Feedback on the Summer Chemistry Course

This summer, having a relaxed learning environment with a patient teacher has really helped me both learn and understand chemistry. One suggestion I have to helped students with the course is taking practice quizzes before mini quizzes. That way students can further understand the material they are being quizzed on before taking the actual quiz. If student's worked in pairs on the economist reports, I feel as if much more research can be done and student's could collaborate to make interesting presentations together instead of just reading a paragraph from the smart board. Students could create an interactive presentation and engage other students so learning could be more enjoyable. Or, students could include video in their economist reports to keep their other classmates interested. Using blogs for homework is very organized and effective for students, in my opinion. The intructor should not check all homework on blogs, they should simply trust that the students are doing their work. One thing that could embody the new vision of 'joy of learning' would be to not force students to take tests to assess their knowladge of the material they have been taught. Every student has a different learning style. Therefore, every student prefers a different way of being tested on the material they have been learning all year. Some students might explain they know the material through essays, while others may do so through a powerpoint presentation or project. If the student know the material either way, it is not fair to make them take a test to see if they are understanding of the material becasue some people might not feel comfortable expressing their udnerstanding in that way.