with strategies for studying.
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Deaunte Robinson
Class: Algebra I Freshman, Class of 2012 College: College—Undecided, wants to go into engineering Enjoyment of Mathematics on a scale of 1-5, 5 is the highest: 2 by itself; 4 compared to other subjects Extracurriculars, Activities, and Interests Deaunte is strong in both his academic and athletic fields, proving himself with high scores on homework, quizzes, and playing a variety of sports including football, basketball, and baseball. In class, his strong math capabilities leave the rest of the class behind, and sometimes this can be frustrating. Thoughts on Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School After graduating from Westland, Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School was the most sensible option for Robinson, and he says that on a five-star rating, he'd give it four. It was “the thing to do” for all his peers at Westland, so he did not feel a huge change in the social structure, but B-CC sharpened up Deaunte’s first year at high school, demanding of him some extremely high performance in academic and extracurricular affairs. After investigating many of the extracurricular options at B-CC, Deaunte believes that there are many choices to compete in at this school, but chooses to be apathetic about clubs at school. Instead, he plays football and basketball recreationally, opting out of the school teams that he could easily qualify for. Overall, his B-CC experience has been full of contentment and he is excited for next year.
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Thoughts on B-CC Teachers The good teachers, says Deaunte, are not in a particular subject, but “it depends” on who the teacher is. Usually, those who appeal to Deaunte are funny and humorous teachers who also deal with classroom management issues swiftly. Journal on Learning What's hard about this class? Nothing, it’s just boring. Even when it’s interesting, I already know this stuff, and if I took the final exams tomorrow, I'd probably get 100% in all of them. Well, maybe not 100%, but you know what I mean. This algebra is what we already covered at Westland, and I'm ready to move on. I learn best by listening to the teacher, maybe watching him too, but very rarely. Self-evaluation I figure that I will get an A or B in this math class. In other classes, I'm looking at an A or B in Resources and History. I think I'll get a B in English, and an A in gym. Spanish is probably going to be a D, and I'll get a C for science. Third Quarter Interim Report (March 2009) Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Subject Algebra I Honors Biology English Spanish US History General PhysEd Resource Programming
Score 83.3 72.4 77.7 54 92.6 87.3 55
Grade B C C E A B E
Reflection on Deaunte Deaunte gave a very short journal on learning, and I did not feel that he should elongate it or any of his other answers because that's Deaunte: he likes things simple, short, and sweet. It's not that Deaunte doesn't give 100% when he is in class—it's that he cannot stand the class not giving 100%! In first period, I initially could not differ between Diondre and Deaunte, whose names were so similar, and both of their personalities were so similar that it was difficult to tell them apart. They sat on opposite corners of the room cracking jokes while moving along with their math and every now and then, one of them needed a budge to settle down a tad. The communication between myself and both of these boys was very simple in the end—they were literally like myself in ninth grade, except that they were American, in Maryland, and not wearing school uniforms. It was hilarious how often they did something that I understood because only eight years ago, I would have been in trouble for doing that deed. That does not mean that I took these boys on lightly, but rather, had a better understanding of why they wanted to seek attention. Clearly, Deaunte finds the material a little easier than he finds challenging, but still his test grades are shaky, probably because his homework is inconsistent.
