O.k. The next part of the evaluation concerns meaningful experiences.
I want you to tell me about the different learning experiences that we have had and tell me which were the most meaningful and which were the least meaningful to you and why. What I mean by meaningful is how much do you remember, how much did you learn, and how much were you interested in the topic studied. Was this experience a lesson that you'll always remember even when you're an old geezer like me(see above)? Conversely, which lessons didn't work for you at all? Was it a matter of interest level, the way it was presented, or the topic itself (boring)?
Pick two topics - one positive and one negative to share.
Thanks.
30 comments:
One thing I found meaningful was all about the Robber Barons. I liked learning how these men shaped the economy of the largest city in America. I found this information very enriching and inspirational. I think I will always remember learning about these men.
One thing I didn't like was Walt Whitman. I don't really like poetry to start off and just learning about him I thought was very boring. I just got tired of reading long run-ons about America and Presidents.
A topic that I found awefully interesting was World War I. I found this interesting because it showed how little the world learned of the years. Little disputes and alliances caused a chain reaction in causing one of the greatest wars the world has ever seen. So one thing I thought we needed was to elaborate on World War I. I thought we spent more time on what happened after the war then during.
One this that I had no interest at all in was My Antonia. The book it self wasnt horrible, but we spent way to much time on it. After a while it got old and I got tired of it.
The activity that I liked the most out of the whole semester was when we dressed up as immigrants. I thought this activity was really fun and I learned alot about how hard it was to get into the United States. It was a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. It was funny seeing everyone dressed up like European immigrants and it was funny to see who would rejected. I learned a lot and had fun doing it.
The activity that I liked the least was when we would sit and copy notes off of the board. I know that not many people like to do this but I feel that personally I don't learn anything. If I am involved in something or apart of a hands on activity and I absorb the information 100x better.I know that you can't simply stop taking notes, but I would like if we did it less often or had an alternative way to take them.
I really enjoyed learning about the robber barons. I liked reading about how J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie were able to get to the top of the business world. I also liked discussing whether or not they were robber barons or were just smart businessmen. I will remeber this lesson for a while because I was really interested in it and learned a lot.
I didn't like reading the Red Badge of Courage and discussing it because I thought that the book was boring and I don't enjoy reading novels about the Civil War. Also, I don't like reading assigned novels over the summer for homework and then having to discuss them when school starts.
The immigration day was meaningful to me because it was like being in their shoes. I was able to see what really (or to a point) happened by actually going through a "medical check" and made to pledge my patriotism. It was cool too seeing everyone dressed up to reflect the countries from which they came. Collecting papers on the internet like medical records, birth certificates, etc. also helped because they were real papers and this kind of thing really did happen for years.
The treaty of versailles debate was cool but not as exciting because there were so many details. It was hard going over the 14 points before we understood them and then again after we did. I dont think it was a very organized activity and my group wasn't really sure what it is we were supposed to be doing. I think the topic was interesting Ijust don't agree that having so many little groups like that would have been as effective as maybe doing a big class discussion or something.
The imigrantion dress up was my favortie thing that we did in class. I felt like i could get a good feel of how it was like for the imigrants. I liked the hands-on of the whole thing. Making up the papers and a person to be was fun and let me connect to irish imigrants.
Compared to the Imigrantion dress up i would have to say that i didnt like taking notes in class. I know that it has to be done and thats life but i just dont like sitting and taking notes. Its not as fun as something hands-on but i dont think that there is an other way to get the information that we need.
I think the more meaningful things that will stick with me in this class are the things that I need in the real world. For example, the stuff we learned on the stock market and how businesses are run. This was very useful and interesting as well. I also liked learning about immigration because it made me reflect on my own ancestors and made me think how hard life must have been for them when they first came over.
The things I didn't enjoy learning about were the books. I hated reading all the books, especially My Antonia. My Antonia was absolutely pointless. I don't remember one thing that happened in that book because I didn't care about any of it, and I didn't enjoy reading any of it. I thought it was pointless to learn about how life is in the city compared to life in the country. I would have rather watched the grass grow than read this book because it had no impact on my life whatsoever.
AJ
The activity that I liked the most in the first semester was when we dressed up as immigrants. I thought it was a fun way to learn about the time period. It was a lot of work, but I feel like it paid off. It was fun and I had fun learning about it. It was funny to see your friends dressed up like European immigrants and it was also funny to see who got rejected.
