On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:31:22 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:19:23 -0500, JohnH wrote:

knowing you were a sub, left you a
little less material to cover than would normally have been covered
.
That's actually not the case at all. I do more in less time than most
of the instructors.

I presented it only as a possibility.
--
John H

**** May your Christmas be Spectacular!****
*****...and your New Year even Better!*****

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:48:50 GMT, "Doug Kanter" wrote:


"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:25:59 GMT, "Doug Kanter"
wrote:


"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...

What they don't realize is that math is based on rote learning - you
can't really "get" math until you understand the arithmetic of
multiplication and division by rote - that's my opinion anyway and
it's pretty much substantiated by what they are doing in Europe. some
of the Czech and Hungarian Universities are teaching real mathematics
the real way - doing it, explaining it, some of it by rote teaching of
the mechanics.

They are very successful.

It's kind of like drills in sports, an effort to get muscle memory working
so you don't have to be totally conscious of how to swing a bat.

Perfect explanation.

I done figgered it out by mahself.


Yup. You did good.
--
John H

**** May your Christmas be Spectacular!****
*****...and your New Year even Better!*****

On Tue, 20 Dec 2005 00:33:17 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing wrote:

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:59:33 -0500, JohnH wrote:



Another true one:

I had some kids (8th grade) at the board doing problems. A girl had to multiply 6 x 7 as part of her
problem. She asked if she could go to her desk to get her calculator. I said no. She said she didn't
know what 6 x 7 was, so I told her to write seven sixes and add them up. At his point, she got teary
-eyed and someone else said, "42".

That evening her dad called and proceeded to jump all over me for 'embarrassing his daughter'. I
told him it wasn't my fault she couldn't multiply, and *he* should be embarrassed. I suggested he
get some flash cards and use them in the car next time they went to Kings Dominion. He said he was
going to talk to my principal.

I never heard any more about it.

My favorite came from a high school advanced class I was badgered into
one morning.

Had a smart ass who was trying mightily to make the sub squirm. At
one point, he claimed that I was a lousy sub and he knew more than I
did.

So I gave him this to solve: Find THE solution to x = sin(x).

Heh, heh, heh...

His father called me and actually thanked me. He starts telling me
that he's not as smart as his kid, etc, etc, etc. and finally somebody
put him in his place.

Later,

Tom

Luckily I don't run in to the badgering problem very often. I sub only at one school and only for
math teachers (with a rare exception if I really like the teacher). All the kids know me and we get
along pretty well. This year I've kicked a kid out of class only once, and that was an 8th grader
who should have been in prison. He got caught breaking into cars in the parking lot and is no longer
with us.

Subbing math has the advantages of teaching (seeing the 'ah-ha' light come on) without the
disadvantages - parents, papers, and principals!
--
John H

**** May your Christmas be Spectacular!****
*****...and your New Year even Better!*****

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:53:04 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing
wrote:

I have a daily routine in which I read liberal/conservative blogs, I
read/scan the NYT, Wash Post, Wash Times and WS Journal and keep the
TV news local. In the evening, I pick, at random, one conservative
and one liberal blog to read in it's entirety including commentary,
then after doing whatever hobby has my interest for that day, I spend
at least an hour reading non-fiction and a half hour fiction before I
hit the rack.

=============================

When do you go boating Tom? :-)

The parents need to start teaching the Mult. tables in 2nd grade. Whenever
we were driving in the car, the kids would have to answer the times table
automatically, so they didn't even think about it. My logic was the kids
were going to be doing upper level math, it was important they didn't have
to think about multiplying or dividing.


"JohnH" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 22:17:42 GMT, Shortwave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:47:11 -0500, JohnH wrote:

What is causing the decrease in the work ethic of students?

Parents. Because of the nature of my wife's work with her Union,
local, state and national, she's out a lot of evenings and I sometimes
field the calls from parents who like to bitch and moan about too much
homework or why do they have to teach math - that's what they make
calculators for. It's got so bad at one point last year that I just
didn't answer the house phone at night. It's way too much work for
the parents to observe, orient and help the kids even if they do
understand the material.

