Life is multiple choice....not!

As I sat correcting a worksheet on using the calculator to find the mean, median and mode of a set of numbers I was "almost" shocked when I discovered that one of my student hadn't found the mean, median or mode. Instead, the student had merely gone through each question and instead of writing the mean for the set of numbers next to the word mean, instead of writing the median for the set of numbers next to the word median, instead of writing the mode of the set of numbers next to the word mode--the student had circled one of the three words as if the answers to each question were in the form of a multiple choice. So, for question 1 the student had circled mean as the answer to the question... Find the mean, median and mode for the following set of numbers: 18, 16, 15, 15, 16, 17, 15, 14. Is it any wonder why I suffer a headache at the end of every school day?????

When I teach this concept to a new group of students this next semester I must remember to remind them that worksheets, like life, are not multiple choice.

McDonald's--I'm so sorry.....

As a math teacher I'm always pushing my students to see that math is a very useful tool that may someday be the difference between having a job or being unemployed...or at least I always thought that until I had a conversation with one of my students that made me almost reconsider.

"....but you will need math in your job." I stated firmly to a rather disagreeable student.

"I don't need math. I'm going to work at McDonald's after I graduate."

"You still need math to know how to count change, even at McDonald's."

"I don't need math. Ya see, theys got 'dem pi'chures of da foods on 'da bah'ttons. 'Da machine telleds the people how much money they got to pay. I's just swipe 'deir card. I don't need no math for 'da."

Yes, I thought to myself, you probably won't need math--but some English classes couldn't hurt!!