Oh, it's variety night tonight dear diary. Can't keep the head clear enough to stick to one topic. Too many voices coming at me today.
I read last week that Saskatchewan's mathematics teachers are getting math teachers to help teach them how to teach math.
The Saskatchewan government is setting up one big $240,000 math tutorial class for math educators.
I always knew there was something wrong in that world of numbers that I failed in so miserably so many times. I mean, what the hey living in a world of unknown quantities isn't healthy, especially if 88.74 per cent of your audience doesn't care and the other 21 something, something per cent are just depressed.
I was rotten in chemistry too, but I never got depressed in those classes because if you worked it right, you got to blow things up. And in physics you got to float things.
In math classes, you just had to sit there and be deflated while the smart kids who had little calculators figured away. I still recall with those Day 5 double Algebra classes, 180 minutes of Taliban-style torture before the Taliban was ceated. It was pure, unmitigated humiliation for those of us who struggled with simple long division.
Math is easier to do now because we have more tools, but apparently not any easier to teach. So Saskatchewan math teachers are getting a tutorial. Good for them I guess.
No cheap jokes here about bad math educators, I've been slapped around enough by obtuse angles.
Hey dear diary, what do you do with all that trash/spam mail you get every day? Today I received two invitations for possible partners (I haven't told the bride yet, but let's just say she's on pretty solid ground compared with these wandering waifs). I also received one notice I had won a lottery I hadn't entered, two potential contracts with bankers and insurance payment agencies from foreign countries. On top of that, I got financial information from 11 companies I've never heard of. I also got some great deals pending, like $10 for a round stone pendant, $10 for a Spider-Man costume for Halloween or light-up Iron Man mask for $12. Then there was the make-up brush set I could have for $14 regularly priced at $175. I could also get a flowing trench coat and pretend I was a pretend shooter in a video game I suppose, for just $15. I passed on all of these offers, including a "full set" of sports bras for $29, which was $30 off the regular price. I'll take their word for it.
It's a magical world, this cyberspace domain we live in. But it's also a lot of wasted time, unless, of course, you're looking for material for a column close to deadline.
Last week we had a lot of people, kids mostly, walking and running in the memory of Terry Fox. They were raising money for the departed hero's foundation that seeks cures for various forms of cancer.
I was heartened when I glanced at a list that was provided to me last year by one reader, Phil Sauter, that noted the Terry Fox organization was one of the more efficiently operated charities in terms of getting donated money directly into the cause and not into administration. It seems 83 cents out of every Fox dollar goes in the direction we would like to see it go whereas the Canadian Cancer Society is only able to direct 22 cents out of every dollar to the direct cause, the rest gets gobbled up by governance.
Where do the dollars go? Well, in the case of UNICEF, their CEO picks up $1.2 million a year plus a Rolls-Royce for his exclusive use and an expense account that exceeds $150,000. At UNICEF, 14 cents out of each dollar gets to needy recipients.
The American Red Cross isn't much better. Their CEO picked up over $650,000 in salary in 2009 plus six weeks of paid vacation time for her, her husband and kids, along with a fully paid health and dental plan for the family for life. Thirty-nine cents of the dollar go to the cause.
The two best when it comes to bang for the buck?
As you might expect, it was the Shriners at 100 per cent going to their causes and Salvation Army with 93 per cent, with their commissioner taking a salary of $13,000.
Any questions?
