In my class today I had to give my students a scolding. We just finished quarter grades and comments and during that time I surveyed the students about what they felt was good and bad about the course. I also asked them to say what they wanted more of. This being an AP class, I have some very motivated students and a majority stated they wanted to do more difficult problems in class. So today I decided to do one. We were walking through a particularly difficult problem and I asked for a number which could be found by simply plugging into a calculator. I waited and waited and found that there were only three students even attempting to find the answer.
At this time I stopped those three people and began to rant to them about their lack of attention and participation. I said to them that their participation in class is required and they are the ones in need of the understanding. If they were waiting for me to pour it into their heads, they will be waiting for a long time. They cannot sit and wait for the understanding to flow. They have to attempt to solve problems and form opinions and participate in class.
If they don’t take control of their learning, they will never learn anything and they need to keep that in mind when we are having a discussion. I have to get out of the front of the classroom in order to force them to drive their learning and stop waiting for me to pour in information.
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