grams88 Blog

[kaywhyn]

Thanks Kaywhyn for your comments and kind words. Interesting what you were saying there. I do find that I take longer with tasks and notice people do these things a lot faster than myself. I usually take longer when I'm replying to an e-mail or replying to someone. I remember we were all filling out the application forms for (the samaritans) as I was wanting to become a listening volunteer. Everyone else finished filling out the forms and I was the last one to finish it as I was probably double-checking everything on the form making sure I was answering the questions correctly.  I have (autistic spectrum disorder) which I don't mind sharing here. I think I was always a bit slower with things, I remember taking a bit longer to understand a concept. You are right, we are all capable, I feel.

My pleasure I definitely know what it's like, as I too like to take my time on things. I'm a huge advocate of "baby steps" instead of the "look before you leap" approach. Although, I probably still fall victim to the latter anyway when it comes to LPing level packs, but only because I feel like I put the game on pause for far longer than I need to, and I think viewers like to see the LPer solving rather than just wonder when he/she will actually start assigning skills and all Still, I'm happy to hear that you really enjoyed my LP of your Nuked Lems pack. I definitely have plans to LP your Ski Slope Lems as well. Stay tuned for that whenever that comes

Another thing I want to point out is that it really pains me to see special needs people being teased and bullied. This is definitely not acceptable in my eyes, and certainly something that I will not tolerate in the classroom, as it's never ok to make fun of those who are less abled. Really, those people need to ask themselves if they would like it if they were in the shoes of someone suffering from a disorder and were being made fun of. It's quite hurtful.

Are you the math teacher in School Kaywhyn? It's a very deep subject and it was something I did not too bad when I was at college and school, maybe I could have done better. I notice it is a very hard subject. I did take math up to a higher-level but I can't remember if I went any further than this. A great subject maths and probably one of the hardest subjects I would say in my opinion. I remember getting frustrated because I never understood something argggggggg

That I am I'm currently qualified to teach up through Calculus/Stats at the high school level, although I took the former while in high school. The only Stats courses I took was while I was in college for my math major, although I believe where you're from you use "university" instead? It's definitely a regional thing, since where I'm from, the USA, it's more common for you to hear "college" instead, but both college and university are synonymous with one another. Stats definitely destroyed me, though, though maybe it wouldn't had had I taken it while in high school, but my understanding is that you either take Calculus or Stats, but not both, as they're generally courses that you take in your senior year of high school. Unfortunately, if I'm ever asked to teach Stats, I would have to do a lot of studying/brushing up on it.

I also have a Master's in math, which allows me to teach math at the community college level. I believe if I am to be a professor at the university level, I would have to obtain a PhD. I'm not exactly sure about the requirements, but I believe all the college professors I have had do have at least a Doctorate.

Back when I was in college, I remember almost never ever leaving a midterm/final exam early, because I was quite obsessed with constantly double-checking my work. There were times I did leave early after finishing, but that's usually because I was so over it and didn't really care anymore and at that point I'm pretty much whatever happens happens. Other than those odd times where I left early, I generally stayed until the very end of the exam.

Math is definitely a difficult subject, especially once you get into algebra. From a student's point of view, I found this quite confusing, as I myself didn't have too much trouble when I was going through various math courses in middle and high school. Admittedly, it's probably because I had math textbooks that I could read over the summer before I took the associated course come the fall time. However, I definitely have a much better understanding of why students struggle with math now that I'm looking at it from an instructor's point of view. I'm often amused at how certain students even made it into Algebra 1 or higher, as success is very dependent on your mastery of math concepts from previous math courses, as the concepts build on each other to help you learn the newer and harder material. Along with non-mastery of the mathematical concepts in previous courses, usually I find that the biggest reason why so many students struggle with Algebra is because it has a lot of very abstract concepts. For example, many students who get to Algebra 1 still don't know how to do fractions or decimals. There's a lot of everyday terms that mean something completely different in math, like "function" for example. So really, it's almost like learning a new language once you get to Algebra. Even worse, it only gets harder from there once you get to Geometry, Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus. As my high school AP Calculus teacher once said, "It's not the calculus that students don't get, it's the algebra."

Thus, I cannot take my students' knowledge of previous math concepts for granted. There's the whole keeping a steady pace through the curriculum, but at the same time review will be necessary since there will definitely be certain concepts that students will struggle with more than others.