The thing that I liked least was when we would copy notes down off of the board. I know that this has to be done, but I personally feel that I learn nothing when we do that. I learn 100x better with hands on activities. I don't feel like I acutally pay attention to what I'm writing down, but durning hands on activities I am forced to learn what we're talking about.
The lesson that i liked the most was on WWI. I just liked the background information and all of the activities. It was interesting learning about the war and i am excited to learn about WWII. I think that the most boring topic presented was Walt Whitman i dont think it was the way it was presented because either way it would still be boring. I just think that his writing and learning about him is really boring.
One thing i didn't like was Walt Whitman and Ernest Hemmingway. I liked some of the whitman stories adn poems, but i just didnt really like the subject. I didn't really like any of the Ernest Hemmingway stories and found them somewhat boring and pointless.
My favorite topic was the captains of industry. I liked Martin Dressler and learning about the topic. I liked the debate we had on it too. I enjoyed most of the topics we covered. The Great War, Impirialism, prohibition, and current events were all interesting.
Negative-
When we talked about Evolution/Creation/Intelligent Design, I really thought that was a weak section. We definitly could of had better responses and discussions. I honestly do not think that was presented to us very well. I would of prefered everyone putting a little bit of their input into that day.
Positive-
I really enjoyed the Robber Baron debate. I think the whole class got really into it, and we actually knew what we were talking about. Since we had all the time for researching, we were able to really learn our topic.
The topic that was most interesting to me was the immmagration topic. The reason i liked it so much was becasue it was interesting to see the hardships that they faces. Also the poor living conditions that they faced. Another reason why i likes this topic the most was becasue of the elis island simmulation that we did. I enjoyed that alot becasue it was funny to see who got rejected and also it was fun to expierence what it was like for immmagratns to go through elis island.
The topic that i didnt like was My Antoina. The reason i didnt like this novel was because it was long and boaring. It did not grab my attention what so ever. When i was reading the book i found my self losing focus and thinking about something else because the book was so baoring. It was a comparrison between city and country life in the past and it is not to imporatant to me and that is why i didnt like this book at all. Another reaon why i didnt like it was becasue it was more of a love story type thing and that dosent interest me at all. And i dont remeber any of it because it was so boaring and had no impact on my excel expierence
Also i think that we take WAY to many notes in the class. I feel that we should learn it another way that is more fun and not so tireing on the hand. Also i dont think that i learn when we take notes because im not focused on the material im just focused on getting the notes down.
Bob
One thing i didn't like was Walt Whitman and Ernest Hemmingway. I liked some of the whitman stories adn poems, but i just didnt really like the subject. I didn't really like any of the Ernest Hemmingway stories and found them somewhat boring and pointless.
My favorite topic was the captains of industry. I liked Martin Dressler and learning about the topic. I liked the debate we had on it too. I enjoyed most of the topics we covered. The Great War, Impirialism, prohibition, and current events were all interesting.
A lesson that I learned that was the most meaningful would probaly be the robber barons. I learned that men such as Carnegie, Rockefeller and Morgan had complete control of the economy, and had more money then they new what to do with. They had the power to get the country out of dept and put bussinesses out of work. We learned so much about them that I've just always remembered.
The lesson we learned that was the least interesting or meaningful would probaly be Hemmingway. I really didn't like him, and I couldn't ever understand what he was talking about in his poems. It seemed like he wrote almost everything "under the surface" for the reader to figure out. Hemmingway just didn't interest me and I didn't like reading his poems over and over and still not understanding the point to them.
MELISSA
I was interested in the topic i learned about transcedentalism because we got to watch some cool movies about it and it actually was taught to me in an way that was more interesting to learn than just looking at old stories and the definition and then being tested about it. This showed us ton of stories and connected almost everything that we had learned before this.
The topic I did not like was about western expansion. This chapter was blown through without a great amount of teaching, but with a complete test at the end. This chapter was taught only from the book and not from movies or visuals or activities. It was just memorizing. When I learn something this way it doesnt stick out in my memory so does not have this lasting effect on me. It was just a test where most people did poorly and was not taught well.
-David
In Mr. McClaren class, i thought almost all of our learning experiences were meaningful. Mr.McClaren always had a life lesson in his discussions, which i thought always made them more memorable. One topic i loved talking about was, The Great Gatsby and how The American Dream related to the characters. Also how the American Dream relates to people now. I never really experienced a negative topic discussion.
With Mr. Sherman his way of taking notes, and having discussions was always in a story way. So it was always fun and interesting to take notes with him. I loved going to that class, and listening to all the memorable events that occured in the past. I loved learning the civil war, and how the North and South fought over slaves. I didn't really enjoy talking about World war one, but Mr. Sherman still made it seem interesting .
