Stealing the kids' blog again.. blogging about a calculator, because I just can't blog what I really want to blog about... about gender discrimination and how people often totally write me off just because I'm a woman... even if I *AM* the smartest-at-math person in the ROOM *AND* the only one with a PhD in it!  Grrr...  I mean *YES* I *DO* know something about interpolation and extrapolation (I just kindof taught a graduate level course in Numerical Computing) and NO you can't find the average MPG without actually computing the TOTAL MILES and TOTAL GALLONS and then dividing!!!  Grrr..... And I can't actually believe (unnamed people) had to "do it both ways" to verify that their "method" did not give the correct results....  I mean, come ON people... you are supposed to be the ones WRITING these questions! And we wonder why math education is suffering...  (Those individuals, like me, are not full-time ETS staff, thankfully!!!  I would have been far more worried if the fulltime staff had acted so clueless!)

But... speaking of standardized testing... 

I will be taking the Praxis II in Mathematics next month, just for the experience and fun of it.  I'm really a standardized test junkie, which is probably why I still take any and all contracts ETS offers me.  ETS is a strange mix of wonderful people and organized chaos.  But I find this insane pleasure in writing the questions.  (Not for the exam I'll be taking, of course.)  So, last week, I went to the bookstore and sat down with a stack of napkins and a Praxis II review guide, and I spent 70 minutes messing with the 50 problems, similar to the test I'll be taking.  The exam REQUIRES you to bring your own graphing calculator.  I only missed 2 questions due to lack of calculator in my breeze-through, the same as the number I missed due to not being careful in my calculations.  But in any case, I decided that since everyone *thinks* a graphing calculator is *so* important in mathematics education, I should be a sport and buy one after all these years.  I only managed to get a PhD in Mathematics without one, and tenure and promotion without one, so maybe it's time now.  You see, I wouldn't want my lack of techonology to keep me from advancing in my mathematical understanding or anything.  Ha Ha. So, failing to locate them at UPenn's bookstore, I tried CVS and failed again.  Finally, at Drexel, I was directed to the customer service area, because only the el-cheap-o calculators are available for grabbing.  The expensive ones are near the registers.   So, I went over to the register and asked the clerk if I could see the two models they have.  One was $120, and one was $190.  So, I said, "Ok, nevermind.  Just give me the $120 one."  So, why do I find it so incredibly funny that she was so considerate and sweet to me, asking, "Do you think it will be enough for what you need?"  And she made sure I knew that I could come back with the receipt so long as the package was unopened...

Yes, I do believe it will be "enough" for what I need.

Sometimes I just take over the kids' blog for my own purposes.. like now.. but before I do... I have to put down this Edwin quote-of-the-day. "Edwin is in the bird-poopies-covered car."

Ok, so my rant of the evening....

Lately, for my own amusement, I've been looking into various requirements for school teachers in Pennsylvania (and other states). One requirement in PA is that pre-cert students have to take this Praxis I exam, also known as PPST. The PPST is broken down into Reading, Writing, and Math. Each sub-test has a required minimum score. For Math, this score is around 170 now. What does that really mean? Well, there are 40 mutliple-choice questions, 5 choices each, and to get that passing score, the candidate needs to score about 20 or maybe 21 correctly. Guessing doesn't count against the candidate, so if you just guess at 20 questions, you should get around 4 questions correct for "free", meaning that you really only need to answer about 16 for "real", or maybe 18 just to be on the safe side. The sad thing is, I know from my experiences at Mansfield, that many many students really stress out about this test. It's the one thing that keeps people from progressing through the "gates" in their education programs. Are these questions hard? Well, some are tricker than others. But, of course, they're easy to *me*. Today, at the bookstore, I looked over one of these tests, and there was just one question that looked the least bit interesting. It was asking for the area of an equilateral triangle whose height is 6. The correct answer is 24 times root 3. This answer did not appear as one of the choices, so I thought I'd look throught the "easy-to-follow" explanations for some "help". There was an entire typewritten page (8.5x11?) full of equations and variables to solve for, ratios, and in the end, the answer given was incorrect. Ok, Washington. What do you say to this? NCLB? It looks like "No School-teacher Allowed Ahead" to me.

Missing muffins

I made muffins today. Edwin does not like muffins and would not touch them at breakfast. So there were a few of them left, which I placed on a wire rack on the counter for later. Several hours later, I heard the sound of a wire rack being "driven" around the kitchen floor. I came to find the wire rack, and Edwin happily playing with it in the kitchen. Wire rack: confiscated. But where are those muffins? Hmm. Probably Donna put them in the fridge. Whatever.

Later, I got a craving for said muffins, and opened the fridge looking for them. No trace. That's odd. I went through all of the kitchen cabinets, the pantry, and still, no trace. Wierd. If the kids got them, there would be crumbs everywhere! So what happened?

So finally, in desperation I ask, "Edwin, where are the muffins?" I expect a non-answer. However, he says, rather matter-of-factly, "Muffins are in the garbage." I just checked the garbage.... Oh wait, he likes the bathroom garbage. Indeed, there they were, very neatly placed in the garbage... Edwin had very clearly not liked those muffins at all, and determined that the only logical thing to do was dispose of them!

Well, today, Zachary issued his first verbal request after a morning shower: BUBBLES!  He learned this word Wed. evening after bathtime from his brother who kept repeating it!


Awhile ago, Edwin was still in the bath after Zachary had been removed, diapered, and pj-ed- all ready for bed.  Michael went to the bedroom to grab Edwin's jpj's and a diaper, and he heard this, "cmmmeeeer Zachreeee", and upon quickly returning to the bathroom, found Zachary back in the tub again with Edwin.


Sometime recently, maybe within the past 2 weeks, Edwin was in the car with Michael as Michael drove Sarah home. Edwin piped up, "Fifteen Trolley!".  They were at the Woodland Ave intersection where 36, 11, etc run.  Michael corrected him, saying that there "could" be an 11 trolley, but not now, as there were no trolleys in the intersection at all. Edwin insisted "Fifteen Trolley is off!" at which point Michael noted that there were indeed antique trolleyes peeking out from behind the wall, at the garage which is at this intersection.  (The antique trolleyes are the ones used for the 15 trolley line.)