Has anyone taught HS math at one day school?

[terricu]

I'm considering an Algebra I teaching position at a local one day enrichment "school" for homeschoolers. I want it to be a complete class including daily homework, quizzes, tests etc. Has anyone taught a class like this that really worked? I'm concerned that there won't be enough face time / teacher feedback for the average student. I definitely don't want to get into this if it won't be successful.

Thanks!

[Greta Lea]

But I know a lot about the program 'cuz I worked with the elem. students there for a few years.

 

Anyway, they use Math U See, which is perfect for a one day program like that. They teach the lesson in class and do practice problems in class together. Then there are plenty of pages in the workbook for the students to do for homework.

 

This particular homeschool program has offered many classes over the years for the middle and highschool students, but the Math-U-See classes and Apologia Science classes are the 2 that never change (they offer classes for each grade level in math and science using these programs).

[mom31257]

I taught one day a week classes a few years ago. How long is your class period on that one day?

 

The program that I was involved in was using Saxon. I taught Algebra 2 and Advanced Math. Here is how I handled it.

 

We only had 1.5 hours for class, so all tests were completed at home. I did take them up and grade them.

 

We started class with me going around and checking to see that all homework was completed. I spent about the first 30 minutes going over questions from the previous week's work. I spent the next hour introducing that week's lessons and giving them practice problems to do in class so that I could check their understanding. They were to do the problem sets on their days home. I did answer questions through email during the week, too.

[SonshineLearner]

Oh... put links!! I really love to look and wish for more :)

[Jann in TX]

Most of my classes are one-hour once per week.

 

I use Lial-- it was designed for block scheduling so that really really helps with the planning... Two lessons are covered each week.

 

I DO NOT recommend Saxon for one-day per week classes-- you need to cover 4-5 lessons and they go in DIFFERENT directions!!!!

 

Quizzes can eat up a bunch of teaching time-- you might put 1-2 problems on the board before class-- so the students can come in and start working on them immediately (casual quiz)-- this also helps to 'settle' them (less 'socialization') so you can lead right into the lesson after you go over those problems...

 

Allow the parents to proctor most tests (they can mail or e-mail them back to you so you can have them graded before the next class...). I would have them take a 'mid-term' and a 'final' test in class.

 

Let me know if you have any questions or if you need to brainstorm about how to teach a concept (like factoring).

 

Jann

[mom31257]

I DO NOT recommend Saxon for one-day per week classes-- you need to cover 4-5 lessons and they go in DIFFERENT directions!!!!

 

 

Jann

 

I should have said this in my post. I had never used Saxon before teaching these classes, but it is what the school wanted me to use. I couldn't stand the courses and would never use them with my own children.

[G5052]

Classical Conversations uses Saxon, and others use Bob Jones, Jacobs, and Forester's.

 

Personally I would find the textbook choice to be critical. I can't imagine trying to bring together all of the topics in Saxon in a weekly class although some manage it. It works well for us as a family, but I am a math person and teach it day-by-day myself. A class wouldn't work for us.

 

I agree that doing quizzes of more than just a question or two will eat up your time very quickly, so I would focus your class time on actually teaching and discussing. As a general priniciple, with only an hour a week that is all that you can do with any subject IMHO.

[Halftime Hope]

We had a homeschooler with a mathy family (kids went into STEM fields and were in the early enrollemt/honors academy at our local uni) ) come to our co-op, and she agreed to teach Alg I and II. After the first year, she never returned, citing the once a week format to be incompatible with developing the skills she wanted her students to master.

 

Serveral years later, my experience teaching Spanish was similar, as teaching a language is very like teaching maths. First year was stressful; second year I insisted that we go to two days per week. When the maths teachers heard what I was doing, they jumped on the bandwagon, so then we had our co-op's band, spanish and high school maths meeting two days per week.

 

hth

 

ETA: I meant to post that we have a friend whose kids go to a one-day school. They have been *very* happy with other classes there, but she pulled them out of math. Although the teacher doing the maths (using Saxon) has done it in this format for many years, it didn't work for my friend because she found that she was having to do daily teaching of the lessons at home for her kids to "get" it. She wondered why bother to both pay and re-teach it herself? YMMV

Edited July 20, 2011 by Valerie(TX)

[Jonibee]

Math has been a giant bomb at our homeschool co-op every year it was tried. Too much difference between abilities of the kids. We've always tried with a certified math teacher -- but I was pretty much ballistic when April came and they were half done with the book and "that's more than the public schools are doing" --- as if my goal is to do what the public schools are doing. grrrrr.

 

I do not think math or language does well AT ALL in a co-op situation. You are teaching it, so you have control. Try to get through the book! If you have slow learners, make them drop out of the class instead of holding everyone else back from the goal of finishing the book.

 

One year we had "math lab" and that worked well. Everyone at their own pace, with the teacher hovering and just there for answering questions basically.

[Susan C.]

Dd did BJU w/dvds for Algebra 1. They have a 45 minute dvd for every school day (so 45 min. 5x a week). She needed every minute of the dvds and wouldn't have done well with instruction once a week.