Looking back at the wonderful year that we had in Excel I now see that we have learned a ridiculous amount!
I will start with the negative so that we can end on a good note...
Um, I really didnt like learning about all the classic authors. I did like reading all of their great books but I really wasnt too keen about their peronal life. I know that all of that played into their writing, but I just found it a little boring, sorry!
Now for the positive-
Wow...can I only pick one? There is so much that we have done this year and I acutally liked it. I loved that class discussions and debates. My top favorites would have to be immigration, any war or battle, prohibition, and the roaring twenties. I think that these activities/ lessons were my favorite because I was already interested in the topics and it was cool to learn the extra backround.
Yup, that is all that I have to say
Goodbye...FOREVER!
-Alyssa
One of the most meaningful things for me we learned about this past semester was the Immigration simulation. I liked learning about all the things that the emigrants had to go through and how the immigrations officers decided who to let in and who to reject. I thought it was fun to go through the inspections and learn about the experience.
One of the least interesting things for me that we learned was all those books. That is probably a matter of opinion though because I just don't like reading books. Especially Walt Whitman and Red Badge of Courage. In Walt Whitmans poems I didn't like reading them because they weren't about interesting things. And for Red Badge of Courage, the book was just to boring and slow moving to really get interested in.
Jay
The learning experiences that were most meaningful to me was the Ellis Island stimulation because it allowed us to experience what the immigrants experienced see how everything worked. Some of the question that were asked were pointless and the doctor would reject people for no reason. My ancestors were immigrants and it gave me a good way to see what they went through. Immigration was a major issue in the 19th century and I learned a lot about it in the immigration unit. The Native American lesson didn't work for me because the I was not really interested in the detailed history of the white people taking over the Native American land. The topic did not seem too exciting and interest pulling matter because most of it was expected. Like it was obvious that there would be certain Native Americans who would fight against the whites. Also we had already learned about the Native Americans in detail in elementery and middle school.
An experience that was influencial and meaningful to me was Ellis Island. I loved dressing up and trying to pass the inspections. This gave me a chance to research my Mexican history and family. We got a chance to pass through all the parts that immigrants would have passed through in the 1800s. This was a good way to understand the things that the immigrants went through.
The part that wasn't influencial to me was The Civil War. It was a little boring, and I did not like reading Red Badge of Courage. I had already been to most of the battlefields, and learned about what had happened there.
-Maggie
One of the most positive learning experiences that I had last semester was the immigration process. I liked how we demonstrated the process of those people who were coming in to the U.S. and what they were going through. It was fun coming up with our own name and creating a birth certificate and school certificate for us. I also liked getting to research the nationality of our choice.
One negative learning experience I think was learning about the West and the Native Americans and the Railroads. We've been lerning about that since 5th grade when we first started talking about it and learning about it. I don't mind learning about it but maybe in certain grades each one can cover a certain part bout it because right now we review the overall subject about it not yet specific in detail.
My favorite experience was the short story elective, by far. Creative writing is something I'm very interested in and feel like I may have potential in that feild for my adult life. I can honestly say that everything we did in that elective was challenging and really helped me improve my writing. I also liked it because it was a smaller group, so it felt more intimate and I felt like I had more of a voice. This elective taught me a lot of things I had been wanting to learn, and if you were to make a whole class out of it, I would definately take it.
My least favorite experience was having the debate over the Treaty of Versailles. I thought it was fun in a way, because I like working in groups, but I don't feel like I learned that much from it. I got the impression that a lot of kids, including myself, were trying to strategize and understand the project but had trouble getting it without help. I think this activity could have been really informative if there had been more of a follow-up discussion on what happened in real life and why.
I felt that the topic that was most meaningful to me was immigration. It was interesting to me because I could actually learn about the trials of my own family. When writing the paper, I actually found the original manifest records of my family. The Ellis Island simulation was really cool; I learned a lot about what immigrants had to show in order to come into the country. This topic was actually interesting to me, as it related to my own life.
One topic that wasn't meaningful to me was imperialism. It really didn't hold my interest. I felt that it could have been more interesting if we took a different approach to learning it. I don't absorb much information from taking notes, since I spend more time copying things down than thinking about/discussing the topic. A more involved learning approach could have been more effective for me.
