Okay, so I know it has been a while since I have let people know what is going on. I have recently "outed" myself as a blog stalker to Matt, something I am not proud of.... and I have been working a great deal at JC Penny's at night. On top of that I am taking a math class.
Some of us decided to play with death a little bit and join forces to take Andrew Chen's Elementary Math Graduate Class. Now we all have learned in life so far that there are safety in numbers, so five of us are suffering together. To much of our prayers, our first class was canceled due to snow.... (thank goodness Andrew didn't ask us how much snow we got or find out the rate per hour for the snow fall, my response would have been, "alot.")
We are now three classes in, one Wednesday and two 7 hour long SATURDAYS. How might you ask do you get yourself up in the butt crack of dawn to be in math class. Well I say, chocolate cake!! Math class = chocolate cake. Want the proof, here it is.
7 hours long in class, Karen my great friend is a great cook, and has a wonderful chocolate cake recipe that is to die for!! To get through the day she brings cake!! The first Saturday, she only brought a piece for me, of which I did share. However, the math in my head most of the morning was, (when can I eat the cake? If I change the hours to minutes, how many minutes until lunch? etc... etc..) Probably not the math we were supposed to be doing.
Well this Saturday was a little bit of a different story. Don't get me wrong, there was definitely chocolate cake, and wondering how many calories will I consume if I have one more piece of cake. Aside from this I have learned some things.
My friend Karen is scared to death of math. Often asking, "when am I going to use this in life?" A teacher's dreaded child question...This Saturday I sat with Karen and we worked the fraction problems together. Going slow to not lose her and to teach her what I know, she got the hang of it. She even earned an "honored" Andrew Chen Pen....(a big feat!!!)
I learned some things about myself in this process. I am good at things that I put my mind to. Math does scare me and is not my best subject, but I can teach it and aspire to do better at it. Andrew taught a valuable lesson Saturday, You have to know all the ways to solve a problem to get your students to understand where they are at. Understanding the ENTIRE maze will help you identify what corner your students are stuck in.
Isn't that the goal in life, understanding all the ways to solve a problem and continue to be a life long learner? Or is it to understand that x+y+w+z=chocolate cake?????!!!!!!????
