My favorite teacher

Heh. My math, science, and computer teachers were all pretty good. I do remember one test in college physics. Basically, we had to calculate how much energy (from the sun) was used to melt snow off of a rooftop. Fairly simple, right. Well, I figured it all out, and came up with a number that was large enough to power a small city. "This can't be right!" I thought. So, I finished the test, and went back to that question. Worked it all out again, and came up with the same answer. So, I left the answer, and under it I wrote, "There's a problem with one of the variables you gave us, because this is enough energy to power a small city."

The rest of the class saw the same thing, and thought they did the problem wrong. So, they all erased their answers, and left that question blank. The teacher realized his mistake, and didn't count that question. However, myself and one other person got extra credit for (a) answering the quesiton properly, and (b) realizing that the answer itself was wrong for the problem at hand!

Viggy

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Originally Posted by Smasher/Devourer

Code:

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10 LINE INPUT a$
 20 n = INSTR(a$, ",")
 30 IF n > 0 THEN n = INSTR(n + 1, a$, ",")
 40 IF n > 0 THEN GOSUB 60 ELSE PRINT "Formatting error."
 50 END
 60 b$ = MID$(a$, n + 1)
 70 a$ = LEFT$(a$, n - 1)
 80 PRINT "a$ = "; a$
 90 PRINT "b$ = "; b$
 100 RETURN

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Output from a sample run:

Code:

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How are you, Smasher?,Fine, thanks!
 a$ = How are you, Smasher?
 b$ = Fine, thanks!

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Nice work! Wonder when I can show this to my teacher
I never knew BASIC had left, mid, instr etc. - and i guess she also doesn't know. :D:D

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Originally Posted by Cilu

I suggest posting this question in the VB forum.

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You're quite right, VB does have left(), mid() and instr() functions like the BASIC... but still no INPUT statement

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Originally Posted by bijuabrahamp

You're quite right, VB does have left(), mid() and instr() functions like the BASIC... but still no INPUT statement

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But an InputBox if I remember correctly... Who cares? We are hijacking the thread...

My chemistry teacher, this year forgot to teach a formula which came for the exam! I don't blame her much, it can happen to anyone ;)
One day, she told us to remind her to teach the formula the next class.. but we didn't remind her. And at the end when when she asked whether she gave the formula.. one fool replied "Yes".:D
And the thing came for the exam. We asked for free marks.. but she said she can't give it. She said she'll add the marks in the next examination.. but everyone knows she wont:p

I had a physics teacher in high school who claimed that sound propagates at the speed of light, and that pendulums are not affected by gravity, among other things. I had to correct his answer key for him every time he gave a test because he would invariably mess up many of the problems. That was a lousy experience. I ended up dropping the class halfway through the year. He kind of soured me on physics for a bit, but the following year in college I had a brilliant physics professor who more than made up for the bad times I had in high school.

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Originally Posted by Smasher/Devourer

I had a physics teacher in high school who claimed that sound propagates at the speed of light

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Who the **** must have given him the permission to teach?
Even a 4yr old child knows that sound is slower than light!!

Well, in high school, I don't believe you need a graduate degree to teach. Or, if you do, it doesn't need to be in the subject that you are teaching.

But, I found that all of the good math/science high school teachers do have graduate degrees in math or science.

Viggy

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bijuabrahamp

Who the **** must have given him the permission to teach?
Even a 4yr old child knows that sound is slower than light!!

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I can't imagine. What's odd is that another teacher at the school, one of the programming instructors, had a degree in physics. So I don't know why they didn't have him teaching the physics course instead. Also, the school supposedly had an excellent physics teacher at one point, but unfortunately he retired the year before I started high school, and the idiot I was describing in my last post took over.

I will say that in the US, it can be quite difficult to get rid of a tenured teacher who's not doing his job well, but I don't know if that played into it. Perhaps the administration just didn't think the problem was worth addressing, or didn't care. They certainly weren't ignorant of the problem; I voiced my complaints to them, and I know I wasn't the only one to do so.

Welcome to the wonderful world of tenure, and the short supply of teachers in our (U.S.) school systems. One of the reasons that my wife homeschools our daughter (not in high school yet, though).

Viggy

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Originally Posted by Smasher/Devourer

I will say that in the US, it can be quite difficult to get rid of a tenured teacher who's not doing his job well, but I don't know if that played into it.

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I don't think its jst for US, i guess its applicable to the whole world!

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Originally Posted by MrViggy

Well, in high school, I don't believe you need a graduate degree to teach. Or, if you do, it doesn't need to be in the subject that you are teaching.

But, I found that all of the good math/science high school teachers do have graduate degrees in math or science.

Viggy

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They don't require higher degrees to teach high school but they do prefer you have BA/BS degree in the subject(s) (or related to ones) you are teaching in addition to the teaching credential.

I do have to give props to my dad (he's a math teacher); without his help I never would have gotten past algebra.

Physics had to have been the hardest class I ever took. Mostly because the prof assumed WAY too much about the knowledge of the students. He'd run through an example of how to solve a problem on the board, start to run out of room, wave his hand saying to incorporate theorem x or law y to get the answer and then just write the answer on the board. He would never explain how exactly to utilize said principle or law to arrive at the solution so when exam time came the whole class was hosed. I think the best grade in the class was earned by some guy who was a physics major and sought assistance from his other profs in the department. I had to challenge my grade just to pass the class and probably half of my classmates had to do the same.

It's not that bad if the subject isn't difficult. It may be fun if you're guru in the subject (at least at the required level or relative to teacher). But it's not fun at all if discipline is "out of scope". This case (if you bother about studying) is generally corresponds to subject outside the specialization being crumpled to the level when you are supposed to be adaptive parrot to pass exams.

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Originally Posted by NatThoelecke

They don't require higher degrees to teach high school but they do prefer you have BA/BS degree in the subject(s) (or related to ones) you are teaching in addition to the teaching credential.

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Well, the requirements to be certified to teach vary from state to state. If you're interested in more detailed information, you can find it here.

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Originally Posted by RoboTact

It's not that bad if the subject isn't difficult.

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I generally agree with this, though it will also depend on students' preferred learning styles. In most cases I prefer to just pick up a textbook and go at my own pace, but I've known some otherwise good students who struggled in a class with a bad teacher because they learned best by having material presented to them, rather than going through it independently.

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Originally Posted by Smasher/Devourer

I generally agree with this, though it will also depend on students' preferred learning styles. In most cases I prefer to just pick up a textbook and go at my own pace, but I've known some otherwise good students who struggled in a class with a bad teacher because they learned best by having material presented to them, rather than going through it independently.

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In most cases there is no retional way other then learning the subjet yourself. It saves time and allows more deep understanding. There are cases when there is no accessible material for the subject and that last thing when there is too much material packed up in the plan so that it isn't possible to learn it all in reasonable amount of time (week devoted to single subject - when it requires more it doesn't look term course, does it? Usual time to prepare to exam by year course to get to know it thoroughly is 3 days)

My physics teacher is a great person... and everybody like him for one reason :- HE GIVES ALL THE QUESTIONS TO THE CLASS BEFORE THE EXAM.. he leaks out the question paper. He doesn't teach so well.. but he gives questions and we know for sure that it will be there in the exams... I wish all my teachers were like that :D