That quote is from A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. One of my father’s my sons’ and my favorites. Thanks, Paige, for that reference, from another Santa Rosan!
Hi,I’m a sixth grade teacher in Santa Rosa, California. Just today I was telling my class that the reason we’re working with models of dividing fractions is because that leads to understanding the math ( this is not the first time we’ve talked about this). Most of them know the algorithm, though I have not used it at all this year so far. They’re itching to flip the divisor and multiply, but we won’t do that for another couple days. I tell them that that’s how I was taught division of fractions, and I didn’t understand why it worked or what it meant to divide by a fraction. The way most teachers at my school are teaching now is to focus on the understanding. Once you understand, you can choose the formula you need and get a sense of whether the answer makes sense or not. I’ll be telling them what you said about the understanding clicking with real examples, and how memorizing the rules is not the whole story – it’s the deeper concepts that we want them to figure out, explore, and make a part of their thinking.Thank you for sharing your experience!
Check out the book “The Straight Dope” by Cecil Adams. He, along with his research staff, seems to be an intelligent voice of reason. He states in this book that “no scientific or governmental body” has ever formally established a date for the start of the seasons. According to him, meteorologists define summer simply as June, July, and August. The reason I remember this at all is that I once believed that the seasons changed at the times of the equinoxes and solstices. No longer. I like the idea of simply using the months as the seasons. No particular reason why, that I can think of….
Keep up the good work! I was sorry to see the strip on hiatus; I really like the style, and the humor is gentle and concise. O&Q is a worthy addition to my line-up of comics and I look forward to continuing to read it!
A certain amount of luck is controlled by what we do. As Lawreader days, he or she worked like a dog. The best way to get lucky is to work hard and smart. You know what I mean.
That quote is from A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean. One of my father’s my sons’ and my favorites. Thanks, Paige, for that reference, from another Santa Rosan!