Session 4
Today was a thoroughly lousy day. I got enough sleep, that wasn't the problem. I studied for about 2 hours, which is what we're supposed to do. I should have studied a bit more, I didn't know it as well as I should have. This is odd, because I did the worst on the initial material, which I had already prepared during the training session. The later material was a first time for me.
I also made a really stupid mistake. I was showing an alternate method for solving an equation which turned out to be invalid because it amounted to dividing by 0. I had thought of it while preparing the material but didn't work it all out. It's a pity, because had I worked it out:
On the plus side, sitting in on the verbal class on saturday helped me improve how I teach verbal greatly. Things went faster and more smoothly. I was not much pressed for time (just slightly towards the end), and only ended class 3 minutes late. Still far from perfect — for example, I made about 1 joke during the entire time, even though humor is very useful to keep the mood light — but a great improvement.
Now I just need to figure out what went wrong with the math section. I think that eating more will help a lot (I didn't eat much today, and what eating I did was mostly earlier in the day).
I also made a really stupid mistake. I was showing an alternate method for solving an equation which turned out to be invalid because it amounted to dividing by 0. I had thought of it while preparing the material but didn't work it all out. It's a pity, because had I worked it out:
- I wouldn't have made an ass out of myself.
- I would have been able to show a much faster method
- I wouldn't have bothered because the faster method is too sophisticated for the algebra/math skills of high school students. In fact, it is really mathematical reasoning rather than algebra, which really rules it out.
On the plus side, sitting in on the verbal class on saturday helped me improve how I teach verbal greatly. Things went faster and more smoothly. I was not much pressed for time (just slightly towards the end), and only ended class 3 minutes late. Still far from perfect — for example, I made about 1 joke during the entire time, even though humor is very useful to keep the mood light — but a great improvement.
Now I just need to figure out what went wrong with the math section. I think that eating more will help a lot (I didn't eat much today, and what eating I did was mostly earlier in the day).