Brush Up Your Math Day 2

Besides the fact that we must use math daily, or to solve special problems, it can also, be good for our mental health.

According to the organization Alzheimer’s Prevention

we can do several things to reduce our risks such as manage stress, include physical exercise in our routine, watch our nutrition and include mental exercise, too.

In general, brain fitness should include these key goals:

Be a life-long learner.
Learn a new skill or something new every day.
Try in with the new—novel intellectual tasks—and out with the old—repetition of over-learned tasks. Shaking up a routine makes your brain work harder.
Embrace mental challenges.

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Here’s the next math challenge. It’s a problem in probability and statistics, and oh so useful if you don’t want to pack too much. Pack? Where are we going? It could be a cruise or perhaps a trip to a tropical destination.

Georgette has 8 different tops and 5 pair of different style blue jeans for a trip to Cancún. How many different outfits can she create using 1 top and 1 pair of jeans a day for her week long stay?

LESSON: One figures probability by multiplying the numbers in sets.
HINT: Multiply the number of tops by the number of jeans.

elinterior.com

Yesterday’s answer? The third box Ultimate Desserts Truffles gift box (24 pieces = $50.00). You all picked it. But if you selected “None of the above”, I’d say you were right, too.

Come back tomorrow for the answer to today’s challenge.

Brush Up Your Math Day 1

As you may know, I taught foreign languages on the high school level for a number of years. I loved it because it included so many enjoyable aspects: travel, art history, studying literature and how people think…psychology if you will. I have known since I was twelve I would be a teacher. But what would I teach? I knew studying Spanish would fulfill me in the long run. At times, I wondered what I would have taught if not Spanish? I think Math would have been my close second, then English.

Math was one of those classes in school I fit into my schedule every year. When I got to college and found out, I didn’t have to take math any more, I felt a bit bewildered and disoriented. What would I do without it? NOT. So, I continued to sign up for math classes and missed earning a minor in math by one course. Gradually, I weaned myself away from a discipline that had demanded so much throughout the pre-college years.

You probably know, or perhaps you don’t, that testing drives our curriculum nowadays. Teaching to the test and not necessarily for the joy of learning sadly seems to prevail. There were many meetings where our administrators asked the elective teachers to write a plan of how we would contribute to the CORE tested subjects: English, Math, Science and Social Studies. We were told we had to incorporate at least one other CORE discipline into our elective classes. Yes, there was a lot of grumbling!

So one summer I created word problems and more word problems addressing all the tested objectives in math. The project became Math in Culture. Surprisingly, I found it wasn’t a chore! I wrote a few problems, which led to even more. I couldn’t wait to get to the computer at our curriculum writing round table. One word problem led to another and by the time the project was completed I had over a hundred Spanish, French and German culturally related problems!

At first, my students were confused. “This is Spanish class, not math.” “Just one problem a day,” I told them. Soon they took it in stride and began to understand the connections between math and culture. The realization set in, yes, it is all around us. At the end of that year, math scores in our building did climb. “It was those Math in Culture problems,” one student laughed. Oh, how I love a team effort and “ah-ha” moments.

So I have decided to post a problem a day in the context of culture. I thought I’d post one a day through Sunday. If we can take on the A-Z challenge, we can take on one digit, two digits, three digits…more!

Here’s the first one. Read through it and then post your answer in the poll box. No stress, no calories, no exercise pain. Try it!
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The first problem is easy and has to do with division and chocolate, Godiva chocolate. No, this was not one of the problems my students calculated, but it is one I calculate carefully around the holidays.

photo via wiki commons

Godiva chocolate is a popular export item from Belgium. Georgette would like to purchase a box with the best value. The boxed choices include the following: Signature Chocolate Truffle assortment (4 pieces = $10.00); Spring Truffle Gift box (6 pieces = $15.00); Ultimate Desserts Truffles gift box (24 pieces = $50.00); Signature Box Truffle assortment (18 pieces = $40.00). Which box offers the best value per truffle?

I’ll post the answer tomorrow.

