The things kids say

[LAT]

thank goodness it isn't that easy!

[Redfraggle]

This is a classic and it happened yesterday in school. The staff think it's hilarious.

A very determined and bossy lady was in school yesterday reviewing maths strategies. She intterupted a teacher on her lunch break who was sitting in her room chatting to children. The teacher didn't want to say this to the lady. But the kids in the room remembered her and said to her 'We remember you - you taught us about triangular numbers'. The lady was very pleased and said to them 'How about I give you some numbers now to see if you remember them?'

The child replied 'No. I dont think so because this is our lunch break!'

I wish adults would sometimes show the same courage!

[Bunnylump]

Excellent!! I have to say, I think I would have laughed!

[Bunnylump]

Today I had a one to one lesson with pupil O, who is on the autistic spectrum. She's very well behaved but getting her to RESPOND to me in any way other than smiling is a bit like getting blood out of a stone. HOWEVER, today I set her to work on "Hardquest", which is a truly wonderful maths program, designed by our very own Redfraggle, which has a Harry Potter theme. The pupil LOVED it. At the end of the lesson I asked her what she thought.

"I liked it", she said.

"I thought you didn't like maths!" I said.

"I only like Harry Potter maths", she replied. All I can say is HOW DO I FOLLOW THAT NEXT WEEK??

[Redfraggle]

Really? That's excellent

[MBH]

Brilliant story

"I only like Harry Potter maths", she replied. All I can say is HOW DO I FOLLOW THAT NEXT WEEK??

Potions Homework.... all basic maths plus fractions, percentages, etc. [Explosions for wrong answers would be a bonus]

Transfiguration.... Algebra at it's best - turning one thing into another. What moves of the wand (pen) turn X into Y?

Charms.... tricks and other clever bits. 9 times table for younger ones [digits add up to 9 for 18,27,36] but there must be other things for higher levels that can catch the interest.

Care of Magical Creatures.... feeding quantities, exercise times, flying distances, endless maths handles.

I'll stop typing now because this is simply flowing out from "first thoughts". Anyone who puts a bit of time into it could probaby do something GOOD with it. I'm supposed to be working so --- shutting up now

[Bunnylump]

Do you think I'm going to end up hating Harry Potter??

[giraffe]

Just give her an alphactor to keep her quiet!

[Bunnylump]

That would absolutely finish her (and me) off!!
The really odd thing with her is that although she is HOPELESS at maths, she can look at a picture which is divided up into hundreds of parts and AT ONE GLANCE can tell you how many segments there are in it!! Her favourite hobby (which she's been doing over the past 5 years!) is making a paper mosaic. At any one time she knows exactly how many pieces of paper it has in it! I just wish I could think of an application for this skill!!

[Laura]

Tiling would be the only thing that springs to mind. Maybe reconstructing mosaics on archaeological sites?

[Bunnylump]

Yes, nice idea, but she's possibly the least dexterous person I've ever met. And she will only do things if you tell her to do them. EG. OK I need you to
1 Copy the title
2 Underline the title
3 Write the date.

If you give her any more than 3 instructions at once she blanks.

She also takes things so literally it's scary. She asked the history teacher if she could go and get a drink of water. He replied (jokingly) - "well, you can go into the quad and open your mouth. It's raining outside". I had to stop her from doing it.

[Redfraggle]

That's excellent! MBH you have given me food for thought - keeping typing your ideas - I CAN use them for my next Maths challenge.

[giraffe]

She also takes things so literally it's scary. She asked the history teacher if she could go and get a drink of water. He replied (jokingly) - "well, you can go into the quad and open your mouth. It's raining outside". I had to stop her from doing it.

Teachers like that should be shot. Lally had a teacher when she was six who, when one of the little girls went out to the toilet said "Now we can talk about her" to the rest of the class. Made them terrified to go when they needed to and they started having little accidents because they left it too late to ask to go. Stupid man.

[Bunnylump]

We had a teacher who looked out of the 3 storey block window to see one of the SEN kids wandering about, obviously lost. She said to the class "Oh look at that, there's Antony wandering about - if he's such a twit that he can't look at his timetable we'll just leave him there. He's a nuisance anyway." All the class laughed. The boy had already experienced a lot of bullying.

I walked out, got the boy and found someone to look after him and promptly wrote an official complaint about her. She didn't do it again.

[MBH]

Do you think I'm going to end up hating Harry Potter??

I very much doubt it

Just give her an alphactor to keep her quiet!

Said jokingly - but not such a daft idea. NO!!! Not one of HIS - a specially written EASY one with obvious transitions and stuff.

Thinks... You never know when associating numbers with letters might come in handy in high school mathematics

That's excellent! MBH you have given me food for thought - keeping typing your ideas - I CAN use them for my next Maths challenge.

Ideas like that are easy for me - they come from the 'analogy' part of my brain that always looks for other ways to say something that makes it more undertandable to others Shout if you need any specific gaps in the 'timetable' filled

[Scurra]

Ideas like that are easy for me - they come from the 'analogy' part of my brain that always looks for other ways to say something that makes it more undertandable to others Shout if you need any specific gaps in the 'timetable' filled

So why do you keep protesting that you have so much trouble with the puzzles? That's the whole way they work - by finding sideways connections between things...

(Yes, I know you don't really. But the observation is largely true.)

[Bunnylump]

(MBH I hope you don't mind me sticking my twopenneth in here... )

I think you'll find that
a) MBH just doesn't have the time needed to devote to solving the puzzles
b)

finding sideways connections between things...

is so developed in him that he finds extra connections he doesn't need and ends up down some crazy theory. Does this remind you of anyone at all, Scurra?? (Must be the twin thing... )

[Scurra]

Does this remind you of anyone at all, Scurra??

What, you mean as opposed to everyone on this entire forum? No, not really.

[Bunnylump]

We were discussing some questions about the Treaty of Versailles today, one of which was:

"Why did France, Britain and the United States have different perspectives on what should happen?"

The girl I was working with didn't know what to say about USA. I suggested that she should get her planner out and look at the world map, and see where USA was for a clue.

When I went back to her she said "I know how far away USA is. It's 9 feet away." She'd measured it with her ruler (which was measured in centimetres... )

Strikes me US air fares are a bit excessive if that's the case...

[Bunnylump]

Today we had Lord someoneorother visiting the school - he advises the government on mental health issues and was involved in setting up the Resilience program. He observed a resilience lesson being taught, and at the end the children had a chance to ask him questions.

"So...has anyone got any questions they would like to ask me?"

Girl "Yeah. Do you know Lord Sugar?" Aren't kids brilliant?