Well, I had a worthwhile (and delicious) recipe all ready to go for today, and then something happened that I just couldn't resist posting. In fact, this was the second time something like this has happened this week, so it was even more of a sign that it needed to be out on the interwebs. And who knows, maybe this Face Palm Friday thing will catch on; it's got a nice ring to it!
So here's the latest face palm in my life. As you may know, I work in a high school. More specifically, I work with students who, for whatever reason, are behind in or struggling with their classes. Sometimes I feel bad for the students because they genuinely cannot grasp the concept being taught (Algebra II can be legit difficult, people), but sometimes I feel like the students bring their problems on themselves. Case in point: twice this week (twice!) I have had students complain to me because they can't find the answer to a question on a worksheet. When asked what they've done to determine the answer, I've gotten variations of this same response: "Well, I've looked through the chapter, but the word I'm trying to find isn't one of the bolded or italicized words so I don't know how I'm supposed to find it". Umm, really? Of course, I don't say that to the student; I politely tell them that they might need to read the chapter in order to find the answer to their question. To which one of the students responded, "You mean like start with the first word at the beginning of the chapter and read until the last word at the end of the chapter?". Yes, yes, that's exactly what I mean. That's exactly what it means to "read the chapter". Sigh.
It's days like today where I have to (constantly) remind myself that what might be (painfully) obvious to me is not always obvious to these kids. And that's what I'm here to help with--sometimes that might mean helping a student understand how to rationalize the denominator of a radical function; sometimes it means clarifying the meaning behind simple phrases like "read the chapter". Oh, the joys of high school.
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