“I’ve heard this lesson before.” – Anakin Skywalker, Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones
And you know what? I’m willing to bet that Anakin had. He’d probably heard Obi-Wan go on and on about the importance of putting away his robes, watching where he pointed that lightsaber, and remembering to keep his mind on what he was doing a thousand times (not to mention all the times he was told to remember who was the Padawan and who was the Master). I’m equally sure that the words didn’t even register in Anakin’s mind as having being spoken half the time. No, make that three quarters of the time.
Sigh. Obi-Wan certainly had Anakin’s best interests in mind, but sometimes all a Jedi can do is lay out the rules, explain them well, and let the consequences fall. Such is the way it is with math sometimes around here at the Jedi Academy. I’m a bit of a stickler for showing your work in math, showing what you’ve done to get from initial problem to solution. Not only does it make it easier for me to see how he’s thinking problems through and finding where any problems arose along the way, but it also makes it easier for him to keep track of what he’s doing and avoid those silly, simple mistakes that are so easy to slip by when working with negative numbers, multiple steps and variables. And yet… despite a “remember to show your work” reminder, I got a page of numbers listed from 1 to 42 with the final answer next to them. The majority of incorrect solutions would have easily been caught if only he had… wait for it… shown his work.
Guess what is going to be absolutely required from now on for all math problems that require more than 1 step. You got it: all math work will be neatly and completely shown or it won’t be accepted as completed. Let’s all hope that it won’t take more than a few returns before the lesson sticks.
What is the ‘If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times’ thing around your house that makes you want to tap on your kid on the head to make sure someone is really in there?
Oh, we already had that war, now Baby Boy happily shows his work. He has figured out that’s the only way to receive partial credit, otherwise wrong is WRONG.
The new thing is “Turn that tv down.” I don’t know why a show isn’t interesting unless we can hear it all over the house. I put that tv in his room so I wouldn’t have to watch Cops, and Crazy Police Chases all the darn time.
Now I’m stuck listening to them while I try to catch up on The Young and the Restless, LOL.
I remember this from when I was at school- test papers always indicated how many marks each question was worth. If a problem required three steps to solve, for example, the problem would be worth three marks, one for each step. Therefore you could still get ‘follow through’ marks for an incorrect overall answer if you had followed through each step correctly, but messed up somewhere in the beginning so followed through to the next stage with the wrong number. This was particularly useful for the more complex problems that required say, 12 steps. It also meant that even if you wrote the right answer, but failed to show your working, you would only get 1/12 instead of the full 12 marks.
you said, “What is the ‘If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times’ thing around your house that makes you want to tap on your kid on the head to make sure someone is really in there?”
How about this instead?
What single thing have you NOT had to repeat 400 times for your kid(s) to finally catch on?
I would be in deep doo if I required that with my youngest. He is one of those VERY right brained learners whose brain doesn’t work sequentially, or part-to-whole and many times comes up with the answers more intuitively than anything else. But it was a VERY big step for his VERY left-brained momma to overcome!!
Mom #1 – LOL about the tv. Ours is in the cold, dark basement so it’s a bit of out of sight, out of mind.
Nin – Ouch! That would get you writing out those problems in a flash, wouldn’t?
Ami – Now that’s just depressing if I think too long on it.
Topsytechie – PL often comes up with unusual ways to figure something out, but he’s still really linear about other things. So I can’t get my brain around the way he refuses to write math problems out. He must know what our schedule is for the next day before he can go to bed. He makes himself schedules about the order in which he’ll complete things. But this one… this is our homeschooling log jam.
Dropping the toilet lid!! My son can’t get it into his mind, that you can just gently put the lid down. No, he drops so loud, that if you were asleep before, you are now wide awake. I’ve said it a gazillion times… it simply won’t stick!!
This is like the story of my life. Add in an auditory processing disorder and some days I am a broken record all… day… long…
Speaking of hearing things, here is Star Wars retold by someone who has never seen it. Very funny graphics!
http://vimeo.com/2809991
I have to agree with Suchlovelyfreckles. (What a great moniker, by the way!) We have a toilet seat criminal, too. It’s not FilmChris, though. It’s Uncle Owen. I’ve stopped mentioning it to him, though, because (as you and Nin well know) if you point something out that pisses you off, he’s more likely to continue doing it.
Isn’t that the truth, Vander Kitten!
I don’t remember him doing that here, but Padawan Learner does it so maybe I’ve just gotten too used to the sound.
Sorry my Math worksheets weren’t suitable for “higher” learning to help you out !! Lol.