Squirrels and School

There were two squirrels sitting on the fence like bookends, but naturally as soon as I get the camera, they moved...






Well, I guess all good things must come to an end, but starting tomorrow, it's back to teaching. It was so nice to be able to read some books and do some research for more than 20 minutes a day. You see, that's about all the time I usually have to myself during school. When I'm not teaching, I am trying to learn what I need to teach: Yep, it's a case of the teacher being just one step in front of the student. I have two different math and science lessons to learn, not to mention History. For example, tomorrow in math we begin Graphing Quadratic Functions (Algebra 2) and Systems of Linear Inequalities (Algebra 1). In science there is Molecular Genetics (10th grade) and Meteorology (9th grade). The tough part will be getting back into the routine.

Now, off to watch some football...

Geometry and Me

This cartoon is exactly how I feel much of the time, because I am back once again trying to re-learn my junior high and high school maths. However, this time it is much more insidious and evil; for this time it is geometry. This monster happened to be my worst subject in school and college and now I have to teach myself how to do it. Why, so I can help my daughter who also seems to be carrying the anti-geometry gene.

After I was able to finally master the wonders of triangles, I am thrust-into the wild world of quadrilaterals and how to tell them apart. Let's see, there are parallelograms, which have alternate sides that are congruent. The rectangle, which has four equal angles. The rhombus, which has four congruent sides, and finally the square, which has four equal angles and four congruent sides.

Now, all that may seem fine and dandy, but the fun part comes when you start discussing the bisectors and the various properties it has with regards to each shape. On top of that, you have the teachers, in their infinite wisdom, making the test questions as convoluted as possible, which leaves you dazed and confused.

I have never liked geometry and I fear that our dislike for one another will continue on.

Slowing Down for a Few Weeks

Hi, I just wanted to let everyone know that I will probably not be posting as often as I have been. For the next few weeks, I will be extra busy with the homeschooling thing. You see, in addition to trying to get the regular school work completed on time, I am also helping my kids get prepared for the state tests they have to take. They have already taken the math portion, so the only two tests that they need to take are language and reading. Reading is not an issue, but the language portion has me tearing out what's left of my hair. Let's see: gerund phrases, predicate nominatives, and indefinite pronouns as antecedents, to name just a few. Now, what ever happened to the usual nouns and verbs that I grew up learning about. Why do we have to learn about this stuff? Oops, some more hair just came out of my head. You see, just writing about this stuff is making me go bald.

If this were not enough, they are also in the process of writing their middle school project, which happens to be on segregation. To reward their hard work on this project, I told them that I would publish their projects on my site. I was not expecting to see two faces staring back at me in abject fear. I realize that my site is not the best one out there, but I never imagined that just the thought of having something posted on it would bring about such an adverse reaction. There goes some more hair.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that, even thought I won't be posting as often, I'll still be lurking around the Internet and trying not to lose too much more hair. Oh, has anyone heard of a hosting company called Justhost.com?