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 Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 3:45 pm
 Thinking over a bunch of prime numbers, Vivek decided to go for 101. Why would he pick such a large number you might ask? It was actually quite a simple one to be honest! ", My favorite prime number is 101. It is one after 100, and 100 is a very big number. I like big numbers, so 101 is what I picked!" Well, the logic behind it sounded better in his brain that it did coming out of his mouth.
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Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 2:52 pm
 Willow twitched his tail when it was his turn, giving a brief shrug. His favorite number? What kind of question was that? Why did anyone even have a number they favored, anyway? It was just a figure, that's it. He thought back, shrugging for a second time.
"Thirteen." He finally answered, shrugging for a third time. "Zaza sent in a form to adopt a stone from the cache. They got the acceptance letter on the thirteenth, and then the next day Lapis came home. So, it's my favorite number. It reminds me of her." Wait, that was embarrassing. His cheeks reddened, head turning to look at the window, nails tapping against the desk. Don't comment. Please don't comment.
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Posted: Tue Apr 26, 2016 5:00 pm
 Thank goodness this was an easy day in math! Well, less easy than it could be, really--honestly, most of Evey's favorite numbers, once she thought about them, weren't prime. Her favorite number, at the moment, at least, was four--she had four people in her family, so her favorite number was four. Maybe if she added up how many pets they had--that would be...she counted on her fingers. That would be ten. Well, that wouldn't do at all! Finally, she gave up. "I like the number one, if that counts as a prime number." She left out what one represented--the number of eyes she had. "I also like the number seven--" the number of eyes their family had together-- "but I think my favorite prime number is three. That's one for me, for Lillian, and for Talya--they're my best friends." Explanation complete, she sat back down in her seat. Awww. That was both really sweet and the number that Lillian was going to pick. Did that mean she had to rethink her answer? Or could she give the same answer someone else gave? Well, since Evey had said three, and someone else had already said three, then maybe she could say three as well? "I like the number three, too," she said. "I'm Evelyn's friend, and Talya's, too--there are three of us, so I like the number three. I also have three sealpups," she added. "I like the number five," Ved said firmly. "I dunno why I like the number five, but I really like the number five. It's my favorite prime number." Actually, he really liked the number two, and the number three, and so far as he could tell...yeah, those were both prime numbers, right? Math wasn't his strong suit, but he was pretty sure that's how it worked. But he didn't want to say three, because lots of people had already said three. He wanted to say something different, so he said five. It was a pretty good number, so he felt confident with it. Oo, favorite numbers. He had to pick a favorite prime number, right? Sound Lee had never really thought about it before, so he tried to think long and hard about what the answer would be. "Seventeen," he said softly. "My favorite prime number is seventeen." He paused. Were they supposed to give an explanation? He didn't really have one, but if they were supposed to, then he might as well... "I like the number seventeen because it hasn't been said yet. I feel like it gets forgotten a lot. That's also why I like the number eleven."
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:48 pm
 It took Keriga a long moment to think, trying to decide which one was his favorite. When it came to his turn, he heard himself blurt, "My favorite prime number is 5." He held out his hand, all fingers upright to show the number. "Because there are five people in my home, my mommies, my two brothers and me!" He gave a wide smile when he finished.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 3:09 pm
 When it came Meliae's time to talk, she smiled softly, "My favorite prime number is 1, because I was born on the first of the first month of the year." It was a rather simple answer, but she hoped it was enough of one. She couldn't really think of any other prime numbers that held a huge significance in her life.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2016 4:30 pm
Annie got excited about this question, answering with his little fists clenched. "My favorite number is two, because there's so many things there are two of! Two eyes, two ears, two legs... even my Flitterat has two wings!" Annie did, too, but he had forgotten about them.
