上面是孩子高中的数学老师 Wayne Erdman的教学照片,下面是我与孩子高中的数学老师Wayne Erdman的电子邮件交流。
Re: A letter from XXX' father
Wayne Erdman
2009/10/8, 11:54
Dear Mr. Li,
I am doing fine. I just need to remain inactive for a few weeks. I do not live in Toronto, so it is inconvenient to visit. I will be back at school by the end of October.
Thanks,
Wayne Erdman
LiFrank writes:
Dear Erdman:
I hope your eyes’ ailment is not serious? If it is convenient, Guangxin and I would like to visit you home. Please let me know your opinion.
Best wishes
Frank Li
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 10:22:11 -0400
Subject: Re: A letter from xxx' father
To: xxxx@hotmail.com
From: xxxx@tel.tdsb.on.ca
Dear Mr. Li,
Thank you very much for the gift of boxed tea. I am very honoured by your gift and am sharing it with my colleagues in the mathematics department, since they shared in helping xxx succeed.
I am pleased to hear that xxx is succeeding at university. I hope that he is enjoying his work term in Toronto. I am home for the next three weeks with an eye ailment, but I will be back at school near the end of October. Please let Guangxin know that I would love for him to come and visit when I am back at school.
Yours respectfully,
Wayne Erdman
LiFrank writes:
Mr. W. Erdman
Curriculum Leader
Mathematics Department
Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute
Good morning Mr. Erdman:
This is Frank Li, father of xxx Li. I have visited you in Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute days ago with a gift of boxed tea that was a represent of my family’s greatest respect for you. We never forgot that you have helped my son a lot. Also we have learnt that, as a math teacher, in the past 26 years, you have focused on the public education cause with great contributions.
xxx is now working in a company located in York Mills & Young in Toronto from 9 am to 6 pm Monday to Friday for grade four Co-op term. He will visit you when time is available.
When I searched your phone number days ago, I found the news: This high school starts at 10 a.m. . It excited me very much. The key lies not in the trial results, but rather in the spirit of bold attempt. Since that the trial and error is the father of success.
According to my experience and reading, by the eyes with Eastern cultural background, there a lot of improvements are urgently needed to be done in the education for high school and university here. Such as the text book editing, educational funds making, etc. If you are interested I would like to write for you.
Yesterday I read an article: PM's teacher pets. It said that Prime Minister Stephen Harper honors outstanding teachers for their contribution to Canada’s future. This is a great honor that every teacher desired. I firmly believed that you and your colleagues can get it certainly in coming future.
Yours sincere
Frank Li xxx xxx 0532 xxx@hotmail.com
Windows Live Messenger
Wayne Erdman
Curriculum Leader, Mathematics & Technology,
Eastern Commerce C. I.
This year, the teens at Toronto's Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute are starting classes an hour later than everyone else in the city as part of a pilot project.
Math teacher Wayne Erdman teaches Grade 11 Eastern Commerce Collegiate students during first period, which now starts at 10 a.m. (KRISTIN RUSHOWY / TORONTO STAR)
How great is late?
"I like it – I feel more rested," says 16-year-old Tiffany Gerro.
"I feel so much better. It's awesome, I love it," adds Grade 11 student Mike Stuckless.
"There's more time (in the morning), you feel more fresh and less gross."
This year, the teens at Toronto's Eastern Commerce Collegiate Institute are starting classes an hour later than everyone else in the city as part of a pilot project to determine if getting some extra sleep actually improves not just their attendance, but their grades.
And so far, so good.
"The kids were on time – nobody was late" the first two days of classes, says Wayne Erdman, who started teaching math at the school 26 years ago and is now also the department head. "I could not believe it."
He's not expecting miracles – "they're still teens and I still expect some to be late, but not half an hour or 45 minutes," as in the past. And he's hoping that more sleep will mean better results for his first-period students, after a whopping 46 per cent failed Grade 11 functions last year.
Eastern is acting on the growing body of research that shows teens' brains are wired to go to bed late and get up late. At puberty, the chemical that induces sleep is secreted around 11 p.m. and shuts off around 8 a.m.
Most teens are also sleep-deprived at a time when their bodies need 8.5 to 9 hours a night; studies have shown that about three-quarters don't get nearly that.
When local trustee Cathy Dandy proposed the new timetable, the school looked at first-period statistics and found that, from punctuality to attendance, grades to credits earned, it was the worst.
At that time, school started at 8:50 a.m. and teachers said many kids would come to class like zombies, too tired to learn.
In the U.S., some schools that have experimented with a later schedule – with first period at 8:30 or 9 a.m. – report less student depression and fewer dropouts, and better test scores and grades.
One top U.S. researcher in the field said Eastern's 10 a.m. start is the latest she has ever heard of.
At Eastern, many students live out of district and have long commutes; others work late nights, even overnights, to support their family.
Principal Sam Miceli said he has heard positive reviews from staff and students and said enrolment is up this year, in large part to the new hours, "which is icing – any bump in enrolment is appreciated."
The board will study attendance, punctuality, class averages and credit accumulation for period one compared with other periods last year to this year, and next, said Miceli.
"If it proves to be a success, it should be as de rigueur as giving (younger) kids a nap. There's a biological need for it."
He knows critics will say it's coddling and indulging lazy teens, and others say it doesn't reflect the real world.
But he points out that not everyone starts work at 9 a.m. – even some merchants on the Danforth close to Eastern don't open until 11 a.m. – and that university students make their own schedules.
"So what is the real world?" Miceli said.
Already, though, the school has hit a couple of snags.
With a shortened lunch period – 42 minutes versus the usual 65 minutes, in part to accommodate early dismissal on Friday – some students are arriving late to class after lunch.
"That's longer than they'd get in the real world," says Erdman.
"That's going to be the biggest stumbling block."
Miceli said food has not been sold in the cafeteria for several years, so students often head up to the Danforth to grab a bite to eat. Students say that leaves them little time to sit down and eat.
With the lunch period now also an hour later, students are getting hungry – so next month the school will start handing out free breakfast to students as they arrive, said Miceli.
Student Ainul Majeed, who is vice-president of the student senate, likes the change but said she is no longer able to pick up a younger sibling from school. "Now someone else has to do it," she says. "It's less convenient."
Trustee Dandy says the board has received a lot of calls about the pilot project. "I'm excited about it," she says.
"I'm excited that we're going to track data and that we'll be contributing to the understanding of how to teach adolescents in a way that works for them."
She was also pleased that the school was able to work out a schedule that allowed for early dismissal on Friday, allowing Muslim students time for prayers.