Syllabus

The learning process is complicated. I have been around doing this teaching profession for 20 years as a teacher and another 18 years as a full and part time military professional. In that time is have learned that lecture style “sage on a stage” does not work in the real world nor does it work in the classroom.

I have built my classroom instruction on a model of study teams. The group of students, usually 5-6, in number performs a series of projects, laboratories and learning experiences as a group. The responsibilities of the group change with each assignment. Roughly half their grade is dependent on how they can work with others. My group projects are not individual assignments and the students then collaborate on completing them rather they are actual assignments that require all members to work together to accomplish the task.

This is something they little or no experience in doing in the classroom. They may have some experience on the athletic filed, but I have found that students make little or no transfer of experiences at their age.

So I have created a safeguarded environment that they can use to lean what a true team looks like. How to they get everyone going in the same direction, how to they get all the work done, and most importantly hoe to recognize a working group from a non-working group.

I choose the group based upon performance in the first few days of class, but if we see a student who is not working or worse does not want to work they have the option to remove that individual from their group after a teacher group consultation and a plan of improvement for the non-working student.

I have links to the syllabus for the appropriate class just click on the link and you will get a full syllabus including the GLE from the state.

That you for taking the time to read this and I hope your child will gain an appreciation of how study teams work.

questions or comments