Tuesday

It is dreary, wet and cold today. It's also a holiday of sorts (I can't figure out what is running and what isn't today. The college is in, but the schools are not? No mail or library but the gov't employees at the plant have to work? Who makes all the rules and why are they falling down on the job?) and one would think we could take the day off schoolwork and do something holiday-ish, but that's not how it's going to work. We didn't get nearly enough done yesterday, and Nate is about to take his final-final-last-ever Key to... end-of-book test. I don't want him to break right before a test, for obvious reasons, even though no one but me will ever see the score. And even though Teaching Textbooks Math 7, which he is also working through, is about to review the same subject matter.

Fortunately, Nate and I found a Geometry book that will last him a couple months, since the thought of doing only one math program at a time is a bit foreign to him, and he keeps saying he needs more challenge. This Geometry book is very hands-on, no proofs or anything, just fun with shapes. I want that for him before he goes on to in-depth Geometry. He is considering doing TT Algebra and TT Geometry at the same time, and Mr. Pevensie, who was once a PS math teacher, said that is perfectly acceptable. Nate will begin TT Algebra in Feb. according to our current schedule. I already have that program, since we used it with Brandon, so I would only have to buy Geometry with tax refund money.

I loved Geometry when I was in high school. My teacher, Mr. Presto (is that a cool name or what?), had a great policy. You could choose to be graded in one of two ways: 100% of your grade from the test scores, or 50% from test scores and 50% from homework. Quite a progressive PS teacher, IMO. Since I thought homework was basically useless and I always got good test grades, I went with the first option. Mr. Presto stuck me in the back corner of the room with the following year's math book and left me to myself. He was a really thoughtful guy. We had an assignment to draw a pictures using only a straight edge and a compass. I still think it was the best piece of art I ever produced. He hung all the pictures on the wall without names and had the class line up and go from picture to picture rating them on a 1 to 10 scale. I got a 10. I would NEVER have been given a 10 if the kids had known whose picture it was, but he did it in a way that mostly avoided popularity as a grade.

Mr. Presto also let my mom sit in on his Alg. 1 class when she decided to go back to college. I thought that was a very brave thing for her to do. Only two problems--my boyfriend at the time was in the same class (and boy did I give him strict instructions to behave!) and Mr. Presto called me by my mom's name for the rest of the year.

So, I think schoolwork, hot cocoa, and maybe a movie is on the list for today. And maybe I will grab Nate's straight edge, compass and box of colored pencils and make some memories.