Pedantry is the quality of being too interested in formal rules and small details that are not important. Given the grudge I’ve held against my math teacher for almost forty years, that might describe me…
Tag Archives: math
Slice of Life Day 27: The Days are Numbered
(a triple-nonet for a triple-nonet type of day) Today seems like it’s the perfect timeto play with nines and their nine-ness:perfect groups of threes, bundledin three more groups besides:three by three by threetwo and seventidilysummed upthere. Maybe it’s because I love numbersjust as much as I cherish my wordsthat I sit and ponder thepoetry ofContinue reading “Slice of Life Day 27: The Days are Numbered”
The Best (and Hardest) Part of My Day
(overheard in my third grade math group as some kids were trying to put a math problem together from random words and numbers) Them: Mrs. Levin, this is hard! Me: Yep. It is. You’re not complaining, are you? Them: No. Me: Oh good. Because you deserve to have things hard sometimes. (more work, more missingContinue reading “The Best (and Hardest) Part of My Day”
A Job Well Done: Exhibit A
Snapped this photo right after my fifth grade math class. I love this stuff. See all those pencil shavings? Know what that means? People were making mistakes. Mistakes they felt safe enough to make. Mistakes that they cared enough to correct. Consider how important that is to a room full of perfectionists. Makes my day.
Shangri-La
You know what this stuff is, right? To the uninitiated, it’s just a big old mess of math supplies. Well, actually, you’re right. That’s what it is. But really? That’s not what it is. You see, I’m a teacher. The desire for new school supplies runs in my veins. The yearly school supply order bringsContinue reading “Shangri-La”
Where the Time Goes, Part 2
So the next day the kids are coming in, having found the areas for all rectangles with a perimeter of 56 units. They had all drawn and counted out the squares. We went through answers together, and then one student pipes up and says, “Hey. I think I found a shortcut for finding how muchContinue reading “Where the Time Goes, Part 2”
Where the Time Goes
So now that the school year has hit, my schedule and routine has slowly gotten back to its rhythm. Which means that so many of the things I made time for during the summer have just gone away. Today, I was just thinking how disappointed I was in myself. After all, over the summer IContinue reading “Where the Time Goes”
Soapbox: The Way I see Things 