Do you remember? National Teacher Appreciation Week May 7 – 11

“Teachers affect eternity, one never knows where their influence stops” Henry Adams

georgettesullins.wordpress.com

Do you remember your primary and secondary teachers? I sat here in my chair that swivels and rocks and put myself to the challenge. This is part of what I remember. I invite you to take the poll, and yes, I’ll press publish.

I remember…

first grade
Johnson in PA
Hovell in NJ – We moved in the middle of the year
second grade
Kaloden -I don’t remember much, but yes, I do remember her name and I had a crush on Richard.
third grade
Perkins – She taught me to love reading chapter books and I developed another crush on Ken.
fourth grade
Trotter – very pretty
fifth grade
Smith – She let me create murals for the bulletin boards and she liked my silly poems.
sixth grade
Foreman – She encouraged my writing and I met my bff Peggy.
piano lessons after school on Fridays
Ellison – concert pianist from Estonia – she taught me to love music!
Macormack – greatly encouraged me to sing – wonderful man
seventh grade
Franklin – language arts – She taught us to diagram sentences and made us memorize 300 lines of poetry. I thank her for remembering “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, “The Wonderful One-hoss-shay”, “Trees” by A. Joyce Kilmer. She worked hard and I admired how she juggled family with us 7th graders never compromising her teaching.
Kirkham – modern math – She was tough and I was afraid of her…in a good way.
Talkington – Spanish – I loved the class!
I don’t remember, it was PE
Prestwood – science – She had a classic approach. We produced a college grade notebook of drawings of all the phyla of animals, class, family and she even had us catching bugs in the spring, 25 of them that were mounted and identified in two cigar boxes. And we collected 35 leaves pressed and identified in a book. I can’t help but think nowadays, that a parent note espousing some objection, would exempt a student from the rigor of these projects. Sheeesh.
Prestwood – Texas History
eighth grade – Amburg – English. She taught me never to write something I wouldn’t want read. Clearly, a woman ahead of her time anticipating the internet.
Strange – American history and our bus driver
Osbourne – Math – very good – my dad got relief as this teacher even taught algebra before I really took it.
Cosper – Art – I made a tile mosaic that mother hung in the family room for a while.
I don’t remember, it was PE again
Cruise – Science – she understood and conveyed a love for geology and marine life.
ninth grade
Crouch – Alabama history – She was from Texas. Yes, by the 9th grade I had taken 2 state histories. In her class I learned Alabama was the 14th colony!
Algebra – ? – Her reaction to my “modern math” background. “That’s the problem with modern math. You don’t learn the basics.” My reaction: “Just give me the formulas.” And learn them I did.
Spanish – Watson
English – Galloway – among the best teachers I ever had. She published my first poems.
Home Ec – Balentine, cute as her name, like a Valentine. I learned a lot about sewing and cooking. I still have her recipe for pie crust!
Choir – Bruton – she cast me in a musical.
tenth grade
? – English
Walterhouse – social studies – retired army colonel, Viet Nam vet, nice man
Binchadler – biology – modern from an ecological point of view
Williamson – Another one among the best teachers I ever had – from Spain, red headed, really taught me about Spanish and introduced me to Dalí.
Bailey – Algebra II – My dad got relief that year. She taught me a lot of math.
PE – Why can’t I remember those PE teachers’ names?
eleventh grade
Fumero – social studies
MacDonald – English – very good – The Great Gatsby, W.B. Yeats, ee cummings
Paddock – Spanish – There weren’t many of us in the class.
? – chemistry
Garrison – geometry – Excellent!!!
Pitts – French – Excellent, she loved French
twelfth grade
MacDonald – again – English – didn’t mind a bit having her again
Fumero – again – social studies
Paddock – again – Spanish – independent study
Blackwelder – French
Garrison – again – Trigonometry and College Algebra, now there was a math teacher!
swim team – Dr. Constans – now there was a coach!

Do you remember?

