The Second Meeting

           We met for our second meeting on Sunday October 2.  She texted me that Friday asking if we could meet over the weekend because she had to interview an American student about homework for her class that Tuesday.  I could not meet on Saturday since I was planning on attending the football game against SMU, so we planned to meet on Sunday at noon and grab lunch at Potbelly’s.  Looking back, maybe it would have been better to meet on Saturday than go through that painful loss. 

            When I arrived at Potbelly’s I was greeted by Jeanny and her daughter.  We walked over to the line and placed our orders.  She then bought both of our lunches, which was a very kind gesture that she definitely did not need to do.  As if that was not enough for her to buy my sandwich, she then sent me to smoothie king with her daughter where she bought me a smoothie also with a coupon.  I tried to pay for my own, but she was persistent.  I was very appreciative for her lunch, and with a full stomach I was ready to start our actual conversation.

            We began by talking about her interview.  It was for her ESL class and it is just a quick five to ten minute interview about homework for us in middle school, high school, or college.  Before the interview we talked a little about her class.  She described the ESL class to me and told me that was the only class she was in this semester.  She took the class to touch up on her English and to fulfill the student visa requirement.  She was just in the ESL class because she also had trouble transferring some of her classes from her previous education.

            The interview was simple involving only a few questions, the first being a general question to introduce me for the interview.  The second question asked how many hours day I spend a day for homework.  I responded with it depends on the day, but I probably average about three to four hours.  Her next question was if I thought this was a good amount or if I thought that there should be more or less.  I told her that for the most part my homework is very helpful in teaching the material and I am ok with the amount as long as it is not busy work.  The final question was whether homework should be on material covered or on the material we are about to cover.  I responded that it depends on the material.  In my opinion, conceptual material should be covered before class, while problems should be given after a class.

            After she completed the interview, we compared our opinions on the homework.  She thinks that younger kids do not need that much homework because they should be able to complete most of the material in class, but she does think that her daughter needs more homework to get to the two hour range.  She thought my opinion was interesting on whether homework should be given before or after was interesting after my explanation why.  She thought that homework should be given after a lecture on it.  While this is good, sometimes it helps for the students to have a general idea of what the lecture is before walking in blindly.  I told her that this method helped especially in one of my engineering classes this semester.

            After our discussion on homework, it was time for Jeanny and her daughter to make it back home so we went our separate ways until the next week.