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Posted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 10:52 pm
 Denidar frowned at the question, but after much tapping of his pencil against the table, he began to write:
I don't hate math. I'm not afraid of it. My dad's a numerologist, so when we were kids, he would help us out with our math. We never really developed a fear of math--I think he helped us out with it. I think a lot of kids are afraid of math because they never got enough help when they were younger. But I did, so I'm not afraid of it.
I guess my best suggestion for beating the fear of math is to open a study hall or a study group for teaching math to younger kids? That way, they can get help on their math from an early age and learn how to appreciate numbers and the way they all fit together. That's really the only thing I can think of--I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help.-------------------------  Unlike his twin, Raniol didn't spend any time staring off into space trying to think of an answer--he rushed into his paper straightaway.
I'm not afraid of math--it's just a subject, and while I'm nowhere near as good at it as my dad and my brother are, I'm actually pretty good at it? Like, I actually know how to do stuff. That always used to surprise my teachers at my old school. They thought I was cheating, so I always had to sit every exam twice. It got really old really fast, and I dunno why they kept doing that, maybe they thought I wasn't the sort to study?? Which is kind of unfair, y'know.
Actually, maybe that's the answer to your question--how to make math easier and less scary. Stop judging people who are good at it? Maybe? Like, stop sorting kids into "good at math" and "not good at math." Maybe you don't do that, I dunno, but some teachers do, maybe not necessarily at this school, but at others, yeah, they do that. And us students do it too, we divide everyone into groups, "good at math," and "not good at math." It puts a lot of social pressure onto us, which is, like, not fun. So if we remove the social pressure, and just treat everyone equally? Praise everyone instead of just the "smart kids" who are good at math?
Or if we are going to divide everyone, we could, like...pair each not-good with a good, and have the good's grade depend on the not-good, so that the good has motivation to teach the not-good.
Maybe that will just encourage cheating. I dunno, then, just ignore my answer, please? I dunno, it looks stupid now.-------------------------  Quilo smiled. This was an excellent subject for a math class! And not only because he didn't have to do any actual math...
Math is my least favorite class, so I'm glad that you brought up the fear of math in this class!
I've never really thought about why I don't like math before--it's just something I didn't like. Now that I have to think about it, though, I think what I don't like about math is that I don't understand it--not really, anyway. Whenever we come across something new in social studies or language arts, they always take time to explain everything to us, why it matters, and why it is so. We don't do that much in math--sometimes, when we're doing algebra, I can't figure out where the numbers came from and where they went to. It would be nice if we could take things more slowly, and have more explanations, so we know how things work. It would certainly make homework a lot easier, since then we'd know how to solve the problem when we can't just ask you for an answer!
Thank you for taking the time to ask us for feedback! I hope I've been helpful.-------------------------  Kunibert glared at the page, as if demanding it explain itself to him. When it became clear that it would not, he huffed a sigh and got to work.
I don't like math because it seems so pointless. I don't see how I'm ever going to use this in my real life, or in my future, or in anything. I can take a science class and apply what I learn, I can take social studies and apply what I learn, but I can't apply what I learn in math. I feel like I'm wasting my time in this class.
He paused. That all sounded very negative, but it was also the honest truth, and he felt like this was the best time to admit to the truth.
Also, there aren't enough diagrams in this book, it's all just numbers and such. I learn better from diagrams--they break up the monotony a bit. So maybe if we could have more diagrams, and if we could have some lessons about what math is used for, that would be better than what we have now.-------------------------  Hm...well, now, that was a very good question, from Naihilus's point of view. He took a few moments to ponder his answer before setting the pencil to the page.
I get easily overwhelmed in math, I think. I see a whole page full of numbers and letters, and they start to blur together in my mind until I can't tell the difference between one and the other. I'm not sure what causes that, so I don't have any concrete suggestions on what could be done to make things easier. I guess it would be nice if we could take things more slowly--or if we could spend more time doing things on the board, though I don't know if that would help. Maybe we could take short little breaks?
