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Have I broken any of The Jones Laws? Every damned one of them. The reason they were posted in my classroom was to use my life's examples of things not to follow. Oh, believe me, I talked in class about the better choices I'd made in my life, too, of experiences in the military, college, fatherhood, and in teaching. About half the math lessons I'd taught to my upper level students had applications in real-life stuff, and talking about that real-life stuff made the subject more important. Why study equations? In order to solve problems. Why study statistics? In order to more accurately predict trends. I showed how sine waves and logarithmic equations are used to produce music in synthesizers; why some chords sound so sweet while other combinations of notes gives me a headache! Using conic sections, I showed how we used Fourier Analysis to find and track Soviet subs in the navy. I hit business, chemistry, astronomy, economics, psychology... just about every possible career choice any of my students would make and find examples in class showing them in what circumstances they would mathematics. So why talk about bad choices I'd made as well? I was a teacher... not God. I'm not about to sit in front of a class and dictate the way things are supposed to be. Some teachers I've known were incredibly full of themselves, demanded respect and rarely got it. My approach on the other hand was as a guide, a facilitator of learning. The favorite topic of learning in my class was coping skills. I was about the only teacher these kids had ever had who allowed himself to be human in front of the class. I never demanded respect and I had the majority of the class in the palm of my hand. There was an overwhelming sense of loyalty in my classroom. My students knew that I would do anything for them, and I came to discover most of them would do anything for me. |