Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Dear Diary,

I spend the morning juggling money and the afternoon juggling students. It is wonderful to project projections about the budget, but it is another thing entirely to have the discipline to live by it. Also, my addition is getting better, I noticed. This is likely because of the amount of time I am spending training one of my students to see addition as a manipulation as opposed to a series of facts. We will get to the multiplication application of this concept soon enough, but the addition drills and practice have been awesome for me as well. It is an exercise in understanding moreso than anything else.



The National Science Foundation's funded approach (TERC, in this case) to mathematics is no better than the Saxon method when it comes to these things. This is a bit refreshing. My approach is not really a method. I don't think it is suitable for anyone but students exactly like mine. The biggest milestone is that I have successfully removed "I don't know" from her vocabulary. (This remarkable improvement in her reading was achieved many months ago. I was not as adept then as I am now at encouraging the "figure it out" attitude. This time we got there sooner.)

In any case, I can tell it is working because there was no regression over the long winter break. This is amazing and just about unheard of. I love my job. I will miss this student when I finally lead her to where she is comfortable in her education, but then my job will be done and she will be stronger for it. My job is a good job.

On a different topic, I have been enjoying the weird "things of the day" that I've run into. Today, among being World Hypnotism Day, Trivia Day, and Tom Thumb Day, it is World Braille Day and Dimpled Chad Day. I find the coincidence of the celebrations of bumpy paper quite humorous. I suggest you celebrate by either voting vaguely, photographing a sign in braille that is in a place no blind person would ever find it, and/or embossing a note to a loved one. You could also rub out the seal on witnessed paperwork, such as your marriage license or birth certificate, if you were feeling contrary.

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