I swear to god this is a true incident. Wife was out and I caught the
call accidentally - it was a parent who wanted to know why there was
all this homework about the structure of government - her daughter was
going to be a Irish Dancer and really didn't need to know all this
sort of thing.

I swear that's true. There is another parent of one of my wife's
students who truly believes that "exploration" of the child's
environment is much more important than structured teaching.

Your last sentence is especially true of math books. I wonder why the
county spends so much money on
them.

Math is math and everybody who doesn't understand math wants to make
it understandable.

What they don't realize is that math is based on rote learning - you
can't really "get" math until you understand the arithmetic of
multiplication and division by rote - that's my opinion anyway and
it's pretty much substantiated by what they are doing in Europe. some
of the Czech and Hungarian Universities are teaching real mathematics
the real way - doing it, explaining it, some of it by rote teaching of
the mechanics.

They are very successful.

Another true one:

I had some kids (8th grade) at the board doing problems. A girl had to
multiply 6 x 7 as part of her
problem. She asked if she could go to her desk to get her calculator. I
said no. She said she didn't
know what 6 x 7 was, so I told her to write seven sixes and add them up.
At his point, she got teary
-eyed and someone else said, "42".

That evening her dad called and proceeded to jump all over me for
'embarrassing his daughter'. I
told him it wasn't my fault she couldn't multiply, and *he* should be
embarrassed. I suggested he
get some flash cards and use them in the car next time they went to Kings
Dominion. He said he was
going to talk to my principal.

I never heard any more about it.
--
John H

**** May your Christmas be Spectacular!****
*****...and your New Year even Better!*****

"Bill McKee" wrote in message
nk.net...

"DSK" wrote in message
...
And it has nothing to do with political bias.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4501646.stm

DSK


Some bias by the Brits also. The British are expanding their waist
lines as
well as a lot of the other EU countries. Maybe it is the KFC, McD's
etc, we
have exported, or their kids are sitting around playing xbox's also.
Also,
how can we have so many fat kids, when according to the same EU people,
we
are starving our poor. There is almost no PE in schools anymore,
and
you do not see the kids out in the streets playing ball, or kick the
can.
Very little physical exercise.
Also, the definition of obese is a little strange. It is weight to
height.
According to the charts, Gov. Arnold is obese.

So am I, and with a 38 waist.

"Doug Kanter" wrote ...

I ended up spending 3 weeks on the phone looking for a tutor, at my son's
request. I ended up getting him with a physics professor from the Rochester
Institute of Technology. The guy's web page says he's interested in "Plasma
Surface Modification of Polymers (polyimide, Teflon) to Enhance Adhesion with
Vacuum Deposited (sputtering, evaporation) Metals (copper)". (WHAT???)

He's studying better ways of making circuit boards. (?)

"-rick-" wrote in message
...

"Doug Kanter" wrote ...

I ended up spending 3 weeks on the phone looking for a tutor, at my son's
request. I ended up getting him with a physics professor from the
Rochester Institute of Technology. The guy's web page says he's
interested in "Plasma Surface Modification of Polymers (polyimide,
Teflon) to Enhance Adhesion with Vacuum Deposited (sputtering,
evaporation) Metals (copper)". (WHAT???)

He's studying better ways of making circuit boards. (?)


Either disks for disk drives or a good, cheap solar cell.

"-rick-" wrote in message
...

"Doug Kanter" wrote ...

I ended up spending 3 weeks on the phone looking for a tutor, at my son's
request. I ended up getting him with a physics professor from the
Rochester Institute of Technology. The guy's web page says he's
interested in "Plasma Surface Modification of Polymers (polyimide,
Teflon) to Enhance Adhesion with Vacuum Deposited (sputtering,
evaporation) Metals (copper)". (WHAT???)

He's studying better ways of making circuit boards. (?)


The school gets assignments from Kodak and the CIA, so it could be any
number of very interesting things.

Have you been to Europe lately? They have their share of "plump
people". They do have thin people, the differance, their smokers.