Math and Eagles

This is a juvenile Bald Eagle. My friend estimated
he was about 2 years old. And no, we don't really
know its sex.

I was a lazy student. I was also a perfectionist. Math teachers told me to show my work, but I was too lazy to do that. And check my work? But that would imply I didn't do it perfectly the first time!

Really, though, I struggled through Algebra I and II and Geometry. I didn't understand the underlying concepts, so I had to do everything by rote. Eventually, I ran out of memory space for math formulas. At some point, I started to get it, and acquitted myself nicely in College Algebra.

I was about 10' away from this eagle, creeping closer and
closer very slowly, and taking a pic with every step. Since
the camera is equipped with a telephoto lens, it looks like I'm
standing right next to him. I love that I was able to get his
face and those eyes!

And here is that same eagle, flying away when I got too close.

That's why it amazes me every day to hear the things that come out of my mouth while I'm teaching Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, and Geometry. Each class is taught one-to-one, so I have to understand the content, be able to find mistakes, and explain the corrections. And there's no textbook in the program to help me! I keep telling kids to show their work and that I can't help them fix their mistakes if I can't find their mistakes. I'm pulling phrases like "combine like expressions", "balance the equations," and "reduce fractions to lowest terms" out of some dusty cabinet in my brain. One of the test keys turned out to be lost, so I had to solve each equation on the test myself. I figured if my answer and the student's matched, then it was probably right. That doesn't really inspire confidence in a math teacher, does it? I owe my high school and college Math teachers a note of thanks. They managed to teach me when I wasn't looking!

We let the dogs run around the tundra for awhile.
Here's Cody, lying down in the tundra grass,
nose up, scenting the air. Such a happy dog!

On a totally different subject, one of my colleagues took me for a ride around the island over the weekend. I got some good pictures that I'd like to share. Enjoy!