Pear Blossoms and Cuttin’ Up

In the spring I enjoy the pear tree at the farm. First the blossoms, then the pears in June. I loved a picture of my MIL and FIL by the blossoming pear tree. We miss them terribly, and I’m still searching for that one picture. As a matter of fact…

We have a picture
I know not where
of Papa ‘n Grandma
among the pears.

Looking and searching
I found these instead
Papa and Grandma just cuttin’ up.
Papa and Grandma when they were 60 years wed.

If you can visualize it, this picture was taken opposite the pear tree in the spring. The fence is kind of nice too.

Happy Birthday to My Brother

My brother and I share something very special. We both were born in Mexico…and so was sibling #3.

My brother and me

He has my father’s name and he is the only among us who doesn’t have a middle name.

He paved the way for the rest of us, as he is the oldest of us four. He took this responsibility seriously, and so he became a very serious fellow.

Whatever he did, we followed. I must say he is the one who taught me to sail. And, he became a superb swimmer, so I figured that was my athletic path to follow, too. Tag-along sister. He had nice friends and his friends always respected him. He is as unyielding as my mother in the integrity department. No white lies. No playing jokes on folks. Always a good word. Boring? Not. When forced into difficult situations as an adult, I would wonder, “What would Scip do?” If a situation was difficult, I learned through his example most of the time, just removing myself from the equation was if not the easiest, the more prudent path. That’s not to say we avoided problems. We have faced them, and have fought the ones worth fighting.

He is an electrical engineer, in the field of double E, engineers call it. My favorite story about him is a favorite of my mother’s. She has told it time and time again. My mother wanted to wash clothes one afternoon when the lights went out in a storm. I assume it was a storm, but then the electricity could be intermittent and not that reliable in our Mexican neighborhood. As my mother proceeded to prepare to do the washing, my brother, future double E in the making, reminded her, “No hay luz!” “No lights, Mom”, ergo no electricity. He was only 3 or 4 at the time.

Another family story that my father enjoyed retelling about my brother had to do with beverages. Here, tequila. It was from dad’s occasional special drink, that my brother came to call any and every beverage “tequila”. One day, the family went to the Club Reforma for a swim. The story goes that dad gave him a few pesos to get something to drink. “See the waiter over there? Tell him what you would like to drink.” My brother went over to the waiter, but no sooner had he gone to place his little order that the waiter came back with him. “Pero señor, pidió tequila.” “But sir, he ordered tequila.” Everything to drink for my brother had become the word “tequila”. Of course, they sorted through it all and he was brought something suitable like lemonade. Again, he was probably only 3 or 4 at the time.

My brother earned a master’s in electrical engineering and he pursued a career that took him to Germany, Belgium, Panama and back to the States. He married my sister-in-law and they have three daughters…very different. One in medical school, one whose pictures I used in my post “Sevilla: Now and Then” and then one who was crowned a Prom Queen.

Once when he came for a visit, I’ll always remember how my very sensible brother looked at a year long calendar taped to the back of a kitchen door in our home. Every week had been carefully marked with activities and after school lessons and practices. “Now that is a busy schedule,” he laughed shaking his head. I preceded him having children. Yes, I remember that, and still chuckle at what his schedule came to look like too, as he volunteered to coach the girls’ soccer teams and official swim meets. I’m not talking behind his back, because being the sister I am, I have reminded him of that. I’m so glad he can take it easier now, now that he and my SIL are empty nesters. He took the job as Dad very seriously, serious fellow that he is. Happy Birthday, Scip. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday to my brother in the green.

What are the chances?

What are the chances you can see something as grand as the Grand Canyon? It’s been there for millions of years, hasn’t moved. Our family planned a trip and yes, because it never moved we easily found it in AZ. We have been filled with wonder visiting it several times. What are the chances that one will climb a pyramid in Mexico? It hasn’t moved either in almost a thousand years. So secure in the knowledge it would be there, we scheduled a trip so that our daughters would have such an opportunity to take in a view of the valley of Mexico after climbing hundreds of steps. There are wonderful things to see that are always there, that we can schedule to see on our own time. Then, what are the chances we will see another rocket launch from FL? Now that hangs in the balance.

