pain tweezers UCI math class
Jul. 30th, 2007 07:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fruzicleThis session I have fifth graders in my writing and math/science workshops. (Last session was 7th grade.)
While I have often claimed that 5th grade was my favorite age, this time I'm not so sure. We have the Korean boys who like to argue and jump each other, just for fun. We have the Persian boys who ask when is recess, 15 minutes after class begins. We have the obnoxious boy who is either hogging the car project his group is making or yanking it out of someone else's hands....or throwing it on the ground to "test" it. We have the girls who are afraid to say anything. (Probably due to any of the previously mentioned perpetrators.)
For some reason, every teacher at our summer workshop has agreed that this particular batch of kids (across the grade levels) is the lowest, slowest, most talkative group they've ever seen. It probably has to do with it being the middle of summer. The first week after school lets out they remember the proper school decorum. The week before school starts again, they are there to refresh their brains for the academic year to come. But mid July? Heck, they really ought to be at the beach.
However, as I know I posted a year ago or so, and in spite of the previous comments, the fifth graders show an ability to stretch their thinking muscles in ways that 8th graders have a lot of trouble with. Last year I was noticing how much more easily they tackled the brain teasers. This year's group is pretty unimpressive with the "pain tweezers" as they call them, but shows much more understanding of the density experiment we did today.
And none of the grades, 5th or 7th, or 8th is as on top of things as the 3rd graders I have during the regular school year.
Perhaps we should all just cram everything into our brains during 3rd grade and then take off for the beach. I know that's where I ought to be right now!
While I have often claimed that 5th grade was my favorite age, this time I'm not so sure. We have the Korean boys who like to argue and jump each other, just for fun. We have the Persian boys who ask when is recess, 15 minutes after class begins. We have the obnoxious boy who is either hogging the car project his group is making or yanking it out of someone else's hands....or throwing it on the ground to "test" it. We have the girls who are afraid to say anything. (Probably due to any of the previously mentioned perpetrators.)
For some reason, every teacher at our summer workshop has agreed that this particular batch of kids (across the grade levels) is the lowest, slowest, most talkative group they've ever seen. It probably has to do with it being the middle of summer. The first week after school lets out they remember the proper school decorum. The week before school starts again, they are there to refresh their brains for the academic year to come. But mid July? Heck, they really ought to be at the beach.
However, as I know I posted a year ago or so, and in spite of the previous comments, the fifth graders show an ability to stretch their thinking muscles in ways that 8th graders have a lot of trouble with. Last year I was noticing how much more easily they tackled the brain teasers. This year's group is pretty unimpressive with the "pain tweezers" as they call them, but shows much more understanding of the density experiment we did today.
And none of the grades, 5th or 7th, or 8th is as on top of things as the 3rd graders I have during the regular school year.
Perhaps we should all just cram everything into our brains during 3rd grade and then take off for the beach. I know that's where I ought to be right now!
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 03:56 pm (UTC)I'll brave a thin segue over to the bumper sticker: Hire a teenager ...while they still know everything!