Comments

I cannot believe they're still writing in the journals! Do they have stress counselors standing by, too? At this point, they should be giving the kids practice in problems that the kids already know how to do, and that will appear on the test. How 'bout giving the kids some feelings of actual success on actual math problems before the testing starts?

-- StephanieO - 09 Mar 2006

Do they have stress counselors standing by, too?

lol!

Stephanie — I didn't get a chance to say it: congratulations on your pregnancy!!

When is the baby due!

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Mar 2006

Baby should show up in late September (so I'm still feeling sick and tired a lot!). But enteric-coated fish oil does not cause fishy burps, (Thanks Carolyn!) so I can take it even though I also burp all the time. Oh, the lovely symptoms of pregnancy. I remember "glowing" more the first time... ;)

-- StephanieO - 09 Mar 2006

I SEEK ENTERIC COATED FISH OIL!

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Mar 2006

How old is your first??

(And what sex? I've fogotten!)

-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Mar 2006

Speaking of fish oil in pregnancy, the last time I had a midwife appt, I said that I had read somewhere [here, in fact! Thanks for the pointer!] about fish oil, and asked her what she thought about it. She said, "It's great, and you should take it."

She's got me set up with some gel caps with STRAWBERRY ESSENCE so at least when you burp it up, you burp up strawberry.

-- TerriWheeler - 10 Mar 2006

My first kid is Emmett, he just turned three.

I got my enteric-coated fish oil at Costco. They have both kinds, and enteric-coated costs about twice as much as regular, but it's well worth it.

-- StephanieO - 10 Mar 2006

I've just started a new round of math booster classes.

I have a lot of repeat customers, so they must be happy.

But I have a fifth grade class that is almost entirely new.

So I tell them that I don't allow lattice multiplication or forgiving division.

I got alot of groans for that one.

But I was thinking about it afterwards.

Think about students who are taught and use only lattice multiplication plus forgiving division plus multipliers to get a common denominator.

The effect, like toxins, are cumulative.

Any one method would be a disadvantage, but all of them together is lethal.

Add to this the fact that some of these kids don't see their first real math class until algebra.

They have to spend all of their brain power to relearn how to do what they already thought they knew how to do.

I did have something funny happen in my class tonight. One girl insisted on using lattice but did traditional multiplication first. She got it right with traditional multiplication and wrong with lattice!!! I couldn't have set up a better experiment. I told her she got the answer correct doing it the easiest way. But she doesn't want to let go of lattice.

-- AnneDwyer - 10 Mar 2006

Christopher was the only kid who could do it.

Hurrah! Loud Cheers!

-- OldGrouch - 10 Mar 2006

The concept of "lattice multiplication" reminded me of a conversation that took place at our dinner table tonight.

A student in my 11th grader's Pre-Calculus class is a character--he always sees the humor in any situation and he enjoys word play. Today they were talking about "latus rectums." Needless to say, it cracked him up.

BTW, I have no idea what that phrase means. : )

-- KarenA - 10 Mar 2006

Old Grouch

Christopher was the only kid who could do it.

Well......uh.....that was a SLIGHT exaggeration.

Christopher is definitely the Star of The Christopher Berenson Movie these days.

This is a seriously dramatic age.

'Only kid who could do it' may translate to 'S. B. had to ask for help.'

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Mar 2006

Of course, it's highly gratifying to me, As A Mother, that S.B. had to ask for help.

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Mar 2006

I'll take what I can get.

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Mar 2006

She's got me set up with some gel caps with STRAWBERRY ESSENCE so at least when you burp it up, you burp up strawberry.

SHEESH!!!

IS EVERYONE HAVING BABIES!!!

I LIKE BABIES!!!!

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Mar 2006

I have a slight case of Baby Hunger along with everything else.

I don't have it normally; I just have it when other people BRING UP THE SUBJECT OF BABIES, or ANY TIME I SEE A BABY AT THE MALL.

-- CatherineJohnson - 11 Mar 2006

Think about students who are taught and use only lattice multiplication plus forgiving division plus multipliers to get a common denominator.

The effect, like toxins, are cumulative.

Any one method would be a disadvantage, but all of them together is lethal.

So these kids really don't know the standard algorithms?

At all?

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

That's horrifying.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

Christopher didn't use unit multipliers to solve the conversion problem in class today. (Dang!)

I totally feel for you. Ben doesn't want to use them either; he feels he can guess, and get it over with faster.

But, as I've pointed out to him, if he uses unit multipliers, he gets it right. Every time. And if he guesses, he gets it backward. Every time.

Someday it'll stick.

-- CarolynJohnston - 12 Mar 2006

These unit multipliers are AMAZING. I continue to be STUNNED they aren't taught by.....3rd grade or something.

Then practiced to mastery.

Believe me, Christopher is going to be able to do these in his sleep.

But not by Tuesday.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

Plus there's something just so FUN about them.

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

Big long chains of unit multipliers are kind of like falling dominos....

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

properties of waves

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

This is fabulous!

Police are baffled after the dramatic re-enactment of the disturbing act of vandalism against public phone boxes reported in the Chronicle last month.

As can be seen in this exclusive photo provided by the Tortoise Island Police, officials were able to duplicate the sequence of events that led to the disaster which has severly interrupted communications on the island for several weeks.

Police experts hypothesized that the first box (marked number 1 at left) was tipped over towards the right, setting off a chain reaction of events.

Then, the boxes fell like dominoes one after another (marked number 2).

But the baffling thing is why the last phone box (number 3) did not topple. Normally, one would have expected the final box to fall, from the momentum of the chain reaction that ran through the boxes.

Several theories could account for this. Firstly, a large car or van could have been parked against the last box, thereby preventing it from toppling. Secondly, several people could have been crammed into the last box, thereby giving it weight and stability. Or fourthly, all the phone books from all the other boxes, 12 in all, could have been placed in the final box, giving it a solid foundation.

Disturbingly, a tip-off made to police on the night of the crime at much the same time as the offence has been traced to this last box. Police now believe that the caller may have been linked to the criminals involved.

A special task force has now been formed and investigations will continue. The phone boxes have been cordoned off from the public until this is completed.

Police Chief Elmsby leaves Tuesday for eight weeks vacation in the Bahamas, but has assured the public that "after I'm back from the Bahamas, I won't rest night and day, Monday to Friday, in relentless pursuit of the perpetrators."

Trans Global Chronicle

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006

"after I'm back from the Bahamas, I won't rest night and day, Monday to Friday, in relentless pursuit of the perpetrators."

HAHAHAHAHAHA

This is absolutely priceless!

-- CarolynJohnston - 12 Mar 2006

I know!

I've been trying to access the rest of the site but it's not letting me in....

-- CatherineJohnson - 12 Mar 2006