Fiona Sampson - More late maths - A34

Tonight I was read to by:

Jennifer McGowan
Paul Surman
Fiona Sampson - Roehampton Poetry Centre - Poem Magazine
Pat Winslow
Jane Spiro
at the Albion Beatnik

Jane had written something specially for all of us, which was moving and just what I needed. As the evening went along I got all sorts of ideas for what I might want to write about. That must be high praise for a reading.

The one problem with a reading is that I can't see the words, or how they are laid out on the page. I am so used to seeing and reading them that it is a big jump to simply have to do without. They just flow past and are gone. There is no custom of posting a playlist afterwards, as it were, of what a poet had read out on the night.

Maths

When I got back H needed me for an hour of subtraction and long division. He still thinks I am a bad teacher, but I say that you learn anyway, because of and also in spite of your teacher. It's just a tricky business. A real teacher will be grumpy and tired, particularly coming up to midnight, and may well lie back in a chair and shut her eyes and say 'Yes, that's right' without looking.

A34

The A34 is the whole of life in microcosm. We see pheasant in a field, a motor boat, a huge span of steel girder, many mobile homes going southwards, trucks with tied on loads which I now overtake as carefully and quickly as I can. The ambulances flow through blocked traffic like butter, we all shift over like a well oiled machine, then shift back into position.

If the traffic is terrible I go to the pub beside the school for an hour from 9.15am. I always take work to do, so I can sit there in peace with a coffee. It is the Royal Sun. Very welcoming.

Being a terrible maths teacher

I refuse to have a session.
I then insist it is just 10 minutes.
I get all enthusiastic and write out the solution way too fast and am demonstrating, not teaching.
I use unusual words to describe what is meant to happen.
I make up rules like "If it isn't written down, it isn't maths."
I yawn.
I make myself a cup of tea.
I eat apple, which H hates, while he shows me what he's doing.

He tells me I go too fast.
He tells me I should be helping him.
He tells me I should be explaining better.
He want to do maths when I just want to do my own stuff online.
He wants to do maths after 11pm.
He won't let go graciously.

We argue.
I want to see very neat handwriting and carefully laid out lines of maths, one alteration per line.
He wants to hold the pen from the wrong end and do it all in his head and expect me to follow it.
He rattles off some numbers and I can't follow what question he is on, so he has to start again.

Concentric Circles

Wow, I have just seen the bit of film showing people kneeling, not in rows as in all the news footage over the past year, but in perfect circles around the Kaaba in Mecca. Gosh, how very beautiful.

Of course, it makes sense, all round (!) the world people line up in rows towards Mecca, so actually being right there means a circle. So bigger circles are created all the time, but in interrupted segments. Back to my A level Maths, each portion of a circle is meant to be a tiny straight line. Voila, in real life.

More Maths..kettle and toast

How long does it take to boil a kettle of water?

My guess right now is 3.5 minutes.

And how long for toast to toast to the way H likes it, brown, but not burnt.

Hmm, maybe 2.5 minutes.

Interactive maths post

Square root of 4981 is 70.9, H's guess.

Competition time, please put the right answer in the comments box!