wanna hear about my day?
Oct. 15th, 2003 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
godreamAs I'm sure you know, you haven't got much choice. Run now while you still can! Ignore those mysteriously tempting lj-cut links!
All right, I *think* I did OK on the math test in spite of not studying at all. Just hoping that that thinking is not utterly wrong and I bombed completely. On the very last question, I realized I made a dumb algebra mistake near the beginning -- two, actually -- and had to go back and do it again, with five minutes left. Then I looked at the answers I had and realized that the answer with the wrong work was actually far closer to right. This scared me. So I circled the right-answer-wrong-work one and wrote a note alongside it saying something along the lines of all this. I feel slightly better about it, though, knowing that evidently a few kids didn't even get to the problem, judging by the announcement the teacher made with five minutes left telling us to just write SOMETHING so she can give partial credit. *shrugs* We'll see. She grades relatively quick, IIRC, so we may see soon.
In other news, I had this brilliant idea to write last night. I think it started something like "Blueberries/are a poem/about the scent of your hair..." But I think it may have been one of those ideas that seems positively stunning when I'm really tired and just stunningly stupid when I'm not, so I'm dropping it.
And in more news, I had the privilege(?) of sitting in on this afternoon's technology integration faculty meeting at my school. (I'm a minion of the school computer department and I was helping with a slideshow for Ms. E, who was presenting and (I suspect) didn't want to be bothered with it. So I was there.) And it was actually pretty interesting hearing some of the issues raised. Evidently though my school used to be top-of-the-line in terms of technology, and was one of the first high schools in the area to really have computer labs, it now (to use some technical terms) sucks monkey balls. It's not that the computer programs that exist are bad, it's just that there's no requirement for computer literacy so the people who might need them most, the ones who don't understand how to do basic things on computers and don't like the bloody machines, don't take the classes. And of the kids who do take the classes, evidently 90% are white males. (I'm not sure how accurate that stat is, but it's what I was told.) And all the alumni of the school say that they feel unprepared in terms of being able to deal with technology in their Life Experiences.
So fine, Something Must Be Done, so they had this meeting. And besides hearing the school's stance on the issue, it was interesting to hear how many of the teachers seemed to be scared of computers, fearful of their own department budget being cut into for new or modified technology literacy programs, or just really not desiring to spend their time or class time on this. (Screw the students' future in a technology-oriented society, we want less cafe duty, and certainly not to incorporate spreadsheets in class!) Though I won't name names, seeing who was which, and who sounded genuinely interested, was fascinating -- and (being teachers, I suppose) the discussion was overall very polite and arguments generally clearly stated, and so forth. The teachers get an A on their debating skills and manners. Whether anything comes of their lovely discussion, again, we shall see, I guess. But certainly an educational experience for me.
All right, I *think* I did OK on the math test in spite of not studying at all. Just hoping that that thinking is not utterly wrong and I bombed completely. On the very last question, I realized I made a dumb algebra mistake near the beginning -- two, actually -- and had to go back and do it again, with five minutes left. Then I looked at the answers I had and realized that the answer with the wrong work was actually far closer to right. This scared me. So I circled the right-answer-wrong-work one and wrote a note alongside it saying something along the lines of all this. I feel slightly better about it, though, knowing that evidently a few kids didn't even get to the problem, judging by the announcement the teacher made with five minutes left telling us to just write SOMETHING so she can give partial credit. *shrugs* We'll see. She grades relatively quick, IIRC, so we may see soon.
In other news, I had this brilliant idea to write last night. I think it started something like "Blueberries/are a poem/about the scent of your hair..." But I think it may have been one of those ideas that seems positively stunning when I'm really tired and just stunningly stupid when I'm not, so I'm dropping it.
And in more news, I had the privilege(?) of sitting in on this afternoon's technology integration faculty meeting at my school. (I'm a minion of the school computer department and I was helping with a slideshow for Ms. E, who was presenting and (I suspect) didn't want to be bothered with it. So I was there.) And it was actually pretty interesting hearing some of the issues raised. Evidently though my school used to be top-of-the-line in terms of technology, and was one of the first high schools in the area to really have computer labs, it now (to use some technical terms) sucks monkey balls. It's not that the computer programs that exist are bad, it's just that there's no requirement for computer literacy so the people who might need them most, the ones who don't understand how to do basic things on computers and don't like the bloody machines, don't take the classes. And of the kids who do take the classes, evidently 90% are white males. (I'm not sure how accurate that stat is, but it's what I was told.) And all the alumni of the school say that they feel unprepared in terms of being able to deal with technology in their Life Experiences.
So fine, Something Must Be Done, so they had this meeting. And besides hearing the school's stance on the issue, it was interesting to hear how many of the teachers seemed to be scared of computers, fearful of their own department budget being cut into for new or modified technology literacy programs, or just really not desiring to spend their time or class time on this. (Screw the students' future in a technology-oriented society, we want less cafe duty, and certainly not to incorporate spreadsheets in class!) Though I won't name names, seeing who was which, and who sounded genuinely interested, was fascinating -- and (being teachers, I suppose) the discussion was overall very polite and arguments generally clearly stated, and so forth. The teachers get an A on their debating skills and manners. Whether anything comes of their lovely discussion, again, we shall see, I guess. But certainly an educational experience for me.