One of the subject that I benifited the most from was the creative writing elective. I like creative writing, so the elective really kept my attention. I learned how to fully describe a character and develop a story. I was glad I had a chance to write about anything I wanted, instead of having a assigned topic. I also learned how to compose a poem and all the different way poems can be set up. I liked being mixed with Excel 11 because they had more experience in creative writing and I learned from them.
One subject that wasn't meaningful to me was imperialism. The topic didn't really interst me, and I think it could have been presented in a different way. The information was given only in notes, and it would have been better if there was a way to get involved in the topic, like we did with the Ellis Island simulation. Imperialism is not a topic that I remember as well as some of the other subjects that we went more into.
I defiantly think that Excel was the perfect fit for me. I like how it is a combined class and I don’t have to take an English and history class.
I remember a lot, surprisingly. Whenever I am watching something on TV about history, I know exactly what they are talking about, and that is a really good feeling! I feel really smart! I loved doing the immigrant project/ paper. It helped people learn about their families and ancestors. I loved it because I got to talk to my family that lives in Nova Scotia who emigrated from Scotland and I think they really enjoyed it. When we were all dressed up and were in Ellis Commons, everyone felt like they were on the same “boat!” Considering that I almost got sent back to Scotland, I had a really fun time. I loved doing group projects and debates. It was fun to get to know everyone and their stands on different issues. I think it brought us closer as a class and made us feel more comfortable together as a class. I learned a lot just by having hour-long discussions about random things. It helped me understand more about what we were talking about.
On the other hand, I think we need to some more projects. They can be group or individual, I don’t care, but if we had deadlines and just a big project to do, I think it would help our grades. I know that projects are one of my strong spots and when I am given one, I time manage well. I also think that for next year, the Gilded Age paper shouldn’t be as broad as it was assigned. Maybe if they picked a topic out of a hat or something. I know that I felt like I was rambling and that it wasn’t very organized.
Again I am very happy that I chose to take this class, and I know that this is a family!
I thought that first semester went by fast. I had learned more in this class compared to just taking regular English and American history. I like that we watch a lot of different movies rather then getting lectures everyday. One of the things that I disliked was the Treaty of Versailles. I thought that the group project/debate didn't really work out. I was really confused on the idea of it and so were a lot of other people. I think that next year the class could do without it or change it. Another idea that I thought that should be changed is the book homework. I don’t care that we have homework, it is just when we do it. During the semester our hw from the book was right before we had the lesson on it. I understand it better when we did the lesson in class then we did the bookwork (so it was like the summary).
I really liked the electives first semester. The scary stories were very fun and interesting to learn about. I liked that we explored present day horror films and the things that scared us. I also thought that the grammar electives were helpful to my writing skills. I think that the class should do those electives again. I like that in this class that in this class that we really don’t go by the book and we use other things.
In my other classes last year the class wasn’t really involved in discussions. For example, in my 9th grade English class the teacher would just talk about the book and we would just listen. I like that we break up into little groups and we talk about it together in excel.
The most meaningful learning experience for me was the ellis island simulation because it got us involved and we were acctually either passed or denied into America. It was fun and helped us learn what people acctually went through back then. I dont like sitting through an entire class of writing down notes because it seems like I'm just trying to keep up with the writing and all of it goes in one ear and out the other.
One of the meaningful activities that we did in class was the ellis island simulation. I think that it was organized very well and people were actaully excited to do it mostly because it felt like we were actaully in the situation and that we were immigrating to another country. and we all relized that it was a very important time in history.
One activity that i didnt like that much was the election thing. I think that it was very unorganized and people were were being way to competitive when it was a stupid little activity just to past time and accomplish something. that might sound mean but thats what i thought about the topic.
-emily
One of the most meningful adn memorable things we did this semester was the Ellis Island Simulation. We learned how it must have felt to immigrate to America. We saw how the immigration officers would reject people for certain things. I also really liked the way we studided for finals. Learning all the vocab was really helpful.
One of the least maningful things was reading The Red Badge Of Courage. I still don't know what happened in that book. It also was really hard to read it during the summer. I think that in teh future there shouldn't be any summer reading assignments.
brit
Part 2
Positive:
An expierence that I thought was very helpful for me was all the hands on activities such as the Ellis Island stuff and I also liked the way we studied for the final. I think that writing all the topics we covered on the board was very helpful for me.
Negative:
An expierence that I didn't like was The Red Badge Of Courage. I just couldn't really get into the book. It wasn't very interesting to me. I also don't really like reading for school. I don't really like when I'm not able to choose what I read.
Post a Comment