show your work!

If I've said it once on this blog, I've said it at least twice...getting old is getting old.

I teach 6th grade math to special ed kids. I was going nuts this morning trying to teach them how to put decimals in order (i.e. 3.001, 3.01, 3.1). They kept coming to me with wrong answer after wrong answer. It's not that they couldn't understand it, it was just that they were trying to cram their work into the tiny little space in their workbooks and they were writing so small they couldn't even read it...I've become pretty much able to decipher the most intricate hieroglyphics, but it was getting ridiculous.

So finally, after about the 10th time saying "show your work neatly on another sheet of paper," I flipped my lid. I made everyone clear their desks and I gave them all a giant (and we're talking giant) sheet of paper. I gave them a new problem to work on and told them they had to use rulers and write big enough that the entire paper was covered.

Once we were done and they got my point, and as I was delivering the ever-inspiring "you have to show your work" lecture, I got a flashback to my childhood. I envisioned a younger Peter sitting at the dining room table with his dad. His dad had grown a little irritated with young Peter because he was not writing his work to his math problems legibly. He was taking shortcuts and getting problems wrong. So I ended the lecture with that little story of my childhood and I mentioned how I should probably call my dad and apologize for all I put him through because now I realize he was right...I felt pretty old just saying those words...Dad was right.

One of my favorite kids, J, looked at me and said, "Why don't you call him now?" First, I laughed it off, but quickly reconsidered. Why not now? So I whipped out the cell phone and called my dad in front of the class. As it was ringing, the kids eyes opened wider and wider and J blurted out, "put it on speaker phone!"

My dad answered with, "what are you doing calling me at this time of day?" I asked him if I could put him on speaker phone with my class and he gladly obliged...he's a brave soul! I proceeded to remind him of the days around the dining room table and he quickly remembered! I then, to the applause of my students, apologized for all the heartache I had caused him in regards to the math. No wonder my high school students used to call me Dr. Phil. I ended the call and wrapped up class. I jokingly told them their homework for the weekend was to consider apologizing to me on Monday.

It is mornings like today that make me love my job even if it makes me feel old and makes me have to go back and apologize for being a stubborn teenager!