04 October 2007

Mrs. B's Algebra class & the New Shuffle

Well, it's October. I bought a pumpkin. The only available space to put it was on the sideboard. The sad thing is that it is so nearly spherical, it looks like a basketball! I need to wait another week at least before I carve it; then it may look like it's "s'posed" to, eh?

The Algebra class is giving me "fits". They have serious trouble comprehending and remembering. And yet they (and their respective parents) are complaining that I'm going too slowly and I am asking them to "do stuff they've already had before". My response, with the support of other similarly challenged faculty, was that if they know the stuff so well, why am I not seeing it reflected in excellent homework and quizzes? If they want to go faster, fine; show me you can do what I've assigned, and we'll move forward! Now the onus is on them: if you don't remember how to do fractions, you really need to ask for help outside of class. And the first thing to do when beginning your homework is to re-read the chapter and read the directions preceding each group of excercises. Words to be carved on my tombstone. Sigh.

Last night I went to Wal-Mart. Last night I treated myself (ah! splurged!) to an iPod "Shuffle" music (MP3 type) player. It's wonderful! I can listen to music and I can also download books-on-tape/CD as well. It's very "cute" and about the size of a piece of Hershey's miniature chocolate. Mine is a lovely lime green. "oh, I'd like that blue one... no no no, I'd really rather have that green one, thank you!" the sales lady was very nice to me. So far I have two John Mayer CD's on it, plus Mike Stein's "Shabbat in Swing Time!", and a CD by Maroon 5. And I am importing four discs from Frank McCourt's book, "Teacher Man". Grandma Patsy has joined the twentyfirst century. What next?

Tomorrow there is no class, but the staff and faculty must show up to school for two "In Service" presentations. Oh yeah, we're also having a breakfast potluck, just to make it more tolerable. Okay! Homemade biscuits and sausages and two liters of orangeade/lemonade should do me for that.

Enjoy your weekend.

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