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Jacob Boross
Class: AP Statistics Senior, Class of 2009 College: United States Coast Guard Academy, possibly majoring in Political Science Extracurriculars, Activities, and Interests Jacob did his 9th and 10th grade in VA, since his father is in the United States Coast Guard and moving around was considered normal. As a result, this is his second and final year at B-CC, after which Jacob is also going to the USCGA for a degree in government or politics. For a Coast Guard Officer specialty, he wants to fly and has not yet made up his mind whether he prefers rotary or fixed-wing aircraft. He also plans on continuing his success as a varsity baseball player at the USCGA, a Division III school, and perhaps even play football there. Involved in his church too, Jacob shows a plethora of talent and gifts that few men are equipped with before graduating high school. Thoughts on Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Everyone here is pretty relaxed its a relaxed community, the students don't really pick on the kids like at other high schools. Different races and genders mix with each other easily, so its a pretty friendly and welcoming community. The other high school I went to had cliques. I've noticed that the kids here strive to go to better schools, bigger name schools than the kids at my old school. The kids here also take more IB and AP course for a more rigorous course load. Thoughts on B-CC Teachers For the most part, the teachers are very good quality, and teachers with good attitudes look forward to teaching and they do a good job here. 6
Journal on Learning How do I learn? My best way is when the teacher brings in an experiment or an activity, so you can do more hands on things. When there’s more real life applications and you can see how you can apply what you're learning or some previous knowledge to the real world. Maybe you can fine tune your knowledge or some perception to something. What you learn in class is like a building block where you can use a hands on approach to things. With statistics, in politics or with studying the population, there's different studies or products. Statistics matters—people use statistics in the real world everyday— making money and being successful, so it’s an integral part of society. So when the teacher shows a real life application and how it applies in the real world, it’s a good way to learn. I like statistics more than any other math since there's reading and writing to it, it applies more to real world, real life applications. Self-Evaluation Personally, I need to spend more time in physics, kinda [sic] like I said above. What I like about statistics is the reading, writing, and interpreting the math. That's instead of crunching the numbers and math, math, math. The physics that we're doing is crunching and calculating numbers, so I guess I need to work more on physics. I'm more of an English and humanities kind of guy, so that’s why I like the interpretive reading and writing for the statistics course. If I could knock off a core subject, it would be history. Although I want to study it in college, politics and government wouldn't be the main passion of studying here. I got into physics because I had to pick a science; my dad recommended picking physics because it would look good. Third Quarter Interim Report (March 2009) Period 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Subject Guitar B
Score 100.0
Grade A
AP Statistics AP Physics Specialty PhysEd Internship IB English
80.3 64.3 98.0 80.0 90.6
B D A B A
Reflection on Jacob Boross Like Demetra, Jacob is a powerhouse in the classroom, driving the lesson with enthusiasm and yearning for more wisdom from others. His humble attitude towards learning and respectful way of answering with “yes sir” voluntarily sets him up for the military career he has chosen. Mature words from Jacob help foster a good relationship with all those that he works with and I had the pleasure of communicating quite easily with him.
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Perhaps the most difficult communication we had was over the statistics material, a great contrast from the casual conversations we would have about baseball or the Coast Guard. Being an experiential learner, I tried to reshape problems so that Jacob could understand them better from his perspective. Knowing that he is from a Coast Guard family, and will also begin one, I detailed a lot of processes with vocabulary that I know from the maritime world, thanks to my father who was in the Merchant Navy. Boross missed a few days of class due to his Academy visits so I had the privilege of getting him back to speed regarding the topics of correlation, least square regression lines, and linear regressions. All of those topics are difficult to explain without illustrations, but I found that helping Jacob process this concept through using his calculator was the best method of showing him how to tackle the correlation problems. At first, I would guide him through which steps were necessary to move through the problem, instead of telling him which buttons to push. Once Jacob understood what our objective was for each step, he would then attend to the proper sequence of buttons—something I easily helped him through by showing him at least once before asking him to replicate what I did after explaining how the calculator’s logic of programming works as information is typed in.
Lauren Becker
Emily, left, and Lauren Becker, right, are in different AP Statistics classes but are both wonderful students and softball players. Their civic involvement has put their family in the Washington Post, and both are also accomplished swimmers with B-CC.
