happy spring break to... uh, me, i guess.

yesterday was the vernal equinox, or for those of you who do not speak in astronomical terms, it was the first day of spring. in fact, it was the first day of spring break for me, qua UCLA student. however, i did have to go to my humble high school. i had to go today. there was CAHSEE testing, the english portion. yipes.

today, the absolute value stuff went seamlessly. so i too have improved. step by step, little by little. K finally turned in his graffiti assignment (vid 3.15.2006). he had difficulty with the questions dealing with BC and AD. i don't blame him. if society as a whole didn't know that the new millenium began in 2001 and *NOT* 2000, i probably wouldn't have let him slide. face it: our culture seems to think it's ok to be innumerate. i can only do so much. K is asking for more algebra work, though. i guess i'll let his history teacher teach him there was no year 0.

my parent conference went well. Dq does not speak english too well, and the math vocabulary stumps him. i'm going to run off my bilingual math vocab book and hope it makes a difference, but frankly, the vocab in spanish is just as obtuse. his uncle said he would push him harder at home. i can only hope.

the kids saw my euclid tattoo today. i had to explain it. as soon as i said it was math related half of them tuned out. one kid was sure i was a lesbian since it has a triangle. one kid was smart enough to retort, "but it's not upside down." then someone asked why the upside down triangle was a symbol of "gays," and we made a brief tangent into wwii and nazi germany. none of them were aware of the fact that it was not only jews who were singled out by the nazis. they then proceeded to ask me, "what about the rainbow?" being ignorant as to why this is a gay pride symbol, it was at this point that i decided it was time to get back to the classwork.

please read why you should choose math in high school. CHOOSE MATH BECAUSE IT IS COOL.

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