Saturday, January 12, 2013

Jacob is learning how to take notes

Sometimes as a parent I make poor assumptions.  Examples include:

- He will stop eating sand eventually.
- You don't need rules like "Don't throw people down the stairs".
- All high school students know how to take notes.  At least one that is used to getting straight As.

Sorry to disappoint any earth connoisseurs or emergency room enthusiasts.  This post is will be dedicated to the last bullet item above.

Jacob's first high school report card consisted of 5 As and 2 Bs.  For (what I thought was) obvious reasons I assumed he knew how to get good grades.  Apparently the first nine weeks of high school includes coloring books and Hopscotch.

(Zoom into the future past his Fs, and Ds, and all conversations about how a C is better then an F)

The software engineer in me decided we needed to build something that helps Jacob get better grades*.  I used the Salesforce.com platform to build an automated test generator out of student notes.  So far the only notes Jacob has entered are about Harry Potter movies.  I'm sure that will soon change to something that improves grades.

Come on Jacob.  Everyone knows you are a genius.  Our challenge is to determine what makes you lazy alot of the time**.




* If I had a blog 10 years ago this exact sentence would have been typed regarding http://www.freemathtest.com.  What a great success that was/is.

** alot was misspelled intentionally.  The topic is one of the best blog posts I've ever read.
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html


4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. too easy/obvious?

      Alot of kids struggle with high school.

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  2. He misspelled the prison where Harry's godfather was kept, too. I'm sure that will be on alot of the tests.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I also cropped out the question "the sorcerers stone - whose the main character". I blame the parents. :)

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