the nuts and bolts of math

Okay, so I spent all week...all day, every day, for 1/3 my regular rate of pay, in a large room being "developed" or "refreshed" or whatever so that I can do a better job teaching algebra. About 95 other teachers were there with me, and the presenter was a math teacher with a passion for his subject. 40 hours of math this week.

All in all, it was a productive, positive 5 days. But by Friday morning, I was tired of doing math. By Friday afternoon, my body was present but my brain was on vacation. So, for the last hour of the day, he had us graphing slope and intercept for the distance/thread turns using nuts and bolts. I dutifully filled out tcharts, graphed functions, noted slopes and intercepts, and did everything I was supposed to...but I had a really hard time focusing. Especially when the teachers at the table with me just didn't "get it," and kept repeating the process, over and over and over, and the presenter watched us all with a serious concern over whether we could graph the functions.

You see, he labeled the parts: the head, the shaft, the nuts....and then asked us to describe linguistically and algebraically the relationships between thread, shaft, head, and nuts. He told us quite seriously that this was an activity that was really good at engaging the full attention of 8th graders. So, I filled out my stuff and sat there while all those teachers around me argued for 40 minutes over how far up and down to slide the nut on the shaft, how many twists of the nut it took to achieve the desired length of shaft, whether to include the head in the measurement, whether a difference in the length or circumference of the shaft would change the slope or intercept....

Where was my brain? Everyone else was passionately arguing the math and wrestling over their assigned nut/bolt while I was done and couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was sure it was just my brain more interested in other topics on Friday afternoon, until I glanced up at the presenter and saw him looking at me. He flashed me a smirk, and I knew I wasn't "nuts." For a just a minute, I thought I was in the lounge.

:evilgrin:

Great post...Thanks for the laugh!
:D

You made me spill my Coke, so...

SCREW YOU!

I have to know how far...oops, never mind.

;-)

There's no need for this stuff in the workplace.

Yes, I know I'm a party :party: pooper :thumbsdown: but it really does cause a slippery slope towards problems.

actually USE that method in a classroom full of 8th graders! Holy crap, the pandemonium that would ensue...the mind boggles!

is almost as good as being there. And, can you imagine what they'd be telling their own kids about their memories of algebra 20 or 30 years down the road?

you should appreciate the fine things in life a little more