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February 12, 2006

math whiz

I only have 81 days, 7 hours, 42 minutes, and 19 seconds to wait for summer vacation. I am not complaining but a teacher's life consists of long hours of grading papers, and reminding students to sit down, be quiet, no swearing, no hitting, no spitting, no head phones, no cell phones, pull their shirts down, pull their pants up, and, most importantly, don't give the teacher a headache.

But on the positive side, every semester there is at least one unforgettable event that reminds me why I keep doing what I do. Did I mention I have my summers off?

Joe has many strikes against him. He is a poor young Hispanic lad of 18 with a troubled past and a baby on the way. He has no job, no prospects, and neither does his girlfriend. But then if he was on the road to sure success in life, he wouldn't be in my school.

Joe does have one thing going for him which just might be his salvation. He is a very bright kid who loves math.

I have been helping Joe learn trigonometry since the beginning of the school year. I see him about once a week because he is not really one of my students. His teacher is not strong in math, so she asked me to work with Joe. I never say no when it comes to teaching math. Besides, there are so few students in our school with the ability, let alone the desire to do math and it is a real treat to find some one like Joe.

"Ok Joe, now let's review. If you know that one of the acute ngles in a right triangle, what else do you know or can find out if you have a trig table or a calculator with trig functions?"

Joe hesitates. He is deep in thought. He wants to please me. He wants his A. He wants to understand. Slowly he answers, "I know from the tables... the ratio of the opposite side to the... hypotenuse and this is the... sine of the acute angle."

"Excellent Joe - what else?" I sit forward in my chair in anticipation. He is so close. I am waiting to hear eight more words. Again, he hesitates. I wonder if he is doing this just to tease me.

"I know the ratio of the adjacent side to the hypotenuse. This is the cosine of the acute angle."

"That's it Joe!" I am ready to hug him but decorum prevents it. "No matter how big or small the right triangle, you can go anywhere in the galaxy or universe and this math fact will be exactly the same. "

"WOW - I can make some money with this stuff", Joe replies as a smile creeps across his face.

That was one grand and glorious moment.

Now if you will excuse me, I have some papers to grade before I can watch some of the Olympic games. I can't wait to hear what Bode will say next.

Posted by roadapples at February 12, 2006 09:26 AM

Posted by: Fred at February 12, 2006 12:36 PM

Posted by: Euclid at February 13, 2006 05:16 PM

Posted by: poopie at February 15, 2006 01:59 PM

Posted by: Paul at February 15, 2006 09:49 PM