Mind you, this is exactly what word problems are meant to do, and those are many students' least favorite bits.

I think the problem with typical textbook word problems is that they aren't real-world ENOUGH. The ones in my stats text book were just right -- because it was a book for social science students, the illustrations were numbers I'd really be looking at in real life, not trains passing in Iowa or whatever.

I'm feeling really bleh, too. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm kind of headachy, and kind of nauseous, and I've been sleeping 10 hours a night and still feel exhausted. Really not fun.

also forgot to mention that the Skywalk mention twinged me, too. It actually happened before I moved here but I did date a guy for a short time, who'd lost his parents in the accident. I always get a funny feeling whenever i'm in that lobby.

Actuary hubby vacillates on Numb3rs. On one hand, he's thrilled mathematician are the heros. On the other, he realizes they're not going to get every detail right on the nose and there is some fudging and tweaking to be expected.

But this is coming from a guy who thinks the world would be a better place if mathematicians were treated like rock stars.

Me, I think Krumholtz is a hottie.

Wasn't he Wednesday Addams geeky boyfriend at camp in Addams Family Values?

Not sure. I thought he was in 10 Things I Hate About You, though.

He was in Ray too, much to my startlement.

The stuff my students are doing now, the first few weeks were mostly real-world examples, or sort of real-world examples, and now they're getting into more theoretical stuff around those, and it seems like a lot of them are having trouble with that.

I think a lot of my issue with word problems is the way they're taught in younger grades. A lot of elementary teachers (I know I was taught this, and I asked a few friends and they said the same thing), rather than teaching "read the problem, figure out what it's asking," along with teaching what things like adding fractions or long division actually mean, will teach keywords -- "If the problem has 'all together' or 'in total,' then you should add the numbers. If it has 'left,' then you should subtract the numbers." It really encourages kids to approach the problems with "What's the answer?" first, rather than "What's the question?"

I think he was in 10 Things I hate about You too.

Woo hoo the GSP went BIS!!!

And I also feel off -- not exactly nauseous but weirdly over tired and blechy.

Hil, you could have the same flu that I have and my coworkers have been passing around.

It really encourages kids to approach the problems with "What's the answer?" first, rather than "What's the question?"

That how education works in the US, pretty much through high school, no?

Yeah, one of my classmates has had something like this lately, and at least one other person in the department caught it from him. But right now, it's starting to feel more like a sinus infection, I think.