Class: AP Statistics Senior, Class of 2009 College: Salisbury University
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Extracurriculars, Activities, and Interests An athlete in all seasons, Lauren plays softball, swims, and recreationally plays ultimate Frisbee. In order to be in her prime for all these sports, she trains consistently throughout the year which impacts her study time. With her sister Emily, both find Starbucks coffee to be a break from school, and Lauren works at Abercrombie and Fitch as a model and sales representative. She intends to continue growing her athletic talents in college though only doing it for fun because of the intense commitment that each sport demands. Thoughts on B-CC: I really like it—there’s a lot of activities and stuff to do, clubs to get involved in. B-CC was really the only option for high school. My brother went here so we knew it was a good school. A number of different things make it good: the students, location, facility, classes, and sports are the best around here. Thoughts on BCC Teachers I think they are very good and organized; they know what they are talking about, have good experience and are approachable outside the class like at lunch. Journal on Learning Visual learner, I like to mentally image how you know, how I can see a picture of it or look at something to understand and have it in my mind if I'm told something, its hard for me , but to actually visualize it and create it in my mind with graphics. I memorize things by just repeating problems and the information I'm learning, doing the homework and practicing on my own. I like groupwork, sometimes...I don't like when people go too fast. Someone who can explain it clearly and can understand where I'm confused at...UI also like step by step processes...that's how I learn. Self-Evaluation I think this is definitely the hardest class out of all the classes I'm taking. Like, this class is much more quicker and we do a lot more. More work and have more homework and an excessive amount more of quizzes and tests. I think gradewise, not very well but I feel like I'm applying more knowledge. I feel like I'm applying more effort into this class than all my classes. Favorite class: peace studies, and worst class: English. Third Quarter Interim Report (March 2009) Period Subject 1 Peace Studies 2 Honors English 3 AP Statistics 4 AP Psychology 5 Studio Art 6 Forensic Science 7 Ceramic Sculptures
Score N/A 81.8 46.8 67.3 97 84.5 90.5
Grade N/A B E D A B A
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Reflection on Lauren Becker A cautious student-athlete who always seems to panic at the sound of statistics, Lauren’s academic profile shows that her strengths reside in the humanities. As such, when I help her, I try to use as many contextual examples from the world of peace studies or softball for her understanding. Since I am neither familiar nor knowledgeable with either area, I started to look up resources that would give me a better insight into how Lauren was thinking in the classroom, on the softball field, and around her artistic pursuits. Lauren acknowledges when she is in trouble by making it clear that she needs immediate attention. It may be in the form of a very worried face, fingers that are fiddling excessively, or nervous nail-biting, and her short fuse of frustration lasts long enough for me to present an idea that answers her questions. Therefore, in communicating with Lauren, I’ve learned that she is the main decider and driver of the conversation. Most days, her entry into the classroom will be harkened by a “Good morning Mr. Choi” and bright smile—that’s usually the best time to reach Lauren. However, during after school help, it is most necessary for me to warn her at the start of each session by saying, “Lauren, I understand that this is hard. Most people don’t get this the first or second time around, so hang in there and ask whatever questions you have. Sit tight because this will take a while to grasp onto.” This warning usually “does the trick” for Lauren to anticipate the difficulty that is apparent in AP Statistics. Conversely, at the end of helping her, I verbally appreciate Lauren for putting her priority into getting help for statistics, since I know that her busy schedule leaves little time for staying after school. Aggregate Reflection on the Students In any situation, in any place, in any career, the tools of communication are useful. In the classroom, however, it gets moved up a notch to being vital. Although I have only four students to write thoughts about in terms of communication, I am certain that I could repeat this activity for every child I have taught. The lines of communication between my students and I are as open as possible, and I strive to cater to their individual needs. With some, I can affirm them best with Post-it® notes, while others need a light conversation. Either way, I wish for my students to engage in two conversations: one with themselves to have a personal discourse about how they learn, and another with other people to cross-reflect on how the other person learns the same material. As the father of perennialism, Robert Hutchins, said, “Education is a kind of continuing dialogue, and a dialogue assumes different points of view.” Therefore, while I understand the material from my own point of view, it is an important factor of teaching to allow for the other perspectives by different means to agree upon the same mathematical concepts. For our newest generation of students, technology is perhaps the greatest gain in terms of material goods that they can use to record and learn information with. Better yet, as more technology lands in the classroom, the dialogue that Hutchins describes is clarified and streamlined so that all those who wish to learn have the same opportunity to discuss course content while sharing it with one another. 1