Word Problem mania

Happy weekend, people! I don't know about everyone's schedule across the nation, but I think it's safe to say most of us only have TWO more weeks of school before a nice long Christmas break! And for yours truly, it's only ONE more week before I get to take a nice long trip to Disney World with the family, and then only TWO more DAYS when I get back!!! As Mickey Mouse would say, "YIPPPEEEE!"

In other news worth of a "YIPPPEEEE!!" Learn Me Good has passed the 100,000 mark! This happened sometime about 2 days ago, thanks to majorly increased traffic from the Christmas Carnival! What can I say, I'm a numbers guy, so this is exciting to me.

This week's Mr. Teacher column on education.com is titled, "No More Field Trips," and it is a bit of a lament, seeing as how we were told at the beginning of the year that there was no money to pay for buses to take us anywhere. We're going to have a few people come to us, though, so all is not as Dickensian as it may seem...

A question for everyone reading this: Have you ever read Joel's blog -- So You Want to Teach? If so, you know what an incredibly insightful look at the teaching profession it is. Joel is a music teacher in South Texas, and (unlike SOME people attached to my head) his posts are not just feeble attempts to garner laughter, but rather deeply thoughtful musings about ways teachers can improve themselves, things to destress, and strategies to be more effective with kids and colleagues.

Currently, Joel seems to be concerned that his blog has shown up on some "marketing" searches, but I think that anybody who reads it on a regular basis (which I certainly do) knows where the meat of the matter is. The guy's really good. If you have NOT ever read So You Want to Teach? for whatever reason, stop what you are doing and go peruse the archives! You'll enjoy it, I guarantee!

Another great blogger, the Educat (she's ramblin! and quite possibly gamblin!) has tagged me with a meme she made up herself. I don't particularly enjoy memes (especially having to tag other people, as I always feel like I'm passing on a chain letter), but since the Educat broke her own rule not to meme I feel I can do the same for her.

Her meme is called Seven Posts about the Same Topic. Her directions are as follows:

Find old entries on your blog that center around the same topic and give us the links to them. We'll get to know your back catalog and your hits will shoot up (even if it's false inflation and only for a short time).

She chose the topic of State Testing. I probably have at least 7 posts about that topic as well (including one of my favorites, with the Six Flags height stick analogy here), but I think I'll choose a different topic.

My topic will be WORD PROBLEMS!! (I am, after all, a math teacher)

We'll start with the most recent example, which was relayed to me by another teacher at the school. That of a word problem which showed up written on the inside of a playground slide. When she first told me there was some grafitti I was a bit worried, but as long as all the computation is shown, I'm ok.

Next is a selection from last year, where I was big into suggesting the my students make the problems relative to their own lives. Who cares if Larry bought 14 cupcakes! Let's say YOU bought 14 cupcakes! Or someone you KNOW bought 14 cupcakes! My kids worked one of my teaching buddies into a problem with great results.

A short post here, where one of our math tutors came and told me about a rather frugal comment made to her by one of my kids.

Here's a post about some creative thinking from one of my new kids when it came to a word problem where the answer seemed mathematically obvious. Way to think outside the box!

Almost 2 years ago, I thought I had discovered that the 4 Gospel writers might very well have been poor math students.

Here's one from way back when, from a time I had my kids write their own word problems and share them with the class. Some were good, some not so much.

And to wrap things up, here's an idea I had for a brand new game show called Are You More Cynical Than a 3rd Grade Teacher? Word problems of a different sort.


OK, I think that's 7! Now comes the crappy part of memes, when I need to tag other people to continue the wave. I think I'll start with my "ghosts" from the recent Scrooge Carnival and tag:

Joel
Elementary History Teacher
Mrs. Bluebird
Mamacita

PS Don't forget to sign my guestbook at the bottom of the page!

Worst Job Meme

Richie at Bell Ringers tagged me last week for a meme on, as the Comic Book Dude from The Simpsons would say -- Worst. Job. Ever.

I've had some pretty rotten jobs, though none that I would compare to some of the all-time worst jobs in the world. For instance, I am thankful that I have never been someone who sniffs other people's armpits to make sure deodorant is working. I have never had to pick up bat guano. I have never been a professional javelin catcher.

Between my stint as a mechanical design engineer and my current profession as a third-grade math teacher, I held several odd jobs. The one that made me feel slimiest was telemarketer, where I would cold call people and try to convince them to sign up for the credit card du jour.

However, my pick for worst job that I've ever held was telephone book deliverer. I saw an ad in the paper, and applied for the job. First thing in the morning, I went out to this warehouse and loaded up my car with as many telephone directories as it would hold. I then selected one of the designated routes, and drove over there to make deliveries.

Unlike newspaper delivery, I couldn't just slowly drive by in my car and toss a 25 pound phonebook out the window into each yard. I had to park at one end of the street, grab as many books as I could hold -- usually around eight -- and deliver the books to each doorstep, one house at a time. Then I would walk back to my car and grab some more books. Then I would pull the car around to the next street, and repeat the process.

Did I mention that I held this job in July, in Texas?

At the end of the first day, I was physically drained, my clothes were massively sweat stained, and I just had to say No mas. Thankfully, when I resigned, the folks who were running the business asked me if I would stay on as a supervisor, someone who would drive around and make sure OTHERS had delivered the books where they were supposed to.

Now I get to tag a few people, to share OF their stories of worst job ever. So I tag 100 Farmers, Mrs. Bluebird, Mrs. T, Happychyck, and Mamacita.

