Physics Of The Physics Classroom

I have always excelled at math and science. Sophomore year, I had to decide whether I would take regents or honors physics in my junior year. I was already going to take AP biology, and I had planned on signing up for regents physics so that I wouldn't get too overwhelmed by science courses. Everyone warned me that honors physics was a tough class. However, I ended up taking the honors because my friend didn't want to be alone in that course. This is one of the best choices I've made in my life. I loved my honors physics class. Physics allows me to apply my math knowledge into real world situations that I can visualize and even test experimentally. Additionally, it requires me to problem solve and think problems through meticulously, which I love.

In the beginning of his work, Gatto opens by conveying the fact that kids and young adults that are attending schools today all are alike in the same sense: they feel immense boredom. He then describes the common pattern that a normal classroom would call for. This usually consisting of around “six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years”(Gatto 116). While employing this regular pattern that schools are in session, Gatto uses set amounts of time, one right after the other, in order to set in motion an unseen feeling of tediousness as well as monotony. In doing this, the author triggers the emotions of those who have or are currently going through the modern school system. To each of them, he taps into their own feelings of boredom that they may have experienced. These nostalgic sentiments that Gatto now, so carefully, wields

Gatto informs us that he himself was a teacher for about 30 years. In those 3 decades, he “became an expert in boredom.” He believes boredom is everywhere in the classroom. When asking his students, “Why they

A general population third grade class was observed to further understand the psychological aspect of teaching. The Title I school classroom observed has sixteen students, eight girls and eight boys, and is almost entirely made up of students from a low socioeconomic status (SES). The desks are arranged with one big horseshoe and two rows of desks inside the horseshoe shape. The teacher has made adjustments to seating assignments and layout due to student behavior and feedback. The class is made up with students eight to nine years old with two students repeating the third grade. Snowman and McCown (2012) highlight that students in this class would be in Erikson’s fourth stage of psychosocial development, industry

Gradually, lectures and discussions that were once interesting start to seem boring and irrelevant, and the temptation to skip classes become greater and greater. (Benton)

1. Find the westward component of a resultant vector 85.42 unit, 23º W of N.

Before my child study, I had a feeling that advanced students were not being adequately challenged at my school; however, I completely underestimated the degree of boredom these students experience. It was very eye-opening to observe how quickly Kayson completed his classwork and then the amount of time he spent engaged in non-academic activities. Kayson often spent as much of 20 minutes engaged in non-academic conversations and “free drawing” because he completed his work so much quicker than the other students in the classroom. Any behavioral issues that Kayson had were attributed to his lack of boredom in the classroom. When he was scolded for talking with other students during work time, it was usually due to the fact that he finished early and did not have anything else to do.

In “Against School”, Gatto told the readers about the boredom in the schools through the teachers because the students were as bored as they, the teacher, were. In school, boredom strikes amongst both teachers and students. Gatto said it best when he stated, “Boredom was everywhere in my world, and if you asked the kids, as often as I did, why they felt so bored, they always gave the same answers: They said the work was stupid, that it made no sense, that they already knew it. They said they wanted to be doing something real, not just sitting around. They said teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subjects and clearly weren’t interested in learning more. And the kids were right: their teachers were as every bit of bored as they were.” (Gatto, page 608). Most students do not want to be at school anyways so therefore, boring school work, unprepared teachers, and pure lecture class time would not help the matter. This next quote can still relate to today’s society, “Boredom is the common condition of schoolteacher, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers’ lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there.” (Gatto, page 608). When the teacher comes unprepared with a mindset of boredom then nothing will ever change. Although a teacher may have a routine for teaching , because they have taught the same material for years, they should never just recite it. The students have not heard this, because it is new information for

In this experiment, the signal generator was set so that the frequency meter showed a reading of 1,803 Hz. The microphone was moved to a distance from the speaker so that the oscilloscope displayed a straight diagonal line. This position was of the microphone was recorded as the initial position, or beginning of a wavelength. The microphone was then moved farther in the same direction until the oscilloscope displays the same horizontal line. This position was recorded as final position, or the end of the wavelength. The distance between the two positions represents one wavelength for this frequency. This was repeated for frequencies of 2,402 Hz, 3,002, Hz, 3,602 Hz, and 4,201 Hz.

John Taylor Gatto wrote about the topic of boredom in his story “Against School.” He was an award-winning educator, so most believed his statements about education to be true because he was such a credible source. Gatto discusses his belief of having children learn more of what they will need to live on their own in the real world. He wants students to take their education with them out into the world instead of learning pointless material in public school that will never be applied to the real world. Gatto references this to boredom and uses it as an example of why some children do not enjoy school. Material that is required to be taught bores students easily, and does not expand their minds to subjects they are interested in. He asks, “Do we really need school? I don’t mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years” (Gatto, page 148-149). Students are trained to become addicts of everyday school and it strips them of responsibility and independence. Eventually, once we can understand the tricks and traps of public schooling, we can avoid them.

In this essay the author Gerald Graff, talks about how schools should try and make classes more interesting not just for academically smart students but also those who don’t relatively enjoy being in school and those who don’t succeed as much as the others. I’m talking about the street smart students. Those who have little to no interest in anything that is happening around them and would rather be out doing the things that they love. In essay, “Hidden Intellectualism” by Gerald Graff, it begins with the old argument that teachers have been arguing about for decades, should we teach more non-academic topics in our schools.

At 1:10 pm their classes start, and each student sits at their desk either thoroughly bored or thoroughly interested in what’s being taught, but their all watching the clock waiting for school to end at 2:40 pm.

“ Students do become behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively involved in the learning activities their teachers provide (e.g., write an essay, solve a math problem), and their extent of effort, enjoyment, and strategic thinking does predict important outcomes, such as achievement. But students also do more than this. Students also, more or less, proactively contribute into the flow of instruction they receive as they attempt not only to learn but also to create a more motivationally supportive learning environment for themselves ( Bandura,

During my junior year golf career I was forced to make a decision. My AP physics teacher was offering a review session for the upcoming test on the same date that I had a golf match. It was obvious for me to prioritize my schoolwork before golf. I knew that I was already struggling in physics and that going to my teacher's generous review session would benefit. Unfortunately, my coach and teammates did not agree with me. They were furious that I was not dedicating myself to the team. He told me that I was being selfish and letting him and my teammates down. I was conflicted because I valued their opinions but as a math and science oriented student, succeeding in my physics class was crucial to me. As a student athlete, I learned that my choices

Mitchell’s first and, what I believe is one of the most ludicrous points in his argument is that teaching is one of the most dull and strenuous jobs. Mitchell makes his point by saying “if quadratic equations are uninteresting the first time, how mind-numbing must they be in 20 years?”. Seeing that teachers actually have the choice on whether to be a teacher or not then I think it is surely fatuous to believe that their occupation must be boring for themselves too. I disagree with this point because teachers would not choose to be in the occupation that they are unless they actually enjoyed the subject they are doing as a job. As a result of this I would suggest that the reason that teachers could possibly be boring would be because of the