Day 78

Student contribution by Adrian

Students need time. They need time to think and time to work through their understandings. In AP Human Geography, I control almost all of the time. There are seven units with ten to twelve learning targets. They need to know every country of the world, all the major cities, and geographic features. There isn’t much wiggle room to get that all in by May.

It’s a rare moment that I can give them time to work through sometime that interests them. The project I described yesterday is one of those moments. Adrian cited,

I think we are all using our time wisely. It is way quieter than most of my classes. It is just one of those classes that are taken more seriously.

I’m not sure about the serious comment, but it’s nice to know he cares about what we are doing in class or that he is attempting to do it. Especially when this comment comes from a day of them mostly working in groups.  I did a little practice on the Free Response Question to start the class, but other than that, they worked on their projects.

Difficulties and Ease

Adrian said, “(he) needs some help with the presentation/some guide with the formatting. And would also like to go over some of the vocab.”

It’s a constant. We go over the vocab ever day. Now, this project allows them to apply their vocabulary. I heard students infusing their understanding of the global issues with the vocabulary.  They were making the connections themselves. They didn’t need me to spoon-feed them the information like they are feeble babies eating avocado for the first time. They are capable of being in control of their learning.

Next Steps

I need to free more time for them to explore their own topics of interest.  It’s difficult to do it and things will be rushed. My next steps are to ensure I block time in each unit to do it.