Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Fraction Queen

Well, I'm half way through my GED class. Amazingly enough, the math has been no problem at all. I can find common denominators with the best of 'em! We've gone through fractions, ratios and decimals without a hitch. As it turns out, teaching the reading is the biggest challenge. Math and writing are all about explaining the rules. Teaching reading to adults who come in with VERY diverse skill levels is a tougher nut to crack. But we are making progress.

Of course, I am entirely sleep deprived. Anyone who knows me well knows that "Momma's got the big-eye", meaning I have had chronic insomnia for years. My body can be completely, utterly exhausted, but just as I start to think about sleep my brain will click into overdrive, keeping me up for hours. I will go for days, sometimes over a week at a time on 3-4 hours per night until I really do collapse. Now that I have all these lesson plans to do in the wee hours of the night it just feeds into that pattern. So I'm about ready to drop.

But tomorrow we get our new bed. We've ordered a king size sleep number bed. I honestly doubt that our bed has had a whole lot to do with my discombobulated brain keeping me awake, but who knows? Maybe the new bed will be so cozy that I'll drift off to dream land before that wretched second wind can take over ....

But in the mean time here I will be in the dark late night...Reading, writing, pondering. Who knows? Maybe I'll learn to amuse myself with quadratic equations. There's actually something sorta soothing about the symmetry of mathematics and the flow of the logic of it. Strange how all those years when I was younger I fled in terror of parentheses and brackets, times signs and coefficients. It's really not nearly as complicated as I once believed.

So I can't help but wonder, what other assumptions, biases, predispostions or aversions am I ready to throw out the window with my silly old fear of math? Fear of water mabe? Not bloody likely. But ya never know. I doubt I'll be taking on any of Mark Spitz's world titles, but I might be ready to give another go to some serious snorkeling.... I'm ready for a few days on a beach!

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