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Day 311: memories of fourth grade
Oct. 1st, 2012 07:54 pmAarghh. I don't know. I had Mrs. Weingartner, for both fourth and fifth grade, and I get a little confused as to what happened which year.
I remember that she was strict and seemed ancient, and had a tiny little knot of iron grey hair in a round ball at the top of her head the first year, and then got a really short hair cut, still iron grey, the second year. I think. She was very sallow, and wrinkled. The general consensus was that she looked like a witch, and one of those years, I caved to peer pressure and drew a picture of her, colored green getting married as a witch, god knows why. She smoked like a fiend, and drank diet Tabs (I guess that's all there was, Tab WAS diet) all day long. I am not joking, she smoked in the classroom as far as I remember, and would send students to the Teachers' Lounge to buy her her Tabs. I WANT to say that she sent a student to buy her a pack of smokes, but that is probably apocryphal.
I remember they taught us Right from Left that year, and that's when I realized I really cannot tell my right from left. I have a 50% chance of getting it right, and I always failed (so, less than fifty percent when under pressure) when called on to identify the little plastic figurines that were strategically placed around the classroom.
I also remember hating double digit multiplication and long division, and being recommended to take summer school because I'd done so poorly at it. Which is weird, because in fifth grade they accelerated me to "Project SEED" which was baby algebra, where you did exponents but did not use exponent notation -- instead, you used a capital E between two numbers so that "3 E 4" meant three to the fourth power, or 81. (I hope that is 3 to the fourth power, 3 x 3 x 3 x 3) ANYWAY, I recall that during fourth grade one day I tried to imagine what COLLEGE MATH could possibly be like, and I thought it would be long division only with ridiculously long numbers as both the divisor and the dividend.
Mrs. Weingartner read to us regularly -- four books she read were Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan (she clearly loved E. B. White, as did I) and Marguerite De Angeli's The Door in the Wall, a story set in the Middle Ages, which I loved, though other kids chafed at it. I could never stand to wait for the next installment, so I would sneak the books out of her desk and read them, with my desk lid propped up. She obviously knew I was doing this, but never busted me. She liked my writing a lot, did Mrs. Weingartner.
I remember that she was strict and seemed ancient, and had a tiny little knot of iron grey hair in a round ball at the top of her head the first year, and then got a really short hair cut, still iron grey, the second year. I think. She was very sallow, and wrinkled. The general consensus was that she looked like a witch, and one of those years, I caved to peer pressure and drew a picture of her, colored green getting married as a witch, god knows why. She smoked like a fiend, and drank diet Tabs (I guess that's all there was, Tab WAS diet) all day long. I am not joking, she smoked in the classroom as far as I remember, and would send students to the Teachers' Lounge to buy her her Tabs. I WANT to say that she sent a student to buy her a pack of smokes, but that is probably apocryphal.
I remember they taught us Right from Left that year, and that's when I realized I really cannot tell my right from left. I have a 50% chance of getting it right, and I always failed (so, less than fifty percent when under pressure) when called on to identify the little plastic figurines that were strategically placed around the classroom.
I also remember hating double digit multiplication and long division, and being recommended to take summer school because I'd done so poorly at it. Which is weird, because in fifth grade they accelerated me to "Project SEED" which was baby algebra, where you did exponents but did not use exponent notation -- instead, you used a capital E between two numbers so that "3 E 4" meant three to the fourth power, or 81. (I hope that is 3 to the fourth power, 3 x 3 x 3 x 3) ANYWAY, I recall that during fourth grade one day I tried to imagine what COLLEGE MATH could possibly be like, and I thought it would be long division only with ridiculously long numbers as both the divisor and the dividend.
Mrs. Weingartner read to us regularly -- four books she read were Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan (she clearly loved E. B. White, as did I) and Marguerite De Angeli's The Door in the Wall, a story set in the Middle Ages, which I loved, though other kids chafed at it. I could never stand to wait for the next installment, so I would sneak the books out of her desk and read them, with my desk lid propped up. She obviously knew I was doing this, but never busted me. She liked my writing a lot, did Mrs. Weingartner.