Don't Read Everything

Student: "What is the name of todays video?"

Me: "Rational Functions colon  Domain.  That is the two dots, not the word colon.

We wouldn't be find the domain of....   I'm not even going to finish that sentence."

**For non-math people the domain of a function is all possible things that can be plugged into a function.**

/headdesk

I'm not sure what's worse.  One of my students asking someone else for the answer to two minus seven, or the second student honestly giving a wrong answer.

Check Your Work

Student: "What am I doing wrong here?  This doesn't make sense."

Me: "Well 3 times -1 isn't 4."

Student: "Ohhhhh...."

Visual Learners

Me: "So, in our formula 'h' is the final height."

Student: "How do we know the final height? There aren't any more numbers."

Me: "Well our problem says the ball hits the ground.  What is the height of the ground?"

Student: "What? One?"

*I lay down on the floor*

Me: "How high am I off the ground?"

Student: "Zero?"

Me *still on the ground*: "Yaaay!"

Schooled

It doesn't happen very often but every once and a while a student will notice something math related that I have never considered.  This is a good feeling.

Caret

For exponents in a calculator the symbol "^" is used.  This is called a caret, and is pronounced the same as carrot.  I had a student my first year who insisted on calling it "a crater" every time.

Face of X

*Students are answering questions about functions*

Student 1: "Wait, what is this f(x)? Why isn't there a y?"
Me: "f is really the same thing as y."
Student 2: "Your face is the same thing as y."
Me: "Actually f stands for face."

Serious Business

*After a three day weekend*

Me: "Did anybody do anything fun this weekend?"

Student: "I did math at least once every day."

Me: "Oh, you did math almost as much as I did."

*Students laugh*

Me: "No, I am serious."

Old Skool

Throwback Thursday!  This is from my first year of teaching during a two week period of sharing my math class with an art class.

*Students are listening to rap*
Other teacher: "Would you turn it down?!? I am trying to listen to Slayer."