2. Peter’s Insight<\/h3>\n
Peter stayed after school so that he could work on today’s worksheet while I was in the room. He picks things up quickly, and he only had a few questions. When he was finished, he turned his work into the purple box. Then he turned to me and asked about retaking the test, as Kitty just had done.<\/p>\n
“What days are you here after school?” he asked.<\/p>\n
“Every day,” I said.<\/p>\n
“Every day. I see.” He paused for a moment and then asked (in a sympathetic tone), “Mr. Hasan, do you get to have a life outside teaching?”<\/p>\n
The fair and industrious Trudy wants to know if I tell them my wife wonders likewise.<\/em><\/p>\n Once a week I pull my better students into my room for 30 minutes of “enrichment.” We’ve done this a few times, and although I started out with great hopes, their reactions have been underwhelming. I should have expected this, of course, since there are no grades associated with this time, and so most of the kids couldn’t care less.<\/p>\n On this day, the kids were rotating squares to investigate rotational symmetries, although I did not say that. I asked questions. They answered. I drew pictures on the board. Some of them dutifully drew the pictures on the papers that they were manipulating. And by the end of class we had a Cayley table for the C4 cyclic group, although I definitely<\/em> did not tell them that.<\/p>\n We finished about 10 minutes early, and they instantly buried their noses in their phones. Then from the back of the room Erica asked a question.<\/p>\n “Mr. Hasan, what do you call that, what we just did?”<\/p>\n I smiled. <\/p>\n “Group theory,” I said. <\/p>\n Next week: Dihedral groups.<\/em><\/p>\n Jenny finished the worksheet we were working on in class. But she had one remaining question. I walked over to where she and Jasmin had been working together, and we talked about her question.<\/p>\n Jenny just recently dyed her hair a reddish-maroon color. More red than maroon, but somewhere in-between, and fairly striking. She also had a strikingly bloodshot left eye. I kneeled down next to her.<\/p>\n “Jenny. Your red hair matches your eyes. What happened?”<\/p>\n “Mister,” she said. “It was from the glue for my eyelashes.”<\/p>\n “The glue!? Does it hurt?”<\/p>\n “Both eyes, Mister. It hurts.”<\/p>\n And then so did mine.<\/em><\/p>\n Annie is an artist. She’s quite good. She sketched a picture of me the other day. Evidently this is what Annie’s math teacher looks like by sixth period.<\/p>\n3. Erica’s Question<\/h3>\n
4. Jenny’s Eyes<\/h3>\n
5. Annie’s Artwork<\/h3>\n
![\"Annie's](\"https:\/\/photos.smugmug.com\/Blogpix\/2024\/01\/i-DXx8BQp\/0\/35cfa138\/S\/is-that-me-S.jpg\")
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