What made you go WTF today?

[Khendraja'aro]

So, we have some renovations going on and part of that are works on the piping system. Which left me without water yesterday afternoon, but that was my own fault for overlooking the notice.

But everything was fine yesterday evening. At least until the old lady living below me knocked on my door and ask me not to wash the dishes anymore. Because the waste water pipe seemed to be clogged, resulting in a mild flood below. In my defense: I didn't wash the dishes. But my washing machine runs the waste water to the same pipe...

... and, as if to punish me for my accidental misdeed, this morning I discovered the joys of having to shower with very cold water. Y'see, until my bathroom is renovated at the beginning of October, I still have this tankless water heater. Which needs a certain water pressure to begin its work. Which, at the moment, the water pipe simply doesn't deliver.

The sanitary engineer promised, after I called our caretaker, that they would try to fix it tomorrow afternoon (and good thing I called: He said that otherwise the pressure would be fixed by renovating the bathroom. Which is October. More than one month of cold showers? Not fun...)



Another unrelated WTF:

I'm teaching this optional physics course at my school. Due to schedule problems, today was the first lesson after the holidays. After class, three of my female students walked up to me.
Them: "We'd like to drop this course. It's not what we expected."
Me: "Aha?"
Them: "Yes, we're not doing enough formulas and maths!"

There's a first time for everything, it appears.

[Ominous Gamer]

More Louisiana GOP’ers blame Obama than Bush when it comes to the horrible Hurricane Katrina response

http://www.scribd.com/doc/161910086/...ll-August-2013

[Loki]

17% of the "very liberal" Republicans blame Obama.

[GGT]

....

The sanitary engineer promised, after I called our caretaker, that they would try to fix it tomorrow afternoon (and good thing I called: He said that otherwise the pressure would be fixed by renovating the bathroom. Which is October. More than one month of cold showers? Not fun...)

That doesn't sound right, Khen. Check the fine print in your lease agreement regarding joint utilities and responsibilities. No idea how Germany does these things, but you might be able to "withhold" rent from the building owner (while depositing it in a designated rent escrow account) until those issues are resolved. That might speed up the process.

[Flixy]

We had our water heater break for some time a while back (they addressed it quickly but took time to get fixed), so no showers, only hot water tap was in the kitchen. So then I showered at work or went to the gym just to shower You work at a school, they are bound to have showers!

[Flixy]

Two weeks ago I got a letter from the landlord, about how much we had paid for utilities etc and how much was actually spent, and how much we'd get back. The numbers literally didn't add up correctly, so we complained, and now got a new letter with correct numbers. But it still says we spent -0.64 euros on gas, a negative number. Unless I'm missing something, that seems weird to me. Especially since it's 1/3 of the total. Not going to complain though, because this means getting money back

[Khendraja'aro]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xtf...ica_shortfilms

I'm at a loss for words.

[Timbuk2]

Heh - Louis Theroux.

Saw this when it came out on the Beeb.

Really quite revolting people.

[GGT]

Learned today that my ex is filing for divorce from his second wife (he's either her third or fourth husband, depending on the source). They found each other on a dating website, dated for roughly a year, married just shy of two years. Can't say I'm surprised....our kids are glad they'll not have to deal with her again (she was a real trip)....but I'm also sad. He truly thought he'd found true love, his soul-mate, and was quite happy for a while. Now he's moving out, changing his Will, and starting divorce proceedings -- while she's out of town! Long story.

In the same conversation, I learned his younger brother is also in the midst of a divorce -- after 30 years of marriage, and three kids. But she fell in love with another woman. Kind of shocking at first (they're long time "Fundamental Christians", Promise Keepers, the whole nine yards) but not entirely surprising. Another long story.

Two divorces in the same family (of which I'm an ex-spouse) at the same time, that's my weird WTF.

[Loki]

Welcome to the national average.

[Khendraja'aro]

So, I've agreed to do this cooperation with another school where I go there for 3 hours per week and do some kind of remedial math lessons. Dear Lord. I mean, most of the kids are nice and all, but there are 26 of them and, in principle, they'd all need intensive training.

After all, it's a tenth grade and they all have massive problems with simple algebra stuff like: Dissolving brackets. Multiplikation of arbitrary whole numbers. Not to mention solving equations.

Usually, that's 7th grade stuff.

Which means that, due to the number of pupils, I can only provide them with loads and lots of exercises and push them into actually attempting them. I've also instituted a small test at the beginning of every lesson (which constitutes of one simple equation to be solved and a small logic puzzle) and have told them that we'll only move on to other topics after I've seen that at least half the class is able to reliably solve equations.

[GGT]

That's admirable, Khen. I always hated math "story problems", but hands-on real life stuff (like reducing or expanding menus and recipes, making algebraic equations with variables like times/amounts/weights/temps, etc) was fun stuff. I had a memorable teacher who'd use literary characters, musical groups, or sports stars to solve for X. With a good dose of humor. Would that make it easier, or more fun, for the teacher too?

[Loki]

There's research showing that relying too heavily on real-world examples prevents students from understanding the underlying abstract concepts. They're then able to solve problems with similar wording to the real-world examples, but not different ones.

[GGT]

There's also research showing that relying too heavily on abstract concepts (and boring story problems) is a good way to teach students to hate math from an early age. And it's harder to un-teach that alienation-avoidance, than it is to make math fun and practical in the first place.

[Khendraja'aro]

There's research showing that relying too heavily on real-world examples prevents students from understanding the underlying abstract concepts. They're then able to solve problems with similar wording to the real-world examples, but not different ones.

