School has been in session for one week today. This time last year I was in a daze, a fog of insensibility brought on by the overwhelming realization that I don't know anything! It's one thing to go to school and earn a degree, but try teaching children - of any age - something...anything. Maybe it's just me, but the more I teach, the more I have to come to terms with my own ignorance. It's quite humbling, actually.
But today was a little different. Today I actually taught my algebra 1 students something: scientific calculators do fractions. I had taken for granted that they knew how to use their calculators. "I wish we could do fractions on this thing," one girl said. "You can," I said, half thinking she was making a very weird joke. I guess I thought people were born knowing how to use a calculator.
I know it's just a little thing, but the light bulbs that went on for those kids when they realized how to enter "five-ninths" into their calculators without having to make it a decimal was oddly rewarding for me. "This thing was SO worth six bucks!" according to one boy. Yes, that was my triumph of the day. Now if only I could get that to happen with an actual lesson...
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Dear Mrs. Smith,
ReplyDeleteI cheated at math from fourth to eighth grade. Thusly,I don't know how to get a calculator to make fractions either. Please enroll me as your oldest student in your second grade class as promptly as possible.
Sincerely,
I Suck At Life In Indiana
Dear Mrs.Smith,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I taught 'I Suck At Life In Indiana' all the math from fourth to eighth grade. Thusly, she wouldn't know how to use said calculator. And at this point I am just glad she knows what a fraction is. Please enroll both of us promptly. Wait, no. Just enroll her.
Dear "I Suck At Life In Indiana" and "I Suck At Life In Indiana"'s mother,
ReplyDeleteRest assured that if you were enrolled in the second grade class at my school you would be doing nothing more complicated than wrapping a string around a stick. Would you like to reconsider your prompt enrollement?
Well, I am intrigued by the stringie winder thingies...
ReplyDelete