Honestly, I don't know if I have any good suggestions to help. I haven't really thought about my feelings about math--I'm not even sure if I hate it or not. I do know that it just isn't for me. I don't think I'll ever be a mathematician someday--I don't know what I would even use this knowledge for besides teaching.
Actually, I suppose to solve my "overwhelming problem," I could use sheets of paper to block out the rest of the page. I think that's what I'll do, it will help me at least.-------------------------  Math was just not Sara's strong point. Point of fact, it was her least favorite class. It was nice, then to have an opportunity where she got to write something out instead of having to solve problems for once.
Although, she supposed, they were solving a problem right now. A big one.
I think my biggest problem with math is that it's overwhelming and it is not intuitive. Science is just a whole bunch of explanations strung together, getting more and more detailed, while social studies is a series of interconnected stories. Math is...abstract. That makes it more difficult to understand, and makes it less charismatic, you could say. Some people do have a natural knack for it--my father and my brothers do, certainly--but I'm not one of them. I just don't find it as easy as they do.
I think the best thing we could do to lessen the fear of math is to have tutoring available for students who are struggling with math--possibly taught by students who are really quite good at it? That way, we can learn the techniques that our peers use and maybe, if some of them used to be afraid of math back in the day, they can teach us how they overcame it. I'm a bit of an anthropologist, though, so I suppose that's why I always have to add a mare-dream element to everything, but I really do believe that would help make math less intimidating to folks. It should preferably be available to all students of all ages, even if they're freshlings.
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Posted: Tue May 03, 2016 2:41 pm
 A bit conflicted by the assignment Nimbus had to sit there a minute, eyes fixed on the blank paper before starting to write. I rather enjoy math, the idea of being afraid of it is mildly confusing to me. Perhaps if someone is not good at the subject they might fear failing a class, but fearing math itself does not seem logical.
The best way I find to overcome possible failure is to put a little more time into studying whatever subject it is that I am unsure on. In this case it would be math but this works with any subject really. If all else fails having a friend quiz you can be quite helpful, less staring at writing and more verbal for those who learn better that way.
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Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 8:18 am
 Frit flailed her feet underneath her desk. This was fun! A class that required thinking and such, but it was also hard. These prime number thing. Frit tapped her pencil on her paper, thinking thinking. The imp wrote down the number "1" first. The number seemed to fit the rule. She thought about "2", yeah, that number worked... As the imp caught on to the hang of things she wrote down more numbers. It was actually kind of fun, this game of finding prime numbers, and soon Frit had a list. The imp looked down at the numbers. "2" was the only even number that was prime. The imp thought about that, then circled the number two, making it stand out. "Two!" she called out, only glaring a little at any other kid that chose two as well. "Its the only even prime number."
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Posted: Thu May 05, 2016 10:50 am
Oh a written assignment! As much as he was trying to get over his fear of public speaking, it was really crawling along. The fallen sat at his desk, propping his head up with his arm. He actually kind of liked math, there were a few things about it that he didn't like, but overall it was a pretty enjoyable subject. He liked the fact that math was always the same. If you did the equation right there was only one correct answer. With many other subjects it came down to context and multiple answers could be right.
Esrael picked up his pencil and began writing, 'I can understand that to many people math is extremely intimidating and not fun at all. Math is one of my favorite subjects but sometimes looking at a math test and seeing all the numbers accompanied by letter and symbols can be daunting. The way I get through that is by taking it one problem at a time. I try not to get too caught up on the big picture until I solve all the little things first.' He wrote his name at the top of the paper, dated it, and walked it up the the teacher's desk.
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2016 7:36 am
You all passed!
mewmew kittykat94 Pyxi, Taaffeite, Annabelle, Moka
smolderingskies Maerad, Jeanette, Brynn (Judas would like her to know that he did not appreciate the sass, hahahaa. she wasn't docked points for it, though), Annie
Geyser Eelborn Evelyn, Lillian, Vederat, Sound Lee, Denidar, Raniol, Quilo, Kunibert, Naihilus, Melisara
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