Decimals

When I was tutoring yesterday, we were working on decimals, multiplying and dividing decimals to be precise. While in teacher's college we went through the theory behind all of this, but when looking at it yesterday, I had a mini panic attack in my mind because I had forgotten it all and was not able to effectively communicate the theory to my student. However, thank God for textbooks because I opened it up and it provided a wonderful example and everything came flooding back!

When looking at my student's questions yesterday and when I learned the theory behind multiplying and dividing decimals, I reflected back upon my own learning of this material and realized that I never really learned the theory behind it, but I just did it, mostly by rote. Although I know many of our careers and jobs do not really need us to multiply or divide decimals, I wonder if any one in the working world now actually understands the theory behind it.

The question my student had to answer was (paraphrased because I can't really remember):
How come when you multiply 0.4 and 0.7, it will equal a smaller number/decimal?

Learning about this in particular was very enlightening when I was in teacher's college and was glad kids were able to learn how this actually worked, versus doing just everything by rote. However, there were some things that I also learned in teachers college especially in math and numeracy that was to a point disturbing. I say this because one of my students is in Grade 7 and is still having difficulties with her 4 times tables at times, and I am thinking back to my days in Grade 7 and I would think that I had a better grasp of the times tables and long division. For me, I find that as teachers we go so far to accommodate for some students but sometimes might be more detrimental than helping them. I feel that there are times for rote memorization and times for new strategies as well. It also could be because of my background as a CBC where my Chinese parents drilled the times table into my head after I could grasp the concept of multiplication. However, I think when I have kids I will do the same, because watching my student struggle yesterday with long division questions and sometimes even simple addition was frustrating and sad to me at the same time. It will be interesting to see how my tune will change when I actually get into the classroom myself.

Keen

UGH! I hate keeners! So I am going through my online course tonight after Grey's Anatomy (which was pretty good!!) and my instructor has opened the "room" for the case study discussions, and I open it only to be overwhelmed by the amount of posting that has already happened! Like seriously people, it has only been a few hours. So I closed it. haha!

I go to the discussion room and reply back to some posts, and thought I have to post in the case study anyways, maybe I'll just plod through it and see what some people have already said. And as I was meticulously going through the crazy notes/answers people have already posted online, I come to discover that it is one idiot that has posted like a crap load of stuff. Like seriously, AND to make matters worse, she didn't even do it properly!!! UGH!!!

I am quite frustrated right now, she has overwhelmed for no reason, and you can tell she is a keener because she has posted a number of text quotes that are obviously not that necessary in a case study as opposed to answering the discussion questions!!! Why do people have to be keen?!

Structure

I need it.

I realized this when taking some time to reflect upon the course I am taking right now online. This is my second online course, and even though it is with the same university, the instructor is different and how she has set up the learning environment online is much different from the course I took in the summer. It is definitely less structured and I don't know what made me realize this, but this lack of structure is what is overwhelming me in terms of this course as opposed to the one I took in the summer.

Thus, I reflected back upon what structure has meant in my life. I saw that I excelled in classes where there was enough structure, but enough room for me to explore, and I faltered in courses where the profs/teachers did not care so much to prepare the material and provide us with the necessary learning tools and materials. I distinctly remember a prof in university - he was definitely hardcore in terms of preparation, but he presented the material so well and when it came down to his tests and exams, although there was a lot of material because of how his course had been set up I always did well on his tests/exams. I actually enjoyed studying and learning in his classes. Yes, I am a geek of geography - it is quite interesting to me.

So, the morale of this post is, I excel with structure, and have to work a bit harder when there is a lack of it. Thus, I am going to have to dig a little deeper and work a little harder to not be overwhelmed by this course and learn what I need to learn.

Assignments

I really don't want to do these assignments right now. There is absolutely no motivation to do them, yet they are both due on Thursday. Thankfully they are pretty easy, but they still got to get done. Ugh.

Elections

So today I went in for a training session to be a poll clerk for this upcoming federal election. It was quite interesting and a little overwhelming all at once. I was glad to see that I was not the only newbie there! And I found out later that I was not on the registered list of voters, I should have found out when I was at the office but I just wanted to go home because I was hungry =p

I got placed at Woodlands, so it's nice and close, but it's going to be a long day two weeks from now!

And as for the AQ course stuff, after looking at the postings today when I got home, it doesn't look like I am that far behind. Now I just have to come up with a scenario to post.

AQ

So I signed up for another AQ course, ESL Part 1 a few weeks ago. After this weekend I really think that I am extremely behind. I don't even want to look at it. I don't know why I am doing this to myself =(

The course runs until the end of December. I think I really need to get into nerd mode. *sigh* Sometimes I wish I had a job so I wouldn't have to go around spending money on courses just to make myself look more appealing...