That's why I'm doing both

[Loki]

There's also research showing that relying too heavily on abstract concepts (and boring story problems) is a good way to teach students to hate math from an early age. And it's harder to un-teach that alienation-avoidance, than it is to make math fun and practical in the first place.

Not much use in making "math" fun if the students never learn it properly. I also reject the premise that students should be learning basic material because it's fun. If students are unwilling to learn something that is fundamental to their ability to succeed in life, there's something seriously wrong with them, their parents, and their community.

[Veldan Rath]

Yeah, so just give up on them.

Just like Khen said, he does both.

[Aimless]

"Fun" is of course not what we're really after. Motivating or perhaps even engaging.

[Khendraja'aro]

That's hard to do, Aimless, due to the fact that I'm only doing exercises. Be honest: When was the last time you thought of doing exercises as 'motivating'?

That's pretty hard to do with such basic stuff. Hmmmh. Some teacher had some success with MMO'ing such stuff, basically creating Skinner boxes to motivate his pupils. But I'm not sure that it isn't inherently evil

[Loki]

Yeah, so just give up on them.

Just like Khen said, he does both.

Or enforce some discipline. It's the parents' job to make sure their children learn, whether the learning is fun or not. Let's be honest here, with a handful of exceptions, very few people are going to find math fun. Ditto for learning spelling/grammar/syntax. Kids have to learn those things anyway.

[Veldan Rath]

And what are you going to do to MAKE the parents do what OVERLORD Loki wants?

[Loki]

Nothing. They shouldn't whine when their kids end up flunking out of school or turning to the streets to making a living though.

[GGT]

WTF?

[Enoch the Red]

And what are you going to do to MAKE the parents do what OVERLORD Loki wants?

I don't think Loki is talking totalitarianism, I think he's simply talking about what good parents do. There's definitely something to the notion that good parents teach their kids that not everything in life is going to be fun and games, and that sometimes you just need to do hard work. Hard work isn't always fun, hard work isn't always pleasant, and hard work isn't always engaging, but being capable of doing hard work and instilling a work ethic that places value on persevering through the challenge might make for a more successful, well rounded child.

I'm not a parent though, so your mileage may very.

[Loki]

I really don't understand the American coddling of kids. Kids don't know what they want. They certainly aren't capable of long-term planning. And we know that psychologically, they're prone to instant gratification. Why would a parent indulge their kids in their self-destructive desires? In Russia, pretty much every child learned the multiplication table by first grade. It's not easy, but kids do it. It's not because Russian kids are any smarter than American ones. Pretty much every form of math is taught years earlier in Russia than in the US and the lever of mastery of the material is significantly higher in Russia (on an aside, the math I learned in the USSR through 2nd grade pretty much got me through 8th grade in the US). The same is true for grammar. In Russia, you learn it from an early age and you don't graduate high school without being proficient at it. In the US (or at least in NYC), I never had to take a single class in grammar. To the extent that it was taught in English classes, we'd spend perhaps two weeks a year on it, and none in high school. I refuse to believe that American children are any dumber than Russian ones. The main difference between the two is that Russian parents would find it puzzling to be told by their kids that some material is not fun. You do schoolwork because you have to, not because you enjoy it. That's not to say that some elements of schoolwork can't be made more fun to help a bit with motivation, but ultimately, parents should make sure their kids learn what they have to learn, whether they like it or not. The main duty of parents isn't to be their children's friend; it's to teach them life's lessons before they're forced to learn them on their own.

[GGT]

Not much use in making "math" fun if the students never learn it properly. I also reject the premise that students should be learning basic material because it's fun. If students are unwilling to learn something that is fundamental to their ability to succeed in life, there's something seriously wrong with them, their parents, and their community.

Loki, you took the suggestion out of context, and blew it out of proportion. The point is to make learning 'fun' and innovative -- instead of boring, rote, dull, drudgery.

[Loki]

The reality is that most of the fundamentals are simply not fun. They must be learned through memorization and lots of practice. You could make it more interesting on the margin, but in the end, learning this material requires a lot of hard work, work that most American kids aren't doing because their parents are telling them that it's ok not to do what's not fun. It also wouldn't hurt if parents took it upon themselves to teach their kids some of that material, in an environment that might be more conducive to learning (1 on 1 instead of 1 teacher vs. 40 students).

[GGT]

I'm not dismissing the importance of memorization, or hard work and discipline. And I was talking to Khen as a teacher, not what his students' parents might have done at home to encourage learning. Since he's got students in 10th grade that don't know 7th grade basics....it could be they stopped being 'motivated' by poor (or too rigid) teaching/classroom techniques, right around the time math gets more conceptual and challenging.

It's almost comical to talk about "fundamentals" when today's teens can't make change, or add sales tax, without digital register help. When I say math can be more 'fun' or practical, I meant using real life scenarios to create that in students' heads, and reinforce the fact they'll need to know math to function in the world....not just how to punch numbers in a calculator or computer.

[Veldan Rath]

I don't think Loki is talking totalitarianism, I think he's simply talking about what good parents do. There's definitely something to the notion that good parents teach their kids that not everything in life is going to be fun and games, and that sometimes you just need to do hard work. Hard work isn't always fun, hard work isn't always pleasant, and hard work isn't always engaging, but being capable of doing hard work and instilling a work ethic that places value on persevering through the challenge might make for a more successful, well rounded child.

I'm not a parent though, so your mileage may very.

No, Loki was scoffing at using multiple techniques to get knowledge into kids heads. There is only one true way and trying anything else is 'codling'.

[wiggin]

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/...-news/1.546433