Detective Rosa Diaz (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
died8yearsago) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2021-09-15 05:00 am
died8yearsago) wrote in fandomhigh2021-09-15 05:00 am
Entry tags:
Math; Wednesday, First Period [09/15].
If the students couldn't tell by the way Rosa came in just slightly behind the start of class and threw her math textbook (which looked like it had probably been thrown quite a few times as a variety of different things but mostly walls and possibly through at least one window) on the desk with a sigh that there was very clearly nothing else she would rather be doing right now that teaching another dumb math class. Definitely no actual work or anything she could be doing, nope, just math, apparently, but at least it would be over soon and eventually, she might even get to the point where she decided she wasn't going to let a stupid moose dictate her life like this, dammit.
That thought seemed to play in her mind a little as she looked at that book, but, this time, for yet another week, the moose and the book won out and she turned her attention to the students.
"Right," she said. "Algebra today. Which seemed to be where we lost some of you on the assessment test, so this should be fun. But most algebra isn't really that hard; some of it is ridiculous and stupid, sure, but the basic stuff is really just like solving a puzzle or a mystery. Or a crime. Where a or b or x is like the suspect, and you've got to figure out who it is so the rest of it all fits together. For example..."
She turned toward the board, saw that it was still a chalkboard despite her request to get it updated to a whiteboard so that, you know, certain claws weren't a bit of an issue anymore, wasn't at all surprised that her request had been ignored, and wrote out:
2 + a = 4
"This is an easy one," she said, which meant that if you struggled with it....yikes. "It's an addition problem, so all you have to do is use the opposite, subtraction, to figure out the value of a. What's 4 minus 2? 2. So two plus two will equal four. A is two. What else could it be? It can't be one, because two plus 1 equals three. It can't be three. Two plus three equals five. So, therefor, it has to be two."
Then she wrote out:
2 x b = 10
"This one's a bit harder. Multiplication. But we can use the opposite, division, to figure it out. What's 10 divided by two? Five. So B equals 5. Two times five? Ten. Not two times three. Not two times four. Two times five. Simple."
This was followed by:
2x + 3 = 9
"And now we're getting fancy. When you see one of the letters up next to a number like that, that means multiply. So what number, multiplied by two, plus three, gets us to nine? This is when we start breaking it down and really getting into the mystery. First, we can take care of that extra three. Get rid of it, it's just making things messy, so we're taking it away from nine. Nine minus three? Six. So now that that's out of the way, we have 2 times X equals six. Or, another way to look at it, six divided by two. Three. You times two by three to get six. X equals six.
"Same concept if it's minus:
4y - 4 = 12
"So, let's get rid of the minus 4 part by adding it to the 12. Sixteen. Now our equation is 4 times y equals 16. What's 16 divided by four? Four. You multiliply 4 by four to get sixteen. Minus 4 to make it twelve. Ta-dah. Y equals 4."
She set down the chalk, wiped some dust off her hands and realized that her black wardrobe was probably going to be a problem in this class until they changed that board, and turned to the class.
"You followed all that, right?" she asked, and, for their sake, she hopes that they did, because she didn't know how else to explain it and it should be interesting if they didn't. "Let's just....practice some of it, I guess. I'll call your name, you'll come up to the board," she winced in advance for Malia's turn, "I'll give you a problem, and we'll see if you can work it out, either by yourself or with help from the class. Or...something."
She didn't know. She didn't teach math!
That thought seemed to play in her mind a little as she looked at that book, but, this time, for yet another week, the moose and the book won out and she turned her attention to the students.
"Right," she said. "Algebra today. Which seemed to be where we lost some of you on the assessment test, so this should be fun. But most algebra isn't really that hard; some of it is ridiculous and stupid, sure, but the basic stuff is really just like solving a puzzle or a mystery. Or a crime. Where a or b or x is like the suspect, and you've got to figure out who it is so the rest of it all fits together. For example..."
She turned toward the board, saw that it was still a chalkboard despite her request to get it updated to a whiteboard so that, you know, certain claws weren't a bit of an issue anymore, wasn't at all surprised that her request had been ignored, and wrote out:
"This is an easy one," she said, which meant that if you struggled with it....yikes. "It's an addition problem, so all you have to do is use the opposite, subtraction, to figure out the value of a. What's 4 minus 2? 2. So two plus two will equal four. A is two. What else could it be? It can't be one, because two plus 1 equals three. It can't be three. Two plus three equals five. So, therefor, it has to be two."
Then she wrote out:
"This one's a bit harder. Multiplication. But we can use the opposite, division, to figure it out. What's 10 divided by two? Five. So B equals 5. Two times five? Ten. Not two times three. Not two times four. Two times five. Simple."
This was followed by:
"And now we're getting fancy. When you see one of the letters up next to a number like that, that means multiply. So what number, multiplied by two, plus three, gets us to nine? This is when we start breaking it down and really getting into the mystery. First, we can take care of that extra three. Get rid of it, it's just making things messy, so we're taking it away from nine. Nine minus three? Six. So now that that's out of the way, we have 2 times X equals six. Or, another way to look at it, six divided by two. Three. You times two by three to get six. X equals six.
"Same concept if it's minus:
"So, let's get rid of the minus 4 part by adding it to the 12. Sixteen. Now our equation is 4 times y equals 16. What's 16 divided by four? Four. You multiliply 4 by four to get sixteen. Minus 4 to make it twelve. Ta-dah. Y equals 4."
She set down the chalk, wiped some dust off her hands and realized that her black wardrobe was probably going to be a problem in this class until they changed that board, and turned to the class.
"You followed all that, right?" she asked, and, for their sake, she hopes that they did, because she didn't know how else to explain it and it should be interesting if they didn't. "Let's just....practice some of it, I guess. I'll call your name, you'll come up to the board," she winced in advance for Malia's turn, "I'll give you a problem, and we'll see if you can work it out, either by yourself or with help from the class. Or...something."
She didn't know. She didn't teach math!
Sign In - Math, 09/15.
Listen to the Lecture - Math, 09/15.
Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Talk to Rosa - Math, 09/15.
OOC - Math, 09/15.
Re: Sign In - Math, 09/15.
Re: Listen to the Lecture - Math, 09/15.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
After a moment to let Jo sweat it out a little longer, though, she went with mostly nice.
"10 + 5a = 20," she offered.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
The question sounded simple enough but Jo's mind had gone completely blank so she was alternating between staring helplessly at the board and then at Rosa all the while trying not to completely freak out.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Oh. Right. Teach.
So after looking back at the girl for a moment with lifted brows as she marveled over how apparently, she could have made it easier for her after all, she tried, "So you kind of want to work backwards," she offered. "Or, get rid of an element on one side, like that extra ten. What can we do to get that extra ten out of the equation to simplify it?"
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Re: Sign In - Math, 09/15.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
"Oh, I have certainly not woken up in a cold sweat thinking about this," Clare muttered, going to the board. "At least I'm wearing more than just knickers..."
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Still didn't mean she should be teaching one of them, but, damn.
Of course, so far, maybe it was just a British thing.
Rosa considered What's-Her-Face-Whose-Name-She'd-Literally-Just-Said for a moment, before making her decision.
"15 - 3a = 0."
Mostly, she wanted to see what would happen once she started throwing zeros around, too.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.
Re: Sign In - Math, 09/15.
Re: Listen to the Lecture - Math, 09/15.
Re: Class Activity: Algebra - Math, 09/15.