Sorry for light content. Long day doing odd things.
Monday, January 2, 2017
I Was Thinking About Substitute Teaching
Thinking about it. I mean, before retirement I looked at spending the day doing math modeling as "they pay me for this?" But public school? I'd want to do algebra or above, and with the typical kids you get in the 14-18 age group, it would end up like this.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Sorry for light content. Long day doing odd things.
Sorry for light content. Long day doing odd things.
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I like the cartoon, but even from a smart kid's (engineer later in life) perspective, there was almost NEVER a reason given for WHY we were learning new and boring ways to crunch numbers. It might do wonders for numeracy in this country if the students could see any point at all in why they were subjected to this.
ReplyDeleteWhich reminds me of this Dilbert cartoon. Or, as they told me on the CNCZone forum, "don't over analyze this".
DeleteI'm with you to a point, but where does that start and end? And why just math? Do we tell second graders why they're learning to add? Do we tell them why they're learning to spell? "Will we ever use any of this spelling?"..."Only every time you fill out a job application, write a resume or communicate with anyone in any business setting beyond the most casual". "Will we ever use any of this science?" ... "Will we ever use any of this American history?" No, too late. They don't even teach that any more.
Mea Culpa on the over analyzing:)
Delete"'Will we ever use any of this American history?' No, too late. They don't even teach that any more."
DeleteB-Minus Time Traveler (2 1/2 minute video)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGjKL9UZiMU
That's actually pretty good.
DeleteThe black-type-on-green background makes you unreadable on my android! Please fix this!
ReplyDeleteI have only one Android device, a Kindle, and it looks exactly the same on that as on three browsers here on my PC and on my iPad with the latest iOS. Is your android a small profile, like a phone or a tablet like the Kindle?
DeleteThere is a mobile format that Blogger decides to load, somehow, but on my iPhone, that looks like the PC and every other platform.
So I don't have much control over how to fix things, but I have nothing to test it on to see if anything I do works.
I should add that here on my PC, it's black text on a white background like it has always been. The colors are controlled by the way blogger handles the pages.
DeleteThere is no green on my page at all.
You learn algebra so you will be prepared to learn calculus.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of calculus and being a teacher.
I first took two semesters of college calculus from a Chinese grad student whose style was to face the blackboard and fill the board with formulas and talk over his right shoulder. meanwhile erasing the board to his left with his left hand. When the board in front of him was full he would move to the left and continue. You had to take notes, listen and there were no questions.
I finished calculus at a different school, four semesters taught by a high school math teacher in night classes. He was a Mexican American, had a glass eye and his style was ask anything no raising hands. What a difference. He taught, he explained, he gave real life examples of how it was used, you could even crack a joke, but he always brought the class back to calculus. Got C's from the first teacher and A's from the second.
That reminds me; I went on then to numerical analysis taught by a 30 year old grad student. Got to class and there were 8 or so students and no teacher. Waiting awhile and then one of the 'students' (the teacher) got up and said OK let's get started. He looked more like a surfer than a teacher. But he was good!
You learn algebra so you will be prepared to learn calculus. You got that right! I don't think I really got good at Algebra until I took calculus. I had five quarters of calculus, and a couple of really decent teachers who would get you past the concepts and show you how to use it.
DeleteI've had the kind of teacher you describe - the Chinese grad student, who couldn't look at the class and just filled the blackboard with equations and derivations from left to right and then started over. Mine was just an incredibly shy guy who was some sort of White American. He was an MIT grad. Really personable and great to talk with in his office, but teaching was like horrible stage fright to him. Must be a terrible way to spend your career.
I had a physics class in Optics that started just like your NA class. The guy who got up looked like a motorcycle gang leader. He actually did ride a Harley. Ran into him at a gas station once.
I took college algebra twice. To be honest I was young and lazy and Algebra is tough to learn if you are too lazy to do the homework. I passed but the second time I got it. The class was different. In order to pass you had to complete 6 notebooks that were the course textbook. It was about a thousand pages with 5-7 problems per page each side. I spent day after day working it and there was no other choice and I finally got it. For whatever reason when I took calculus it was different. I actually liked it and I was married then and no longer running around until two in the morning.
ReplyDeletePeople make fun of her for saying it, but the Great and Wise Barbie was right when she said, "math is hard". But it's not just math. The term "hard sciences" is thrown around a lot in academics, and you know what? They're all hard.
DeleteThere is simply no substitute for plopping your butt into a chair and working for hour after hour after long hour.