Chapter 11: Observational Studies and Experiments, Continued (Day 93)

Today in Ethnostats, we...did not take the Chapter 11 Quiz. Not only has the upcoming schedule still not been updated (and thus no minimum day can be confirmed), but absences continue to be a problem in fourth period. A whopping six students (out of 13 total) are absent today, including all five girls again. If my goal is to improve female achievement in that class (and it is), then the last thing I want to do is give a quiz when all of them are absent. The best way to help out my girls is to wait for their safe return.

The lack of a clear minimum day schedule is infuriating -- but again, the priority right now is dealing with COVID, not updating the schedule. With so many students out for the virus, it's highly probable that I've come in contact with someone who tested positive.

Even if Monday is a regular day, we're not out of the woods yet. The possibility remains that January 31st could be a minimum day. If it is, then it makes sense to give those quizzes in Calculus and Ethnostats next week (so quiz corrections can be done on the 31st). Moreover, if next week is the quiz, then I'll extend Chapter 11 to avoid starting Chapter 12 and then going back to quiz on 11. But if the 31st is not minimum, then there would be no quiz, and we could just start Chapter 12. If I don't know the status of the 31st, then I'll likely just start Chapter 12 -- I can't hold up the new chapter for a quiz that might not be given.

Instead of giving the quiz today, I assign the next book on the Ethnostats list. It is Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. The author, a Brazilian education, wrote the book in 1970. A link can be found here:

https://envs.ucsc.edu/internships/internship-readings/freire-pedagogy-of-the-oppressed.pdf

By the way, one of my favorite bloggers, Fawn Nguyen, posted yesterday about comparing fractions:

https://www.fawnnguyen.com/teach/comparing-fractions

Even change them into decimals because school math hates you, Fawn.

What Nguyen calls "school math," and Freire calls "banking education," is what I call "traditionalists." It all refers to the same idea that traditionalist math or learning doesn't work for everyone.

Once again, I must cover a junior English class during conference period. (I believe the teacher was out only sixth period on Wednesday, but the whole day today.) This class has even more absences -- 11 out of 21 students (a slight majority) are absent today.

Today is Eightday on the Eleven Calendar:

8. We are mindful of books and materials.

And today we are certainly mindful of unnecessarily touching other peoples' books and materials.

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