Factoring
I ran in to an old student the other day. He was doing his best to make it like the rest of us in this crazy world. We reminisced and talked about things I had taught him in class. I don't know if he remembered the occasion, but there was one memory that he had left me with.
We were talking about factoring. This always seems to be a challenging subject for students to grasp. I had a worksheet that I gave as homework that did not include the variables. In one column I gave them the number to factor, in the other column, I gave them the goal. They were instructed to find two factors of the first number that when added or subtracted from each other would equal the second number. It took a them a few minutes to catch on, but they eventually figured it out. The worksheet was massive, well in the eyes of a student. I think there were 50 problems. However I gave them a good 30 minutes to work on it in class.
Anyway, on this one particular worksheet, I had mistakenly given them the numbers for the Quadratic equation instead of simple factoring. About 10 minutes into the exercise, they started asking me if there were solutions to all of them. I, thinking I had given them simple problems, confirmed that there was a solution to all of them. They all continued to work.
Then next day, several of my students were upset with me. They had spent hours working on this assignment and still not completed it. They all agreed that I had misled them and that there were some problems on the worksheet that did not have solutions. Then his young man piped up. He begged to differ with the class. He had found solutions to all the problems. When I looked at his paper, some of the factors he had found were carried out to the 9th or 10th decimal place. I was impressed.
Everyone in class started teasing him and calling him a brainiac. My admiration did not help any. From that day forward, he stopped completing his homework. He would not even complete tests. This concerned me. I pulled him aside and asked what had changed, I knew he was capable of better. He always asked if he passed. I told him that yes he was passing, but with a C average. He was capable of much more. He didn't care. Just as long as he was passing. He was calculating how many problems he had to complete on the homework and tests to pass. Then he would stop. He knew that the problems he was complete were correct. He was brilliant, but he did not want the rep. He just wanted to be average.
How many of us worry more about what other people think of us? We worry so much that we are not really being us. It does not matter what others think as long as we are doing our best. There may be some areas in which we excel, there may be others that we don't. That is OK, but like this young man, he believed that there was a solution to every problem. He did not let what other did sway his view. He did it. It took a little extra work, but he did it. We can to. We just need to figure out how.
We were talking about factoring. This always seems to be a challenging subject for students to grasp. I had a worksheet that I gave as homework that did not include the variables. In one column I gave them the number to factor, in the other column, I gave them the goal. They were instructed to find two factors of the first number that when added or subtracted from each other would equal the second number. It took a them a few minutes to catch on, but they eventually figured it out. The worksheet was massive, well in the eyes of a student. I think there were 50 problems. However I gave them a good 30 minutes to work on it in class.
Anyway, on this one particular worksheet, I had mistakenly given them the numbers for the Quadratic equation instead of simple factoring. About 10 minutes into the exercise, they started asking me if there were solutions to all of them. I, thinking I had given them simple problems, confirmed that there was a solution to all of them. They all continued to work.
Then next day, several of my students were upset with me. They had spent hours working on this assignment and still not completed it. They all agreed that I had misled them and that there were some problems on the worksheet that did not have solutions. Then his young man piped up. He begged to differ with the class. He had found solutions to all the problems. When I looked at his paper, some of the factors he had found were carried out to the 9th or 10th decimal place. I was impressed.
Everyone in class started teasing him and calling him a brainiac. My admiration did not help any. From that day forward, he stopped completing his homework. He would not even complete tests. This concerned me. I pulled him aside and asked what had changed, I knew he was capable of better. He always asked if he passed. I told him that yes he was passing, but with a C average. He was capable of much more. He didn't care. Just as long as he was passing. He was calculating how many problems he had to complete on the homework and tests to pass. Then he would stop. He knew that the problems he was complete were correct. He was brilliant, but he did not want the rep. He just wanted to be average.
How many of us worry more about what other people think of us? We worry so much that we are not really being us. It does not matter what others think as long as we are doing our best. There may be some areas in which we excel, there may be others that we don't. That is OK, but like this young man, he believed that there was a solution to every problem. He did not let what other did sway his view. He did it. It took a little extra work, but he did it. We can to. We just need to figure out how.
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