New haircut, part 2

Day 21 of 31

I had my hair chopped off yesterday, but the best part came today.

Countless students stopped me today to tell me that they liked my haircut.  Most were students that I currently have, but many were students that I had last semester or last year.  I'm pretty modest about my appearance, but I must say that I enjoyed the attention.

It's been a long week, between board meetings and parent / teacher conferences (which mostly involves sitting around since they are poorly attended).  I'm ready for our (shortened) spring break coming up next week.

Flying hot dog

Day 14 of 31

"Why do we have to learn this?"

As a high school math teacher, this is a question that I'm used to.  And I'm fine with answering it.  I am well aware that most people will not have to verify trigonometric identities as part of their professional lives.  However, I do sincerely believe that learning some higher level math helps develop analytical skills that (hopefully) will be used in the future.  Sometimes the concepts are tough, I think of it like excersizing the brain.

In my Algebra 1 class this morning, I had a student really floor me.  Instead of the normal complaint, his speech went something like this.

"To me, this is like building a flying hot dog.  Why do I need to learn all of the steps to building a flying hot dog when I can just take an airplane?

Like I said, stopped in my tracks.  

PS - Happy π Day!