smart snot, eh? not really, although i can do manual calculations, albeit slow, because i need to write it down on paper then recall my multiplication table, specifically for large problems like this. if it's just a fairly large number i can do a mental calculation and i can also calculate percentage and compound interest, especially if my life depends on it. :-) but i draw the line on cosines and tangents and pi's and all those other intelligent things that only genuises and aliens can calculate.
-o0o-
for five plus two's theme this week which is "batteries not included".
also for the mad hatters' seven deadly sins theme. this is for 'vanity' or 'pride'. let's just pretend, okay. :-)
and let's make it a triple, why don't we? here goes:
in grade four, we were required to memorize the multiplication table. every day, the teacher would ask us to recite starting with the 4's: four times one, four times two, etc. etc. (we were all expected to know the 1x, 2x and 3x by heart) and if you stammer or stop long enough to think, teacher would make you start over again. pity if you had made it to six times seven and you forget.
up to third year high school i didn't think i was good in mathematics. I cut classes during geometry, the teacher spoke so soft i doubt if she could hear herself. but i excelled in english, history (except u.s. history - i kept cutting classes, too! shhh! don't tell my parents!), biology, literature, music, spanish. then in fourth year, my class was under the most notorious teacher in the school. the subject he taught? physics! we were all afraid of him. he was very rigid and very strict, even with his college students, we heard.
i had the misfortune of being one of the best in biology which was then taught by his wife. mrs. wife boasted to him that i was smart and one of her top students. so mr. teacher expected me to do well in physics, too! tarnation! i really really had to work hard to understand his subject. but it always takes one good teacher for a student to learn, plus the student's willingness to learn. most of you were teachers or are teachers so you would know what i mean. mr. teacher made it fun to learn physics and when he noted that i was a bit slow in understanding the lessons, he exercised extreme patience with us, understanding that not all students have the same capacity for learning. but when the first half of school was over, why, i can calculate mass velocity and what not (although i have forgotten them by now. you know, you don't use it, you lose it!).
when in 1995, i decided to change careers and enrolled in a college here in toronto, before you can apply for college, "foreign students" like me were required to take a 'refresher course' in english and mathematics and pass a 'qualifying test' with a minimum of 65%. the teacher was shocked when i told her that in the old country, passing grade was 75% and that 65 is well below the average. suffice it to say when i graduated from the course in 1998, i was in the dean's list and had a few awards. my classmates cheered me on: "way to go, grandma!" the boogers!
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(5+2's choice)
What a happy surprise to find this is a triple! I love the composition and of course the story is excellent asl always! I didn't know you were a genius! proud to call you friend!
I love me some old school math. They came up with these crazy new methods that they taught my kids and are now reverting back to the old way, the written out way. Great shot for the themes. Smartie pants:)
You made me smile, but I gotta admit, I substitute teach every grade, and I always have to refresh my memory with the glossary because, while I can be reminded how to do some things, I don't automatically know off the top of my head which principal is which anymore.
And most days pass when I never use Algebra no matter what my teachers told me.
as an alien I can compute that stuff, but I do like my batteries....... I teach and am always thrilled to see older students even though at first I was intimidated by the very concept of instructing an elder. But they're such good students. And, no, I NEVER make the false claim that anyone will be using algebra anytime soon.
LOL When I took my first post-graduate course at the school in Philadelphia, I could have been mother to most of my classmates. In fact that became my nick-name "class mother". If someone needed a pen, I had an extra. If someone needed to talk, I was a listening ear. If someone sneezed, I had a Kleenex. At first it bothered me, but after awhile, I stopped fighting it. What can I say, even as an older sister, I was a little mother. (o: Fun story. I stink at math.
September 12th, 2014
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And most days pass when I never use Algebra no matter what my teachers told me.