Hi there!

[Jade]

Thanks for the advice. I'll be taking what they call 'Computer Graphics' class within the next schoolyear, it's a class in which you program a 3d game in C++ using (I believe) OpenGL libraries. I really hope that from that class on I'll be able to refine a more game-oriented coding technique.

[Hurlshort]

That's a pretty bad teacher.

You'd be surprised how many 'bad teachers' I've run across. But it's not just a matter of how good or bad the teacher - no matter what their answer, it's likely to sound like "It just does" to me. My brain is very visual and I just can't visualize abstract formulas & explanations. It takes an exceptional teacher to make me do that. Most don't have the time, even if they have the know-how.

 

Luckily, higher math isn't a requirement for social survival.

 

I wouldn't be surprised. Teachers are, more often than not, incompetent. What annoys me is the amount of people that blame mathematics for the teacher's failings.

 

Thanks Pid, I got all warm and fuzzy over that. Teacher are, more often than not, facing some pretty stiff obstacles when trying to educate the youth. The fact is, the resources are available for LadyCrimson to go out and find why that equation exists. Go to the library, open up a book, and educate yourself. Or did a teacher never show you how to do that? I'm not harping on LadyCrimson for not doing so, in fact I admire her honesty about the way she learns and that she has taken some of it on herself. It's a decision she made. Personally I know I'm a mess with math. I can figure stuff out, but I don't have the know-how to teach it.

 

I have 180 students come through my class every day. I'm supposed to teach them about 1200 years of history all over the globe. It's not easy. Time is a serious impediment, and if a student doesn't pursue extra help, it's unlikely they will get it. Blaming the teacher is a total cop out. People don't fail in life because they have lousy teachers, they fail in life because they aren't taking responsibility for their own education. It's hard to admit this as a teacher, but we are really just tools in the development of a persons life. We are only as effective as the student's who use us. Sure, I can push the beautiful cycle that is human history, but I know the majority of my students will only remember about 3% of what I taught them in 5 years.

 

Anyways, I'm getting off track. It's the end of the year, and I'm tired and cranky.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I'm very tempted to continue ranting on about it all, but I get the feeling that I am most certainly beginning to bore you. If you would like to continue the conversation in private, or on MSN or whatnot fair dinks, but I've derailed this thread enough.

 

BTW

 

Hi! Welcome to the Obsidian Forum.

[LadyCrimson]

The fact is, the resources are available for LadyCrimson to go out and find why that equation exists. Go to the library, open up a book, and educate yourself. Or did a teacher never show you how to do that? I'm not harping on LadyCrimson for not doing so, in fact I admire her honesty about the way she learns and that she has taken some of it on herself.

I have done those things, along with watching videos and TV shows, hoping visual representation would help in my case. It doesn't usually. I've talked to my brother, as well, who was the only teacher (he teaches highschool advanced math courses) that ever got around my learning block, or disability, or mental fog, or whatever you want to call it, for brief periods. Trying to learn that stuff for me is like trying to read a book with text so blurry you can only read half of the words, and those just barely. I literally cannot make my brain "see" it, and all I get after hours of trying is a major headache.

 

I wasn't trying to say the teachers (or book authors, for that matter) are to blame for my not being able to learn math - but just that I perceive all their answers to sound like that, no matter how great - or poor - they are at teaching, or how much research I try to do myself. And in the end, I just gave up and stopped trying.

[WITHTEETH]

Thanks for the advice. I'll be taking what they call 'Computer Graphics' class within the next schoolyear, it's a class in which you program a 3d game in C++ using (I believe) OpenGL libraries. I really hope that from that class on I'll be able to refine a more game-oriented coding technique.

Hello!

Why not DirectX instead of OpenGL?

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

Thanks for the advice. I'll be taking what they call 'Computer Graphics' class within the next schoolyear, it's a class in which you program a 3d game in C++ using (I believe) OpenGL libraries. I really hope that from that class on I'll be able to refine a more game-oriented coding technique.

Hello!

Why not DirectX instead of OpenGL?

 

There is no major differences worth mentioning... The structure is almost identical, well the API function calls are different and matrices are structured slightly differently.

 

"Computer Graphics", OpenGL applies to more OS's than DX, so it's sensible and just as useful.

 

GAWD I really should STFU.

 

Edit: General **** ups.

Edited May 23, 2007 by @\NightandtheShape/@

[WITHTEETH]

No that was to the point and informative, thanks!

[Jade]

GAWD I really should STFU.

 

A man who knows when to shut up. I like you already.

 

But I'm not ready for you to do that quite yet. Aside from that C++ OpenGL game I'll be making, you're right, I probably should make a J2ME game to add to my portfolio.

 

I'm sure programming as part of a team must be challenging. I imagine a lot of the cohesion comes from good communication between the programmers and their leader.

 

Anyway, send me a pm if you wanna talk some more!

[metadigital]

Teacher are, more often than not, facing some pretty stiff obstacles when trying to educate the youth. The fact is, the resources are available for LadyCrimson to go out and find why that equation exists. Go to the library, open up a book, and educate yourself. Or did a teacher never show you how to do that? I'm not harping on LadyCrimson for not doing so, in fact I admire her honesty about the way she learns and that she has taken some of it on herself. It's a decision she made. Personally I know I'm a mess with math. I can figure stuff out, but I don't have the know-how to teach it.

