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.