And here’s one that has happened only once. What are the chances that over 30 of Johannes Vermeer’s paintings would be assembled together in one place, considering his total production was only about 36 paintings that we know about? Don’t know Vermeer? He painted Girl with a Pearl Earring//. Back in 1995 a rare occurrence took place. Over 30 of Vermeer’s paintings were assembled at the National Gallery of Art. Now when you consider that in the month of December of 1995 our government shut down including the NGA, it seemed this amazing event in the art world just might not happen. I couldn’t believe that such an effort was in danger of never happening. As soon as the exhibit opened, the National Gallery of Art closed its doors. However, Alexander Haig came to the rescue finding private funding to assure this never before assembled exhibit could be viewed and attended by thousands. It almost wasn’t meant to be. But it was.

When I learned that this event was to happen, and considering my sister and brother lived in the DC area, I knew I had to take our daughters to visit Uncle Scip and Aunt A between Christmas and New Year’s. My husband encouraged me to take the trip. We planned to make it happen.

And it did. One day between Christmas and New Years, Aunt ‘gette, got everyone up early, very early from sister’s house in VA, as she knew the lines would be long. My daughters, sister, brother, sister-in-law, nieces and I arrived around 6:00 in the morning with the museum scheduled to open around 10:00. It was cold, very cold. My sister dressed me in winter silks, also known as long underwear. The girls borrowed their cousins’ winter gear. Aunt ‘gette did good, because when we arrived, although the line was already long, at least we could see the door. We made “line buddies.” The fellow in front of us, a grad student from NYU, had driven down. The temperature was in the -teens. Brrr…it was so cold. The cousins spent the cold hours together visiting.

And then we were ushered in, only a certain number at a time. My parents had had an art book of Jan Vermeer’s paintings on the coffee table or the book shelf. As a young girl, I had spent hours leafing through the pages over and over again loving the human quality captured in each painting. I also noticed every painting had a light source. So as I remembered that book, I was amazed that at that moment in time, on that day in December of 1995, I was really viewing the majority of his works assembled together here at the NGA, and not collected in a book. I was surprised by the size of Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, 63 x 56 inches, much bigger than I had imagined. And similarly I was surprised by the size of The Girl with a Red Hat, 9 x 7 inches, much smaller than I ever visualized. In fact it was painted on wood and not on canvas.

The Girl with a Red Hat, Jan Vermeer, postcard image

It was warm inside the gallery, and the light captured in each of Vermeer’s paintings made everything warmer! Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, The Milkmaid, A Woman Holding a Balance, The Astronomer, The Geographer and A Lady Standing at the Virginals were all there depicting light pouring in from a left hand window. Some works had no windows but suggested the presence of light as in The Lacemaker. As the young girl concentrates on her work, she is dependent on good light to complete it. Her yellow jacket is bright from reflecting the light source.

I have no favorites. Each painting delivers not only a human sensitivity and understanding of its subject, but also shows an artist who was aware of the scientific aids of his time, aids that made colors brighter, fields of focus more clear or obscured. One has the sense that this artist is not just painting but also practicing the art of science using the science and mathematics available to him at the time: lenses, mirrors, the camera obscura, calculated vanishing points. The View of Delft is fascinating in its detail and texture: water, reflections on water, blue sky and varying shades of clouds, a brick bridge, tile roofs and always his bright light shining here into the interior of the city.

"View of Delft" by Johannes Vermeer in a poster print announcing the exhibition of his works at the National Gallery of Art, November - February, 1995-1996

I have no favorites. View of Delft hangs in our dining room. And so does Girl with a Pearl Earring.

And The Milkmaid hangs in our breakfast room.

The Milkmaid, Jan Vermeer, museum print from the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam

What are the chances that all these paintings would congregate together, and not just be collected in a book? Unlike the Grand Canyon or a pyramid, they are scattered again far and wide back in their home museum or private collection.

Have you ever seen something in a book present itself larger than life and all around you?

