Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Sunday 26 July 2009

Year 10 Commence Mensuration. Yes You Read That Right.


"And so, to find the area of the sector, we need to use the angle as a fraction of the total number of degrees in the circle, and thus find the fraction of the circumference indicated by the arc L."

The stunned silence which greeted my statement was punctuated only by the hum of the climate control fan.

Alicia suddenly slumped back in her chair and announced loudly and with no hint of sarcasm whatsoever,
"Is it just me, or is this REEEAAAALLY boring?"


I dunno. I think I might be with you Alicia.

12 comments:

DanYells said...

We just called it geometry. And it was boring then and boring now! :) (Also one of the reasons I quite happily moved away from the U.S. and the masters/graduate entrance exam that includes it, even though the last time we studied it in the U.S. was before high school!!)

and p.s. I read your BA's cake disaster, you gotta learn somewhere, very nice to hear that she tried again and it worked out. :) Great tip to make a trifle wish I thought of that before the cake turned into the door stop that it is now. Just waiting for Wednesday: bin day.

Margaret G said...

Hi Carolyn ... life still seems interesting in your corner of the world. We will have to catch up again soon...... Cheers Margaret and John

HipMomma said...

You know, when I was in that class a long time ago, I also may not have been interested in that. Not many of us were. But it just seems blatantly disrespectful to make a comment like that. Where are her adults to teach her some respect? Goodness, it's hard enough on you that you have to teach them math but to also have to deal with that? My geometry teacher was fierce and she would have sent her out. Mrs. Kirk. A little afraid of her. Didn't mean to rub salt in your wound. :)

Brittany said...

I have to admit...I am with her on that one! :)

Arizaphale said...

Hipmomma: The kids nowadays are constantly disrespectful and I am usually sending someone out but this comment was just so guileless and honest it was hard for me to keep a straight face. I did give her a little chat on the wonders of creation and how amazing it was that God had created circles so that their diameter went into their circumference 3.14 times....perhaps that was punishment enough?

DanYells said...

are you a maths teacher solely? or all the subjects? If you're a maths teacher, I didn't realize!

Maggie said...

Ha ha ha -- sometimes kids are too funny! Of course I probably only think that because I wasn't the one trying to teach anything, but still.... God love you for all of your hard work -- I know I couldn't do it!

Unknown said...

Now I LOVED Geometry...but I have re-read that statement at least four times and I'm feeling kinda dumb right now.

Thank God for Mathematics teachers, that is all I have to say!

A Free Man said...

Yeah, it's pretty boring. But then math is, inherently. Actually, calculus is pretty cool, but you have to trudge through all the boring stuff to get there.

Elisa said...

Arizaphale - your comment is just as funny as the post....did her eyes roll back in her head when you were explaining? tee hee

DD is TRILLED beyond measure that her advanced placement (calculus) exam score while not as high as she wanted, was high enough to count for her math general education credit. Which means....drum roll please....that as a music major she has to take NO MORE MATH!!!!

Oh the happy dance that happened here was incredible!
She did tough it out through Calc A/B and then Calc B/C through high school....she had no choice as she had placed into advanced math years ago and has been working two grades ahead in math since middle school. But now - she is DONE with math!

Jill said...

Funny on your response to hipmomma! I always figure lecturing them to death is many times as effective as any other form of punishment. :-)

Arizaphale said...

Laine: For my sins yes. Don't ask me how it happened. I think I drew the short straw. I am actually primary trained and have extra qualifications in Special Ed.

Carrie: No wonder you had to re-read it....I was meant to be finding the perimeter not the area of the sector! Ah well, it was late when I wrote this.

AFM and Elisa: I vaguely remember calculus from 30 years ago. I suspect I will never have to teach it to the bottom group. Congrats to DD Elisa! I sense her relief over the thousands of miles ;-)