I practice talking sometimes.

It's a little funny that way: I've worked over the air before, but I have such little confidence in my voice. I stutter. My lips or teeth or jaw have always felt awkward, and I'd even seen a speech therapist when I was young. The braces didn't help, and the full implications of "JAW SURGERY" hit me all at once about a month before it was supposed to happen. I'm also first-generation Canadian, and my parents have never been great with English. I don't know if that's why I took to music and drawing and literature and Math so eagerly.

I've always had a thing for expression, for communication. Anyone who knows me will also know I have a crush on Math for that very reason--among others.

I love that, in Math, any aspect of life or any thought can be modeled using these strange symbols and even stranger rules, both of which can be taught to anyone; ideas can be communicated, proven, or disproven, and even improved upon by any number of people also seeking to find the most perfect expressions.

It's a whole community devoted to perfect universal truths.

... Hehe!

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Mistaken Sex, Diagrams, and Everyone is Quitting

I got mistaken for a man today!

Well, maybe, sorta, I dunno. I went to get doughnuts and wanted to use the washroom, but you needed to get a key, and the cashier handed me the mens' room key. Woots.

Also, when I went for lunch with James, I had to use the washroom because I'd walked too fast and had started sweating. Two elderly ladies came into the washroom, separately, and had extremely puzzled expressions on their faces! I had taken off my inner shirt so I could dry it using the blow-dryer, and the first lady eyed me so strangely. I smiled back. I dunno, what else could I do? I suppose I could have declared, "I'm a lady!" but maybe that would've been too odd.


Teaching

We started the Transformations unit today. Some kids aren't quite sure what this whole "negative f of x" or "f of negative x" or "inverse f" is, so they're not sure what the whole "even, odd or neither" thing is, too. THERE'S EVEN A HANDY-DANDY CHART!

Chart - three transformations of f(x).
One of my favourite ways of explaining things is through the use of charts and diagrams, as you may have noticed. Maybe. I love how it's very graphical and intuitive--or maybe it's just intuitive to me. Flow charts are one of my favourites, though.

I decided I'd make another flow chart:

Flow Chart - How to tell if function is even, odd or neither.

Mostly, I made this because one student has already e-mailed me asking how to do the assignment. Sigh. Sometimes I wonder what they do in class!

As a side-note... I noticed the kids tend to get very restless around 16:00. I should keep this in mind.


Army

Augh. We started off with four untrained Privates. In a few weeks, there will only be two. Few weeks after that, maybe only me.
C-- had a series of personal tragedies, and, next to me, I'd say she was the least "army" of us four. So she left.

K-- is the most "army" of us all. She tried doing Reg Force BMQ several times, but, each time, a few weeks before completion, she'd get sick or injured. She just advanced in her Civi job, though, so she won't have any more time for Army from now on.

And, F-- is thinking he might switch over to Reg Force. He'll decide by Tuesday, but he seemed pretty gung-ho about it already.

AUGH! Why?! WHY?? If I had balls, I'd say this was like a kick in the balls. The person in charge of us is pretty intimidating (although, one of the new Officer Cadets said, "Oh, you're cute!" to her face and stayed un-punched). I would not like to be left alone with her.

Sigh. Well, at least I can do BMQ, and sooner, now that I've talked to my employer at the Maths school. Wooo...


Okay, sleepy time.
--Charissa (or is it Charles?)

Posted by Charlie at 7:32 PM

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