Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

So what is my prepared response in case there is a protest about the public display of very low votes that one of the nominees Joseph got during the recent Student Council elections?

I was already anticipating questions either way. If the numeric tally was not announced, they would have approached us to ask for the count anyway, and we would have been obliged to answer any inquiries, because it is a matter of public record.

So we were just saving ourselves the trouble of answering potential questions several times.

In the first meeting of my Advanced Mathematics students for the eleventh week of the third term, we – finally – had their hands on exam on the properties of sinusoidal graphs.

A fourth of the class at a time used the computers to get the answers. I wasn’t surprised though that they overshot the twenty minute time schedule, such that the last fourth of the students were still solving when the lower batch in their Introduction to Robotics class were already there, and of course apprehensive that they would have to pass through the same ordeal.

This is even though the rest of the class were already in the computer lab next door practicing while waiting for some of the terminals to free up so they could take the exam.

I did not repeat the questions, by the way, and let them pick the questionnaires from several papers already folded and laid out on the table.

I also had to close the original spreadsheet software file and reopen it (unsaved) so that the next person to take the exam would not have any idea from the previous test taker as to what to do.

It is only now that I realized that I did not talk about the “How to Question Students” seminar we had in the middle of the tenth week of classes.

The main point I brought away from this lecture, held in the afternoon when most of the students only had P.E. anyway, was that the lesson plan (and its “suggested” rate at which we discuss topics with the class) gets thrown out of the window if we want the students to arrive at the answers we want.

Next was about never calling a student’s name before asking a question, because it just builds unnecessary anxiety. Of course, having a recitation in class where everyone is called once, by process of elimination, makes those who haven’t been called yet already unduly concerned if their name is coming up next. At the same time, those who have recited already are not listening anymore, which contributes to the distractions in the room.

Another was about listening to the context of the student’s answer first before correcting any wrong grammar or word usage. Not doing so just prevents the student from answering again until they have perfected their speaking, even when it is only incidental to the lesson and they may have the right answers.

I’ll continue next time. I just heard the bell go off. Class dismissed. And by next time I mean Monday, after the Holy Week holidays.