Plus ça change...
Jan. 13th, 2010 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassToday's French class gave me flashbacks of my high school math class.
The background: Yesterday, when I was sick and didn't go, the class started working on relative pronouns (who, which, whom, whose, etc.). I don't know how much of the four hours of class time they spent on it. Let's say an hour, for sake of argument. They got an explanation and did some exercises. Today, when I arrived in class, I got the handouts from yesterday, looked them over, did the exercises, and got them essentially right. (All before class started, I might add.) Then I got today's handouts. More relative pronouns. In a four-hour class, two to three hours were spent devoted to them.
The thing is, I've always been very, very fast to understand concepts. It took me less than ten minutes to figure this out, even though I really had no idea how these things worked before this morning. The first few exercises were nice to solidify the knowledge, but I did *not* need another 2-3 hours of work on it. I'll be the first to admit I still make mistakes, but when I do, they're not conceptual mistakes. They're either stupid mistakes or stem from gaps in my knowledge unrelated to the concept at hand. (What preposition a verb takes, for example.)
I was, in short, bored.
This is not a new thing for me. My high school math classes were almost exactly the same: I'd get the concept quickly, do a bunch of exercises, finish long before anyone else, and try to figure out what to do next.
Now, there are at least a half-dozen people in my French class who are *still* having problems with relative pronouns. I don't begrudge the teacher the time she's taking to work on them. I'd do the same thing if I were in her position.
On the other hand, I also don't feel the need to pay attention the fifth time she's explaining the same concept. Once upon a time, I'd listen politely because it's what I was expected to do. Today I found myself reading a French newspaper, doing later exercises that we weren't supposed to do yet, or just generally doing unrelated things. When we got to the computer lab to do yet more relative pronoun exercises, I ran through everything in about 25 minutes and then spent the next 35 minutes browsing random articles in Le Devoir (because I *am* in French class to, y'know, learn French).
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this. On the one hand, I can't reasonably ask the teacher to go faster. For one thing, I know she won't. For another, I don't think she should, not when there are still a half-dozen confused students. On the other hand, if the slow-ish pace continues, I'm gonna get really, really bored. I wonder if I might not be better served picking up a grammar exercise book and just working my way through it, and then finding someone for a few hours of one-on-one tutoring.
For the people who have read through, can you empathize? Any advice you think might be useful to me? What do *you* when you find yourself bored in class?
The background: Yesterday, when I was sick and didn't go, the class started working on relative pronouns (who, which, whom, whose, etc.). I don't know how much of the four hours of class time they spent on it. Let's say an hour, for sake of argument. They got an explanation and did some exercises. Today, when I arrived in class, I got the handouts from yesterday, looked them over, did the exercises, and got them essentially right. (All before class started, I might add.) Then I got today's handouts. More relative pronouns. In a four-hour class, two to three hours were spent devoted to them.
The thing is, I've always been very, very fast to understand concepts. It took me less than ten minutes to figure this out, even though I really had no idea how these things worked before this morning. The first few exercises were nice to solidify the knowledge, but I did *not* need another 2-3 hours of work on it. I'll be the first to admit I still make mistakes, but when I do, they're not conceptual mistakes. They're either stupid mistakes or stem from gaps in my knowledge unrelated to the concept at hand. (What preposition a verb takes, for example.)
I was, in short, bored.
This is not a new thing for me. My high school math classes were almost exactly the same: I'd get the concept quickly, do a bunch of exercises, finish long before anyone else, and try to figure out what to do next.
Now, there are at least a half-dozen people in my French class who are *still* having problems with relative pronouns. I don't begrudge the teacher the time she's taking to work on them. I'd do the same thing if I were in her position.
On the other hand, I also don't feel the need to pay attention the fifth time she's explaining the same concept. Once upon a time, I'd listen politely because it's what I was expected to do. Today I found myself reading a French newspaper, doing later exercises that we weren't supposed to do yet, or just generally doing unrelated things. When we got to the computer lab to do yet more relative pronoun exercises, I ran through everything in about 25 minutes and then spent the next 35 minutes browsing random articles in Le Devoir (because I *am* in French class to, y'know, learn French).
I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this. On the one hand, I can't reasonably ask the teacher to go faster. For one thing, I know she won't. For another, I don't think she should, not when there are still a half-dozen confused students. On the other hand, if the slow-ish pace continues, I'm gonna get really, really bored. I wonder if I might not be better served picking up a grammar exercise book and just working my way through it, and then finding someone for a few hours of one-on-one tutoring.
For the people who have read through, can you empathize? Any advice you think might be useful to me? What do *you* when you find yourself bored in class?
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:04 am (UTC)Write something unrelated to the class. The difference between taking notes for a class, and making notes for a story--or even writing fragments of story, at least in my case--is not very visible.
Read ahead in the book--or work on homework for the class. Again, the difference between looking at things immediately relevant or looking at things ahead is not very visible.
Or ask your professor what she'd like you to work on. Most teachers understand that people learn at different rates, and really don't want you to be sitting there bored any more than you want to be sitting there bored.
Me, I'd stay in the class, because if I picked up the grammar book I'd never get through it without outside pressure. I'm a little more AD-OS than you, though, so YMMV.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:45 am (UTC)Given that you know knitting way better than I do, I would be tempted to get back into it if you take me to a store and show me what needles and yarn I can get that will involve having a finished project without putting 60+ hours of work into it. (Cutest baby sweater in the world, but NEVER AGAIN.)
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 04:51 am (UTC)Check out the Knitty Archives to get some ideas to get some ideas and then we can plan an expedition to a yarn store :D
no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 01:56 am (UTC)Can you think of anything that fits the bill?
no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 02:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-15 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 03:44 am (UTC)And, in fairness, all the stuff we're learning is stuff I don't know. I had no idea about any of this "relative pronoun" stuff before today. I'm just really good at picking things up quickly. There's a reason I used to peer tutor people in university who were taking the same classes I was.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 04:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-14 04:07 am (UTC)