2 January 2010

You Had to Ask!

In a comment to this post,

Sandra said..."As I read this post I remembered this post of earlier this year.

While I totally get that there was probably neither time nor mood for the 40 chapter calculus book, I am still curious whether you ever got around picking the book up for a little bit in the beginning of this year.

Because I remember being rather impressed by that resolution; so much so that I had planned to go through a couple of my old college books.
I got as far as to take them out... and then dust just them off every so often... :)

How about you?"

Well, Sandra, let me first begin by saying that as a human being we should not be judged solely on our accomplishments. Pureness of heart and good intentions should always be taken into account when measuring the worth of a person...

Are you buying any of this? Yeah, me neither.

Okay, so here's the deal. My plan to relearn calculus started out great. I whizzed through five chapters like Leibniz on speed. I was unstoppable. That is until the Ministry of Education had its way with me.

Early in 2009, we learned that the high school science curriculum was being revamped top to bottom. Which meant that all my lesson plans and assessment tools had to be tweaked to adhere to the new expectations. So, that is where all my "learn stuff to become a better person" time has gone for the last several months. And, it doesn't look much better for this coming semester of school, as I'm teaching a new course. So, hopefully by late spring, I'll be able to pick up my calculus book and dive back in where I left off. Because, really, the true measure of a woman is her tenacity.

9 comments:

Marji said...

Happy New Year to you, and good riddance to the old year. How cool that your birthday is on a 0 year and that you change decades as the calendar does!
Kudos to you for using more stash than you acquired.
Hope all goes well with Simon's health issues, with your hubby's job, and that your M-inLaw does as well as can be expected.
Cheers Shannon, I'm happy that you're still out there posting.

Rose said...

Yes, life does get in the way of the best intentions. I agree: "the true measure of a woman is her tenacity".

tumblina said...

AGAIN??? Looks like it's a good thing I moved out of the province, I don't need to get that angry every 3 years...

signed,
trying to teach first year students who've had no continuous curriculum their whole lives

Reethi said...

Happy New Year, and good luck with the calculus.

mermaids said...

here is a scary thought... i have always wanted to really learn calculus. it was not even offered at my high school. (gasp, i know!) in college, i was a finance major, so it was never required. however, i did tutor a friend who was struggling with it. i would read the chapter and figure it out as we went along. i always liked math. i was the geeky kid who did extra problems, just for fun.

Sue said...

Good on you for giving it a go and not giving up, even when life gets busy!

Denise@thebluegardenia.com said...

And how she treats her dogs. I think you measure up, sweetie.

Toby Wollin said...

OMG, calculus. I hid behind a big guy from Tennessee during that class for fear of being called on. I did so poorly that I repeated it. And do not remember a thing. And feel no guilt about it either. I am of the opinion that the number one thing that stands in the way of more girls deciding to do science or engineering is the dreaded calculus - and the number one reason it is dreaded is that it is taught so poorly. Do something about math teaching and I will be a nickle that more kids (boys as well as girls) will go into engineering and the sciences.

amber said...

Ah, calculus. One of the only classes in HS to really kick my butt. More power to you for wanting to re-learn it. I'll cheer for you waaaay over here... while reading my fluffy chick lit book. ;)