[grams88]

Hi Kaywhyn 

When I was at college I use to hang around with the special needs students as a lot of them were very friendly. I remember meeting a man who people were making fun of him or winding him up. I started to talk to him and he seemed like a really nice man. I hope I still get to see him in the future, he was a special needs student at the college. We always had some interesting conversations about topics such as football and many other topics. I thought it was a bit sad that the mainstream students usually stayed together, not really hanging around with the special needs students. I always found that kind of sad but that's that I suppose. I'm hoping to maybe having my book published around the start of next year or even earlier. The main idea behind the story is four characters who talk about their OCD, all four characters have the same OCD as myself which is harm OCD. The one I have is where I get thoughts and urges to do bad things, for example, my mind could tell me to send a horrible e-mail to someone. Usually, if I see a story in the news it tends to panic me as I imagine myself being the person who is committing the crime. Days can be tough but getting out and about has been an important thing for me as I can challenge the OCD, a lot of OCD sufferers might not go out much due to their condition which I think is a sad one. Yes, baby steps is a good approach, Interesting what you were saying there about the Lper the level packs. I think that's what makes a good let's play as you were saying about it being more action and less pause and think. The Skii Sloping lemmings might not be the best pack out there as I remember there being a lot of levels being a building fest and some of the later levels might have had a precism element to them. I would there are some good levels in the pack but I wouldn't say the skii sloping level pack was my biggest achievement. You might like the pack a lot. I remember removing two or three levels from the skii sloping lemmings as one of them was just basically using too many builders and it would probably get very boring for the person playing the level.

I remember in Maths we did flow charts and I remember when I was trying to draw everything things never went too well. I got more use to it the more that I was doing it. We did some statistics and boolean algebra if I have the name right. The funny thing recently was I was looking up a few maths terms which were to do with statistics such as looking at the mode, median, and mean of statistics. I found it quite interesting. Math is actually a brilliant subject as it is everywhere. You Picked a good subject to teach Kaywhyn.

You might find certain students have their weaknesses and strengths when it comes down to math. I remember back in school we did some mental math which was quite good, we had ten questions and we got to see how many of them we got right.

Interesting what you were saying about the exams, yes I agree use most of the time, I guess that's what the time is there for. I remember doing a modern studies exam and there was a lot of writing involved I got a scribe who do the writing for me. I thought it helped a lot. I remember a lot of the answers had to have a lot of words in them. I did my modern studies on China and Crime and punishment which were both very interesting subjects. I always thought the whole debate about the death penalty was always interesting. Everyone tends to have their own views on it. (Me not like the death penalty)

I remember when I was first learning algebra I didn't understand it at all. I remember my dad gave my brother and I this algebra question and it took me a long time to figure it out. Mind you I was very young at the time, can't quite remember what age I was. Algabra is a great subject to learn, yeah as you were saying it does trick a lot of us who are very new to the concept.   

[grams88]

Hi everyone

Been having a busy time with things. I might talk about things I've been up to and maybe other things.

I got my book published and is available on a lot of different book stores such as Barnes and Noble and many other ones. I got it self published on paperback. Now one thing in relation to spelling mistakes and grammar. I felt like I tried to get rid of a lot of the errors and did my best but they are still some, I'm going to say yes there is a bit of mistake here and there in the book.

Could I make a request if you are wanting to leave a review even if you do think it is not that good, could you leave a good review.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Harm-Ocd-Exploration-Graeme-Currie/dp/1365670074?msclkid=1504b026abcb11ec9c8e4b90733f5114

It's also on many other websites such as Barnes and Noble, Walmart and many other ones such as Goodreads. This is technically my first paperback book which I'm proud how it all turned out.

The main idea of the book is focused on what harm Ocd is and the fictional characters talk about their day to day life and what thoughts they get on a daily basis. I thought who would be best to explain it being from a harm Ocd sufferer such as myself. The harm thoughts the individual talk about are very real as these are the thoughts I get personally. Hope anyone who does give it a read learns more about the harm Ocd theme and how much torture the sufferer feels on a day to day basis.

I might be starting back at the volunteering very soon. That's some of the volunteers coming back and hoping to come back myself and if possible go back to the trolly service where we go round the wards offering the tuck shop service type of thing. I enjoy talking to patients who are always very friendly. We will be having to wear the mask all the time which is very understandable.

I'm also going to try my hand at becoming an extra on TV shows, I've been in contact with a company or agency and just need to get all my details such as height, weight probably. The company seem legit and are very helpful. Getting involved might mean I would probably have to wear a costume or something to that but it does have its pros and cons such as the costume might be very uncomfy. There is a good chance I could be an extra or supporting actor in a known TV show on netflix but it is still to be decided. THere is a lot of talk about the NDA, or non-disclosure agreement where I won't be able to discuss what show or thing it is.

My gran has been making steady progress, hoping to maybe walk without using the zimmer, still don't know if this is a good idea or a bad one but her carers are hopeful for that to happen. She has four or three carers that come in at different times of the day to help her with things such as cooking her a meal or general house cleaning. THey have been very helpful. I hot her a big monkey soft teddybear type toy. I called the Monkey George and Gran loves the monkey, she put glasses on the monkey and the monkey is sitting on her other seat. I thought it gives her something to talk about and it got the carers laughing.

Her eyesight and hearing are getting worse but she is okay when using the telephone, she struggles with the Alexa device where she can't hear you at all and you can hear everyone talking louder. I do feel sorry for her in that regard. My mum always makes a good point by saying she is 98 years old what do you expect.

One other thing I was wanting to add, was I notice Mobius was talking about the word game where you have to get as many words as possible. I think you guys would love word yatchze which is one of the games located on the hoyle board or table games.