Browsing posts in the ‘All in a Day’s Work’ category
Mad about math
So I’m walking around in one of my classrooms, and this girl is doing binomials.
(x^2 – 2x – 15)
Okay, so we know the answer is (x+3) (x-5), but this girl had the signs mixed up for many of her answers, and she was rewriting them on her homework. Plus for minus, and minus for plus. So I’m looking over her shoulder, and I ask
Me: Hey, so what’s going on here?
Girl: Ooh I just got these signs wrong, I mixed it up.
Me: …so…what happened, do you understand it now?
Girl: oh, yeah, if they are both negative in the question, then the answer will have a negative and positive, I forgot and made them both negative…
Me: …..(wth…)…so wait, you’re just looking at the signs to determine what the signs in the answer will be?
Girl: Well, yeah, that’s what our teacher told us…
Me: (….what kind of lame cheap shortcut is this teacher teaching?) So, you understand that you have to find two numbers that multiply to the 3rd number, but add up to the 2nd number right? -5 and +3 multiply to -15 but add up to -2, that’s why you use those signs, not because of just memorizing how they should be. You should know why they are like that…
Girl: …….mm..yeah…
Me: You can also check your work by foiling again to make sure you get the right numbers too…then you’ll know for sure you have the right signs…
Girl:…well..yeah..i mean…but our teacher told us we could just do it like this…
And that, my friends, is why I get depressed working at schools sometimes. But! I’m glad I got to snap some of these kids out of it. You know some kids aren’t even writing their math homework correctly, working horizontally instead of vertically? With lines written haphazardly in different areas of the paper? It kills me when I see it and it makes it hard for me and the student to follow. Did no one teach them an organized and logical way to do their math? Grrrrrrr…I’m dedicating a lesson to how to write in good math format when I’m a teacher.
And then?
So I was walking around tutoring again, and I pass by this kid I’ve known since last year, who likes to talk to me sometimes, or hail me down for a question that he might not actually need the answer to.
Kid: Want to hear a joke?
Me: Sure!
Kid: (to Kid 2 across the table) Hey I’m going to tell her that joke…about the…
Kid 2: Nono…don’t! don’t……don’t!
Kid: (shaking head) no, I’m gonna do it.
Me: <Attentive and alert!>
Kid: So, there is a farmer and he has a donkey, and he wants to make his donkey laugh but he can’t. So he tells the village that he’ll pay 600 gold to anyone who can get him to laugh, and everyone fails, except for one guy, and he gets the donkey to laugh. But then the donkey can’t stop laughing and the farmer tries to get him to stop but he can’t. So he tells the village he’ll give anything 600g who can get the donkey to stop laughing, and everyone fails, except for the guy who got the donkey to laugh in the first place. So the farmer asks the guy how he did it, and
Kid 2: Noooo no…don’t do it….
Kid: I…..I can’t…..I can’t…..No, nevermind…I can’t say it….<turns away from me>
Me: …..@_@……(and?!?!)
Sigh…I really am in this position right? Try to connect with kids but still am apart.
i lose myself sometimes
In a 9th grade class, I notice one girl has a big book for Bronte books.
Me: Hey, what is that book?
Girl: Oh, I’m reading it for silent reading time.
Me: <grabbing the book and leafing through it> man…it’s huge!…….That’s what shhh….<gasp>
Boy: (that I’ve taught since his 8th grade last year): That’s what SHE said…!
Me: @_@….<pretending not to hear it and quickly walks away>
I need to be a lot more careful. I don’t know what got into me.
no thanks
At a middle school today:
Boy: Hey, smell my cheek
Me: …@_@…uh…no thanks!
Boy: Just smell my cheek! It smells like cologne!
Me: ^_^… <walks away>
To be fair, another boy had been spraying cologne, and this boy must have gotten some on his finger…and then smeared it on his face…and he might have been honestly wanting me to smell his cheek.
Still, I’m gullible, but I wasn’t falling for any of this. After my experience with “Let me tell you a secret”, I’ve become wary of things like these. All I need is his head to turn at the last moment. @_@. No thanks!