monitoring tests

In the last year I have had 2 monitors burn out on me.

And I think that I am about ready to lose another one.

I like to type my own tests. OK, actually I don't really like to type them, but I just don't like those pre-made tests that come with the curriculum. I am a fundamentalist when it comes to Math. I like to stick to the basics. Some of these more recent text books like to cram in several different topics and methods all together. But I don't like that.

I can remember when I took math growing up: If you had a chapter on fractions, then you would get like 100 fraction problems. Now, if there is a chapter on fractions, they give you 5 fraction problems, a few story problems, some problems with decimals, a couple of pictures of fraction situations, and several review questions.

I know that this concept of integrating several different things together seems sound, but I just don't think that it works in reality. If students are going to remember how to work with fractions, they need like a hundred fraction problems... at least! It is the repetition that burns it into their brains.

I just know that I am about tired of teaching the upper level classes and half of them don't know how to add, subtract, multiply or divide fractions. It's just crazy. It is one thing to have a couple of students that are struggling, but when you put some fractions on the board and half of a class doesn't know where to begin... very frustrating.

But anyway!

I planned on typing two tests at home last night (the tests were today) and it didn't seem like it would be too much of a problem. I had already gathered all of the information that I needed, written out all of the problems, and all I had left was to type it. And then it happened.

The monitor started flickering.

There it would go. In and Out. In and Out. Every time it started to flicker, I thought, "oh no! This can't be happening."

I barely made it through the tests. They were saved and printed. But I just couldn't believe it, another monitor! And on a night like that. I almost never bring work home to be typed on the computer, and the one night that I do, the monitor starts to go out. Wouldn't it just figure?

The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome! According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written. If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events? Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.

HARMLESS THOUGHTS

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