Warren Central High School - Wigwam Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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Beth Hollandbeek, Theresq Weinzopfel and Bobby Yogng, first graders of Pleasant Run, practice on the alphabet while senior Janie Brandt observes their progress, thus gaining valuable Insight toword teaching. Stumped by a tough math problem, Steve Helming, a sixth grader gt Pleasant Run, seeks the advice of senior Diane Dial. n 16 Exploratory teachers

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facts tion, music and typing, a final is difficult to give because of the type of material learned during the semester. In most academic classes, such as English, math and science, vrhere learning is cumulative, most faculty members preferred to give finals, because, as one teacher stated, Too often daily quizzes and weekly tests encourage short term memorization. Twenty-nine percent agreed that final exams should be abol- ished, while over 50 percent agreed that teachers should not be forced to give a final test. A student may think that he spends too much time in preparing for semester exams. After the exam is over a student has little to worry about though. The average time a teacher takes in prepar- ing a final test is over eight hours. After the tests are given, it takes, on the average, six hours to grade exams even with the aid of the Scantron grading computer which 68 percent of the teachers use for help in grading exams. Whereas a student may study for three straight hours, it takes a teacher over 14 hours in preparing and grading finals. In September, while teacher surveys were being completed, another survey was given to several students. Like the teachers, 100 percent of the students that replied felt that they should report only to those classes in which a final exam was being given. Some added thqt they thought they could do better on the tests if given the extra time to study. The most predominant fact was that girls put more time into studying for final exams than boys did. The average studying time for 15 girls was one hour and 35 minutes per semester test, while the boys who were surveyed studied less than one hour, if at all, per final test. Final exams are sometimes replaced by semester projects. However, a total of 69 percent of the teaching staff have never in their teaching careers substituted a semester project for a semester exam. This contrasts greatly with the fact that 78 percent of the students surveyed would rather do a semester project than an exam. One student felt that a semester project was a more favorable way of evaluating a student ' s capabilities and effort; Final exams will probably be around for a long time, because no one else ha come up with a better type of evaluation. Granted that the system of finals at Warren Central is not agree- able to all, but it is not always possible to please everyone. The administration can and will make changes in the best interest of the student body and the faculty. As one teacher summed it up, Accurate and pertinent semester testing is necessary to the learning student and serves as a guide to the teacher in the revision of instruc- tional techniques. mi mi Junior lyto Lyng studies for her finals by us- ing the Medio Center facilities. Finals 15

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The switch: seniors play teacher In seeking to better the course, some changes were mode in the exploratory teach- ing program. Much to the delight of the students, the allotted amount of time in the classroom was increased from one-half hour to one-and-one-half hours. Not only could more be accomplished, but this gave the student more time in which to observe the class. Another addition which was inducted into the pro- gram was an Observation Day, in which students observed one day at each of the grade levels K-9. One other requirement was the participation in three ex- periences. Each was five weeks in length and students taught three different grade levels each of their own choice. Approximately 18 students were chosen per semester as ex- ploratory teachers and many things were con- sidered when selecting these stu- dents. One had to be in the upper 50 percent of his or her class and having good attendance was manda- tory. Any student interested had to have the approval of the teaching and administrative staffs at Warren. Mr. Larry Kelly, who has been the director of the program for the last two years, stressed, We ' re not tryi ng to sell the kids on a teaching career. He added that along with the good experiences come the bad and the students should be aware of this. But for those contemplating a possible career in teaching, this course proved worthwhile. Fixing her gaze on some friends below, this first grader at Lakeside Elementary, seems content just swinging. Exploratory teaching 17