So I’m going back over the first day questionnaires that I gave to my students and reading them again (now that I actually know who everyone is). 1
Here are some of the questions that I ask them to answer, along with a few of the more intriguing responses that I got this year:
What did you do this summer?
- “Traveled the world (just part of it)”
- “Attended nuclear engineering camp at Stanford.”2
Do you have any hobbies?
- “Does shopping count as a hobby?”
- “I like to draw & eat.”
Why are you taking this class?
- “Because I took pre-cal & figured if calculus was anything close to it then I wanted to stay away from it.”
- “Counselors put me in the wrong class. I’m switching out.”3
- “To see math in a new light because the prior ‘lights’ have not been too great.”
- “To boost my GPA.”4
- “I wanted to take a class that would push me but not kill me.”
- “I was originally going to take something else, and… I thought, Hey! Mr. Youn kept trying to recruit me so why not?”5
- “…My sister told me her teacher taught her how to play poker at the end of the school year.”6
- “I heard you were a good teacher.”7
- “Because it makes me see things in a different light. I want to know other ways to skin a cat.”
How important is the AP Exam to you?
- “5 or die.”
Are you involved in any extracurricular activities? About how many hours a week? What about a job?
- “Hanging out with friends. 16 hours.”
- “Boyfriend.”
- “I have no outdoor activities.”8
Where do you plan to be after high school? College? If so, studying what?
- “Anything away from home.”
- “Out of the house.”
- “Hopefully a somewhat prestigious college studying something I’m passionate about.”
Do you have any other comments or questions for me?
- “Math doesn’t come naturally to me so you’ll see me in tutorials almost every day!”9
- “What nationality are you?”
- “Are you Korean?”
- “Do you speak Korean?”
- “I’m Korean whaaaat”
- “No.”
- Because this sure beats the heck out of watching the Longhorns stumble against Ole Miss. [↩]
- o_O [↩]
- this kid actually decided to stay [↩]
- I always find this amusing. Apparently AP Stat has a reputation as a “GPA booster” which is fair, to an extent… but deceptive to a few, I think. I really don’t mind as long as the students can hack it. [↩]
- Wow! it works!? [↩]
- lol! That teacher was NOT me! [↩]
- Aww! I get this more than I feel like I deserve, and every time I think the same thing: “I hope I don’t disappoint…” =/ [↩]
- I think this kid misunderstood the question. Actually I think all three of these misunderstood the question. [↩]
- this kid dropped after the 2nd day :( [↩]