THE BROWNIES WERE GREAT

I finished my week of teaching the math class. It was an awesome experience! By the end of the week:

• I had about 15 students joining me for lunch.

•Six separate students were bringing their Rubik's Cubes to class.

•I brought candy and I baked cookies, cake, and brownies for my beloved students. I got up at 7am on Friday to bake the brownies.

•I got a cd of music from one of my favorites, John Collector.

•Multiple students told me I should stay and their teacher should not come back.

•One student was amazed because he said he never does work and he did homework every day while I was there.

•I taught how to solve a power function, Y=ax^b that passes through the points (1,6) and (12,5) and how to graph a Logistic Growth Function.

THE FIRST TIME'S THE HARDEST

Whoo! What a day! I had an interesting time subbing for my math class. Interesting, but good. Basically, I feel really bad for the first class that I teach, because I make all of my big mistakes with them, and then get better as the day goes on.

Like this morning, when I became totally flustered because I wasn't sure what the book was trying to say, and so I started to teach the math wrong. Fortunately the class was a very forgiving one, not to mention quite bright.

I was smooth and cool by sixth period, though!

Haha, tomorrow will be phenomenal. I promise.

THE BABY

Dear Readers,

I am substituting for this one math teacher every day next week! His wife just had a baby.

Sincerely, Phil

THE HOOK UP

Today I substituted at Dos Pueblos again. For math. Again. This time I subbed for my friend Matt Long, who is "so hot" and "not too old" according to some girls in his fourth period class. Those kind of conversations always make me smile. I don't know why. I think high school romance is just so funny, and hearing students talk about crushes and whatnot always makes me laugh and shake my head.

But who am I to judge? I still haven't figured out LOVE enough to find that special someone.

Yet.

Speaking of which, those same girls tried to set me up with my longtime friend Courtney Medel, who also teaches at Dos Pueblos, in the English department. They said, "Do you know Ms. Medel?"

"Yeah, I do," I replied with a smile.

"She's cute..."

"I know," I replied with another smile. This time I smile because those kids are so silly for trying to play cupid when they hardly know me.

"Ooooohh you think she's cute! Hook it up! You want me to talk to her? I'll be your match maker. For just 20 bucks I can get you a date with her. For 40 bucks I'll get her to pay."

Ha ha, who comes up with that stuff, seriously?

THE RUBBER BANDS

Yesterday in the math class that I substituted for, three Seniors at Dos Pueblos found a very large bag of rubber bands. They were the teacher's rubber bands, but that wasn't stopping anybody. The guys were using them to shoot small pieces of paper at each other. I took the rubber bands away and said that I wouldn't write their names down unless I saw them messing around again.

I'm supposed to be the 'nice' sub!

About five minutes later, out of my periphery I see a rubber band held low and a paper flying towards someone's back.

Their names were recorded. In black ink.

And just in case you were wondering what kind of math it was that these sophomores, juniors, and seniors were doing, here is a sample question from their work:

-1 - (9)= ?

also:

Two lines are on a graph. Without using a calculator or drawing a graph, find out where the lines intersect:

y=1/3X+5
y=x-3