Not so confidential info

A couple of weeks ago, I was tagged by our good friend Matthew K. Tabor to complete a meme. I say good friend of course, because a while back he wrote a very flattering review of my groundbreaking novel, Learn Me Good. That, and he just seems like a fun guy overall. Not to be confused with a fungi overall.

Anyway, rule number one of Fight Club, er, I mean this meme is to post the rules of this meme.

RULES:

1. The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

So let the fun begin!!

1) What was I doing 10 years ago?

10 years ago would put us in 1998 (see, I like to establish my cred as a math teacher). In 1998, I had just started working for Marlow Industries here in Dallas. I was a project design engineer for a product called a thermoelectric cooler (or as my boss called them, little white things). Ironic how I've gone from TECs to TEKS. With Marlow, I would get to visit customers in Japan, various countries in Europe, and various states in New England. I'll never forget actually having to duck to walk through doorways in Tokyo.

2) What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):

1. Finish this blog post.

2. Pray desperately for my students' success (and motivation) on tomorrow's test.

3. Watch How I Met Your Mother -- one of the funniest shows out there. It's Legen -- wait for it! Keep waiting! Almost there! -- dary!

4. At least think about writing next week's Mr. Teacher column for my education.com gig.

5. Have my daily internal debate over who's cooler -- Spider Man or Han Solo.

3) Snacks I enjoy:

Cheez-Its Better Cheddars, Pringles, Nacho Cheese Flavored Doritos, Pudding, Ice Cream, Snickers, Reeses, and the list goes on.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Stop worrying about money forever.

2. Buy a hotel in Paris and invite Evangeline Lilly, Shandi Finnessey, Stacy Keibler, Cameron Diaz, and Naomi Watts to visit. Hey, at least ONE of them would have to reply, right??

3. Pledge enough money to Wendy's to bring back the Superbar!!

5) Three of my bad habits:

1. Picking hangnails

2. Dripping sarcasm

3. Hanging gerunds

6) 5 places I have lived:

1. Springfield, Virginia

2. Durham, North Carolina

3. College Station, Texas

4. Dallas, Texas

5. Mesquite, Texas

7) 5 jobs I have had:

1. Looney Toons Land rides operator at Six Flags over Texas

2. Prior art researcher for a patent lawyer

3. Telephone directory delivery supervisor

4. Small appliance sales person at Best Buy

5. Credit card application telemarketer (worst three weeks of my life)

8) 6 peeps I wanna know more about:

Well, I haven't had any dates for awhile now, so I think I'll focus on the ladies...

1. Mrs. Bluebird -- she called me one of her favorite bloggers one time. I acknowledge the fact that she may have been drinking when she said that, but it still puts her pretty high in my book.

2. HappyChyck -- She lives in VEGAS, BABY!! And she seems pretty cool. Though she won my March Monday Madness contest and has yet to send me an address to receive a copy of Learn Me Good!!

3. Mrs. Longhorn -- Another Texas math teacher with a great sense of humor. Of course, you kind of HAVE to have a great sense of humor to be a Texas math teacher...

4. Mildly Melancholy -- Right now a NY teacher, but maybe soon a TX teacher??

5. Rookie Teacher -- Someone who hasn't blogged frequently for a while, but maybe just needs a good rousing!

6. Edna Lee -- Her site, Regurgitated Alphabits, is quite funny, and her posts are long and well-written! Like they say, Nobody Doesn't Like Edna Lee!

OK, now I'm off to comment on these people's pages to fulfill the requirements laid down in the prophecy of yore.

BTW, now that I'm tagging other people, does this meme become a youyou??

5 things about me

Well, I have resisted it as long as possible, but it's finally time to face up to the fact that I have been "tagged," repeatedly, and that I am going to have to complete this meme challenge.

Redkudu was the first to tag me, so she gets the credit, but more recently, I've been hit by Ms. Cornelius and Mike in Texas as well. Normally, I am very resistant to forwarding things just for the sake of forwarding them. In fact, I will automatically delete any e-mail that ends with "If you love Jesus, send this to 10 of your closest friends." Excuse me, I really don't think that the good Lord and Savior is going to banish me just because I didn't forward a dumb little poem within 5 minutes of receiving it.

But this meme seems pretty harmless, so I'll go along with it. Let's just not make a habit of it...

So here we go, 5 things about me that you probably didn't know, unless you've been stalking me, in which case I should add number 6: I have a stalker.

1) I was born just outside of Washington, DC during a very rare and strange weather phenomenon. It was a combination snow/lightning storm. That same night (quite possibly at the exact moment of my birth, but more probably a few hours later), my great-grandmother's television set was struck by lightning.

2) I grew up playing all-text no graphics adventure games on the computer. I still have a very fond spot in my heart for the likes of Zork, Planetfall, Infidel, and the like. "You are standing in a clearing, west of a white house. There is a mailbox here."

3) I tried out for the Duke basketball team my freshman year of college. I knew I didn't stand a chance of making it, but I had the opportunity to play on the court in Cameron Indoor Stadium in front of Coach K and several of the players, so I had to grab it. I got a T-shirt for my efforts. The team wound up winning the national championship that year. Was any part of the success due to my inspiring performance? Who can say?

4) I have six godchildren. Five of them are girls, one is a boy. One of them even lives in Japan.

5) I am having a lot of success calling Borders bookstores around the country and asking them if they will stock my book, Learn Me Good. So far, my novel is on the shelves in Texas, California, Florida, Virginia, and Nevada. Ask for it in your local Borders!

Okay, now is the part when I have to put the burden on someone else. So I think I'll go with a couple of new bloggers that I've read. The following people have been put on notice (and if you're NOT one of these people, follow the links and check out their sites!):

The Head of the Class

IMC Guy

Rookie Teacher

Miss M.