Truck drives on jetty during high surf - video

[WmRMeyers]

I used to have this poster hanging in my office.



I am retired from 35 years teaching. I hate to admit that I worked with some of those people. Scares me now that my daughter is a teacher, she tells me they are worse now. Not all, but some..

I once had a MATH teacher come to me to ask for help. She was working on a flower bed, She called a company to get some topsoil delivered. They asked her how many yards she wanted. She had no clue how to figure that out. I just looked up at my poster for strength and explained it to her.

Ah, yes. I had to quit teaching about a 8 years ago after a very short career teaching. In high school, I about flunked Algebra I, and should have flunked Algebra II as well, but the teacher did not want to see me back in his class. I figure if he found out that I'd gotten certified to teach math he'd be spinning in his grave. He was the only math teacher at that high school.

Couldn't tell you about anyplace else, but here at OU's TE+ Program that I went through starting in 2000, math teachers didn't need higher math, they needed classes in pedagogy. How to teach. And to get certified, you had to pass a certification test. I took it on a lark. Big part of the test was to solve an equation and graph it. I did solve it, but could not remember how to go about graphing it manually. I had a graphing calculator for that kind of work, which they wouldn't allow because it had lots of memory you could store info in. Did have the correct answer, anyway. They certified me for math up to mid-level, i.e., Algebra II. Nearly the last thing I did as a substitute teacher before they canceled my license was teach an intro to college math class because I was the only math-certified sub in the district. Teacher wound up in chemo a week before school started that year. There were other teachers in the school, but they couldn't cover her class and theirs.

I told the kids I didn't know how to do the math. My brain doesn't work well that way. If they couldn't learn it out of the book, with what little help I could give them, they could go to the other teachers for help after school. I'd have them talk me though solving the problems on the board. I gave extra points for catching me making a mistake. One of them asked my why I told them that. I asked him how long would it take for them to figure it out on their own? Not long, of course. Then I asked him if he would have trusted anything I said afterwards if I had lied about it? Nope. What I did do, was bring in books from my home library with math in them. Books on electronics, and computer science, and chemistry, and physics, book keeping, and my copy of Machinery's Handbook. SWMBO had been a chem major before she got sick. So between us we had books in a bunch of disciplines. I had a copy of the USAF's Space Handbook, her textbooks, and stuff I found it thrift stores. All showing practical uses of mathematics.

My favorite Demotivational poster is the one with the sinking ship. Says "Mistakes. It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/05...g?v=1416776264

You have been warned.

Bill