“Mom, now where are we going?”

Back in the 90′s when daughter #1 turned 16, I thought it was time for us to take a trip together. Around the same time a colleague and her husband had been transferred by his company to Port of Spain, Trinidad. We corresponded the year she was away, and she invited us to visit. She didn’t know anyone there. Trinidad sounded lovely. It was a place we had never been. What an opportunity I thought, so I took her up on her invitation. It had been a hard year, our daughter’s sophomore year…as a high school teacher I had anticipated that…sophomore year is tough. My good friend, a former teacher and counselor understood and welcomed us with loving arms.

My passport was in order, but daughter #1′s had to be renewed quickly. We waited in line at a government building in Houston one morning, and we secured it the very next day! I couldn’t believe it…yes, our government is at work. This trip was in the making. I had only decided on it in May and by the first week of June we were there!

It all happened “lickety-split”.

At the airport my daughter was excited to notice that Hakeem Olajuwon, a Houston Rockets basketball player was boarding the plane with us. He went to first class, we took our seats in coach. As we took our seats, she reached for a little book she had brought to read on the plane. Her school had created a small book of quotable quotes that each teacher had contributed. The very first quote she found was “The baskets you don’t score, are the ones you don’t shoot.” “You’ve got to get Hakeem’s autograph on that page,” I encouraged. She got out of her seat, went up the aisle into first class and did just that before the plane took off.

So far so good. That was a good sign.

“Mom, now where are we going?” Everything had happened so fast. All I had told her was we were visiting Mrs. R and her husband in the Caribbean, but exactly where, I didn’t know. It had been the end of the school year for her and for me too, and I hadn’t even given that a thought. I knew it was tropical. I was certain we would have adventures…why, she had already gotten Hakeem’s autograph! The prospect of visiting my friend and a chance to get away with my daughter were the only things I had considered.

So I reached for the airline magazine looking for a map. “Oh my goodness,” I gasped. We’re practically going to South America! I knew Trinidad was a Caribbean Island, but I didn’t know it was just a few miles off the coast of Venezuela!

Our adventure continued on the plane. There was another celebrity! Miss Trinidad-Tobago was also, on the flight and she had just won the Miss Universe pageant the month before! I was so grateful, this impromptu trip was turning out better than anything I could have planned.

Hours into our flight, flying over the islands below us, the captain pointed out Guadeloupe, Martinique and Barbados. Inside the plane, a colorful figure went to the front of our cabin and began entertaining us with songs and his portable tin-pan. The adventure continued!

When we landed, it was great to see the familiar face of my friend and her husband. We made our way to the car, and her husband suggested that my friend and I sit in the back seat, and my daughter sit in the front seat. She immediately went to the front right door upon which Mr. R handed her the car keys. “What?” She was clearly confused. “Well, if you take that seat you’ll be driving,” he laughed. This island followed the protocol of driving on the left side of the road and their car was English. He drove.

My daughter at our friend's house in Trinidad georgettesullins.wordpress.com

The days went by quickly. We went into Port of Spain and visited the Queen’s Park Oval, the National Museum, Fort George, the Gingerbread House, walked past the President’s House, the Queen’s Park Savannah and of course, we went shopping! We spent a day at Macaras Beach on the north end of the island. My daughter’s souvenirs for her friends were photographs of their names written in the sands of the beach.

Our final day of touristing, my friend took us to the art studio of Llanos and Maigot. Llanos created charming sculptures of rural life in Trinidad. I picked up two small ones for us and managed to secretly purchase a grand piece, “The Hibiscus House” for our friends as a thank you for hosting us. Right before we left for the airport for our return flight, I left it upstairs on our bed rather than present it to her…I didn’t want to run the risk of her insisting that we keep it. And so we left for the airport without a hitch saying good-bye to the memories that were meant to be.

Fruit Stand, Trinidad, Llanos and Maigot, georgettesullins.wordpress.com

Cannon by well, Trinidad, Llanos and Maigot, georgettesullins.wordpress.com