I HAVE A LEASH.

Oh, dear. Very bad thoughts. Very, very bad.

Especially as I have started making some handmade notecards and am thrilled to use them.

No lie. I've seen them. Everyone should send Cass gifties just as a means to see the pretty notecards.

You know, I was raised to write them too, and I still suck at it. I like getting them just fine -- although to be honest except for the whole "did they get it?" I'm not that concerned about it -- and I feel good when I do it, but I SUCK at it. Among other things, I've always had that "Okay, so I said, 'Thank you for the blah.' Now what?" problem. (And so yes, I did bookmark the site. Thank you!)

Cindy, wow. Sounds like a person who thought of manners as obligation rather than lubrication (also a big poor-me-everyone-else-sucks person, let me say). Oh, and hypocrite, of course -- I mean, if you'd gotten thank you notes from her, as you should have, probably you (clearly a very thoughtful little Cindy) would have been writing them too. If she thought they were basic courtesy and wasn't writing them, then SHE'S the one who was being rude.

Er. The intricacies of manners and expectations get me all twisted up with mad. Guess I'd better go plan some lessons!

Oh, quick math survey. Can you solve this problem without calculation: (87 * 326)/87 ? Would you expect an eighth grader to be able to?

yes, and yes.

I have to say - matt's brother A sends lovely thankyou notes. but honestly, even my parents who taught me to send notes only do email or phone.

I was taught that notes - handwritten were what counted. it seems that email and phone calls count among my family. This may be partailly because I have illegible handwritting. and though most of the rest do better than i do - beautiful cooperplate we do not have.

Interestingly, I was also taught not to give with expectation ( as I said earlier) .

It is a paradox.

Can you solve this problem without calculation: (87 * 326)/87 ? Would you expect an eighth grader to be able to?

Yes, and probably. I'm pretty sure that most of my college students would instinctively reach for a calculator, but if they were told not to use it, and to think about the problem, they'd see what they were supposed to do. And I think that I'd get a similar response from the sixth-graders I taught this summer, so I'd guess that eighth-graders should be able to do it.

Thanks for the ~ma yesterday. Everything went well. Person who needed to be told was already aware and handling, person who it was about remains unaffected. Yay! I like her a bunch and would hate to hurt her.

Still recovering from last night's Halloween festivities and the Saints' loss to Baltimore.

I give without expectation, but I also want to thank graciously. In my mind, the expectations of the person who gave to me are immaterial, what matters is my actions.

And I think that I'd get a similar response from the sixth-graders I taught this summer, so I'd guess that eighth-graders should be able to do it.

Just checking I wasn't crazy. Also, I have a student who thinks 27/3 is 24. A simple misunderstanding, but worrisome.

Oh, quick math survey. Can you solve this problem without calculation: (87 * 326)/87 ? Would you expect an eighth grader to be able to?

Yes, and yes. I mean, right? That seems like a pretty basic mathy concept you ought to have down by eighth grade. Eighth eighth eighth. That is such a weird word to spell.

I have to admit, when I first glanced at the problem, I thought "can I have paper and pen", and then I looked again and realized it wasn't necessary.