Tuesday, February 08, 2011

A Whole Lot of Nothing

I've been sitting at this computer for about thirty minutes now trying to figure out what I wanted to write about.

I thought about writing about when I lived in L.A. and tried to get on Wheel of Fortune. But some part of my brain nixed that (and was also concerned I'd already written about it on here at some point).

I thought about writing about how what we say and do means something, even when we don't mean to mean something, so saying, "I don't mean anything by it," is sort of ridiculous.

I thought about writing about the day my car died on the way in to work when I lived in L.A., and how a homeless guy helped me get it fixed enough to get in to work, and then on the way home another homeless guy helped me get it fixed enough to get home. Maybe some day. It's just not calling to me tonight.

I've got school stuff on my mind. The one I teach at, the degree I want to get next, and how much longer I think I can keep teaching... and how much longer I think I want to keep teaching. And what I'd do if I didn't keep teaching.

And then once I start thinking about teaching, I think about what I can do differently in this class or that class to get this kid or that kid to "get" what I'm saying. You never know what's going to work. Today "shortest giant" clicked as a reference to Least Common Multiple for a student, even though I first said it in that class several weeks ago. She was amazed at how it was so clear to her now. "Shortest giant" is Least Common Multiple, and "tallest dwarf" is Greatest Common Factor.

Not genius teaching, mind you. That was just explaining to them how to avoid getting all confused which is which.

Anyway, that's how I ended up writing this whole lot of nothing. I couldn't figure out what to write. So what to do, other than write about how I don't know what to write.

Right?

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