Beyond The Desk

Soooo, we’ve been working hard the past week on multiplying 2 digits by 2 digits and 3 digits by 3 digits. Most of the students are now fairly confident in this concept after a lot of examples and working together. This can be a difficult concept for the students especially if they try to rush through it and don’t put their numbers in the right spots because they are not doing their neatest work.

However, I thought I would share with you how we have been working through this concept so that you had an idea as to how the concept is being taught. It is probably different from the way you were taught as I know it was for me. So I did a little video using the smartboard software, an online screen recorder and a mike. The sound isn’t the best but turn up the volume and it should be fairly good. So sit back and enjoy my dulcet tones ringing through your speakers as I speak the gentle tones of mathematics! (Warning: It might be a little choppy depending on your internet speed. You might want to start it and then pause. That way it can load a little before you play it.)

I also found a neat article written by an astronaut who is actually up in space at this very moment. He has written a post on what it is like in space. Here is the article:

Living in space is all at once wonderful, and a royal pain. During my first mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia, I marveled at the sensation of freedom that came right after Main Engine Cut Off (MECO). I watched as tethered checklists floated gently back and forth, and it quickly became normal to release a camera lens in midair, as I removed the old one off of the camera to be replaced.

There was also a sense of dizziness, since the inner ear balance system wasn’t working so well. My head felt a little full, as if I were laying down on an incline, since there was no longer any gravity to pull fluids down to my extremities. In fact, the human body carries about two liters less water in space, than on the Earth.

But, it was amazing how quickly it became normal, just to fly head first down a hatchway, or to spin myself with a push off using just a few fingers. With a little practice, most astronauts get pretty graceful at flying through the spacecraft. Just don’t try it at home, back in gravity!

Large masses are easily moved around slowly, and it becomes second nature to orient yourself using only your vision.

However, what about all that other stuff?

Imagine how easy it is to lose something! Where did that pen go? Where is my thumb drive? Where is that photograph of my family? First place to check is the air filters. But there are plenty of dead zones of air inside, and things can be lost for a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or forever. If it’s critical, you had better keep it inside of a sealed bag, safely contained inside of a second larger mesh bag, tied off to a handrail.

What about eating in space? Hygiene? What is the coolest thing about being in space? What is the most difficult? Stay tuned, I’ll be writing about all of it. (From Gizmodo).

Finally, here in another poem for you to enjoy! Also, take a look at the comments from the last post as Stef has left a couple of really neat poems for us to enjoy!

Ladder to the Moon
by
X. J. Kennedy

If I had a ladder that reached to the moon
Up its trillions of rungs I’d go,
Higher than ever the clouds can fly
Till the earth was a ball below.

I’d put on my warm wool winter coat
And my long scarlet scarf in case
While I climbed my ladder straight up to the moon
It started to snow in space.

I’d sidestep a couple of shooting stars
And stand on the steepest hill
At the top of my ladder to the moon
If only the moon stood still.

©2009 X. J. Kennedy. All rights reserved.