 

I have 180 students come through my class every day. I'm supposed to teach them about 1200 years of history all over the globe. It's not easy. Time is a serious impediment, and if a student doesn't pursue extra help, it's unlikely they will get it. Blaming the teacher is a total cop out. People don't fail in life because they have lousy teachers, they fail in life because they aren't taking responsibility for their own education. It's hard to admit this as a teacher, but we are really just tools in the development of a persons life. We are only as effective as the student's who use us. Sure, I can push the beautiful cycle that is human history, but I know the majority of my students will only remember about 3% of what I taught them in 5 years.

 

Anyways, I'm getting off track. It's the end of the year, and I'm tired and cranky.

I think your comments are more suited to teachers of adult students, not pupils (i.e. younger children).

 

In my experience, as a pupil and student all over the world, I find very very few teachers who are competent. A huge problem in the countries that I have lived is that teaching is the catch-all default career for anyone that can't do anything else ("those who can, do; those who can't, teach").

 

On top of that, far too many parents seem to take far too little care in their children's lives in general and their education in particular, seeing their offspring as a burden.

 

For those of you who are interested, I found this book (Imagining Numbers (Particularly the Square Root of Minus Fifteen) a very interesting read, especially for those who ask questions like "why does the complex plane start 90 degrees clockwise?). It's meant for people with only basic numeracy skills, though there is added detail in the endnotes that might pose some problems.

 

When I tutored my step-daughter, back when she was still doing mathematics before she opted out in GCSE, I noticed that she was calculating the correct answer every time, then changing it (I presume this was due to a critical lack of confidence owing to the fact that everyone knew "girls were no good at maths"). It still makes me angry.

[Purgatorio]

Numbers don't like me so I don't like them. That people who can read music are good at maths is bollocks, it is written by mathematical geniuses, not played by them. We only need to know how to divide and count to three, so it isn't a problem.

[Tale]

I burned out on coding back in High School. There were a total of 7 people in the third year class. 4 in one class, 3 in mine. We were given an assignment, one kid transferred from my class to the other, the other guy did his Physics homework instead of our project.

 

I ended up doing a 3 man project solo. Burnout! I still dream in code at night. But, it's a funky code (it's a hybrid Turbo Pascal and Borland C++) that won't compile which caused me so many problems. I was once told the only cure for := was shock therapy.

 

Sometimes I wish I'd gone back and given it another chance. But after 6 years of psych it might be a little late.

Edited May 24, 2007 by Tale

[blue]

"those who can, do; those who can't, teach"

 

"girls were no good at maths"

Distrust generalizations. At worst they serve us ill. At best they describe the author

[LadyCrimson]

A huge problem in the countries that I have lived is that teaching is the catch-all default career for anyone that can't do anything else

I don't know how it is right now, but when I was a kid, another issue was a lack of teachers for particular subjects. There was one year where one of the better science teachers had to teach history, stuff like that. Also, size of classes - students per teacher kind of thing.

 

That was in public early/middleschools in the 70's/80's, btw, and not private or universities.

[Pidesco]

What's the average school class size in the States?

 

When I was a kid, here in Portugal 30 students per class was fairly common. In the 50s and 60s, however, 40 students per classroom was normal.

[Hurlshort]

Things haven't changed much. There is still a huge lack of qualified teachers, particularly in the sciences and math. Classroom size in California is mandated for grades k-3 as being no larger than 20 students, but after 3rd grade it bloats up to over 30 per classroom. It depends on the area as well. My wife is a PE teacher and she sees class sizes around 45 on average.

 

My maximum in a Social Science class is 36, although I have one class with 37. The extra student has to sit at my desk

 

I teach because I love it. I could go do something else and make more money, but I wouldn't enjoy my job. I would say 85% of my fellow teachers are in the same boat. We are all colege graduates with a healthy chunk of graduate work, so I wouldn't say we are an ignorant bunch. But people tend to remember bad teachers, and again, there is easily 15% of those in the school system. But seriously, is there any industry that doesn't have a 15% incompetency rate?

[metadigital]

As Sir Humphrey says in Yes Prime Minister, the Department for Education isn't there for the students, it's there for the teachers!

[Calax]

As Sir Humphrey says in Yes Prime Minister, the Department for Education isn't there for the students, it's there for the teachers!

yep.

 

And Like Hurlshot said, it depends on the area. For example I had classes in high school that generally ran at about 30-33 students. PE is the compromise because pe it's easier to keep everyone on task so ultimately the HS pe class would be run by two teachers and generally top out at 75ish students.

 

If I didn't have to have more school than a business exec I would probably go for teaching.

[Pidesco]

I just remembered a Physics teacher in my Swedish High School who was one of the richest men in Sweden. He really just did it for love of teaching.

[SteveThaiBinh]

As Sir Humphrey says in Yes Prime Minister, the Department for Education isn't there for the students, it's there for the teachers!

The Department of Education is there for the parents and their votes. I doubt you'd find many teachers who'd say it was there for them, when all it does it create paperwork and foist a dozen initiatives a week on them.

[metadigital]

The point being made by the writers of Yes, Prime Minister was that the bureaucracy is there to protect the incompetent teachers from being sacked, for being incompetent.

[Qazplm]

Teacher: "To calculate this, use this formula."

Me: "But why that formula? Why does that work, what's the reasoning behind it."

Teacher: "It just does."

Me: *frowns*

 

 

I've always hated that explainaton!

 

I'm tempted to say that your bad relationship with math was a result of the way you were taught instead of a consequence of any fundamental lack of affinity on your part with the subject.

Allmost every time i ask a teacher why, i get that answer or that it is to complicated to explain why.

Edited May 25, 2007 by Qazplm