Day 155: A good math day

Some people have good hair days. Today, I had a good math day. This means that I was able to help more students than not. And I got one of the other volunteers to explain the concept I could not help with to me, so I even learned something new.

There is something so incredibly satisfying when the light finally goes on and I just see the route to the solution. It makes me even happier when that light is in the eyes of one of the students. Math 2B classes are having an exam tomorrow so the Math Lab was packed tonight. I didn't count but I'd estimate approximately 32 students of which two(!) were guys. What percent is that? How do you figure out what percent that is? This was actually quite similar to a question one of the guys needed help with. Had to physically stop a student from reaching for her calculator to solve 36 minus 27. I just could not stand it. "Use your fingers," I told her. "Activates the brain." :-)

As an aside, let me tell you, they're not teaching math they way they used to back in the day. Either that or I've totally forgotten things like i squared = –1. Another of today's challenges was solving inequalities by graphing them. Sheesh. But what fun.