Day 4 (Sept 19)

All is well so far. I still have yet to pick up everybody's name yet - it's hard when you're here only twice a week - but I'm trying my best. Most of the students are pretty hardworking. They do work without the need for you to tell them so. Well, with the exception of a few students. I'm partially surprised that the 'missing homework notebook' has been filling in fast - students do have tons of different excuses about why they didn't do/didn't bring or how they lost their work. It's something that Karen created to keep track of who's not doing work and after the third account, the student would need to sit in for lunch with us and do more math (or complete their homework & maybe additional worksheets - I've yet to see this part but I think we might get there soon! =p) I believe it is a good system because they have to bring that note back to their parents and get it signed so that way, their parents are also informed of their kids' missing homework (& why!).

Today's classes went well. I taught a part of the class, going through their previous day's homework. I felt that the way mathematics is being investigated in their textbook is good because the questions prompt the students to think about why and how they arrived at that particular answer. Many people I know don't like math because they find the concepts and theories behind those formulas overwhelming and hard to understand. In the AWC (Advanced Work) classes here, most of the students enjoy math and find the challenge to solve questions intriguing. 312 however is still lagging by one lesson and they're slightly slower than 310 and 311. The math period for them happens to also be at the end of the day, just before school dismissal for 3 days of the week. Although the schedule has yet to be confirmed, I wish they would be given other times of the day, simply because I feel there should not be that disadvantage of being tired and distracted by the thought of heading home soon.