Time to Reflect - Unit 4, December 2

Time to Reflect – Unit 4

1. Tell why you think it is important to be able to divide numbers. For what kind of problems do you need to use division?

It's important because of the many times when you have a certain amount of things and a certain amount of people to give them to. When you have three people at dinner and you need to split the bill. Or you have three candy bars and 3,000 people to give to them. All are situations where division is absolutely necessary.


2. Tell what part of this unit was the most difficult for you and why. Describe what you did to overcome any difficulties you had.


I had particular trouble with partial quotients. I kept on forgetting when and where to put the numbers on the side. After a while however it got more or less in my brain without me doing anything.
I guess it just fit because I was doing so much.
RELIGION REFLECTION
Last week you read the story of the Sower and the Seed. (Matthew 13:1-23). Summarize the story including what the story is about, who are the people in the story, what lesson(s) did they learn, and how you can connect what you have learned to your life.

The story is about a farmer who his sowing his seed and many different fates befall it. Some seeds fell in rocky ground and though they grew quickly, they got scorched by the Sun and withered, without any root. This being a parable, it means that people like that seed believed the Word half-heartedly and ran when it got tough. Another seed got eaten by crows. This seed was the man who did not understand the Word at all and was snatched away by Satan. Yet another was choked by weeds. His hearing of the Word is choked by the world around him. But the last seed fell with good soil and grew. That was the man who understood the Word.

The people listening now understood that the only way to succeed, go to heaven, and have eternal life was to understand the Word and worship God to the full. There are basically two 'characters' in the story:
The Evil One (Satan, the Devil, Beelzebub, etc.)
And
The Sower (God, I guess)

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Writing Reflection

What I notice about myself as a writer is that I like to put humor into it, and that I say "suddenly" and exclamation points too often. I sometimes need better transitions. I notice too that I am trying very hard in my writing to make it make sense. I notice that I am a writer who tries to make absolutely everything make sense and sound great at the same time. By the way, that is very hard.

I've changed as a writer so far in the fact that I couldn't make anything good. "Good" as in something easy to understand, something that makes the writer feel like he/she is in the story, and something with a hooking lead and a phenomenal ending. At least I can 1 or 2 of those now, sometimes even all four if I work really hard at it, at least at some parts of the story. I think the think I have improved most at out of all four would be the "lead" part. I feel like I have improved a lot with leads.

Three things I do well. I've already mentioned one of them, leads. I think I've got the hang of putting the worm on the hook, not just the hook or the worm. Also, I think most of the time my story flows. I can put the story in order pretty well, though my transitions sometimes get in a little trouble. And thirdly, I am quite content with my use of punctuation and spelling. I think it comes from reading so much!

I want to get stronger at endings. I really don't like a single ending I've ever written. All of them are too feeble, too dramatic, or don't sound like endings. You know, like when the audience sits there for five minutes after the stand-up comedian backs off the stage before they start clapping? I'm also not good at all at placing exclamation points sparingly, so I'll have to work on that too. Thirdly, I sometimes don't put enough detail becuase the picture is so embedded in my mind.

My favorite piece that I wrote is the short story Fang. It's about a dog, a rat and a girl and some supernatural occurrences involving a school and an angry water fountain. I liked it becuase of all the humor I put in it and my really strong ending.

Math Stuff

I didn't like Factor Captor because it was easy to get a prime number in which you could easily win against someone, so it seemed kind of cheating, even though it was it was allowed. That made me feel guilty when I used the highest prime number on the board. However, I liked the strategy behind it and it helped me learn a lot.

Using an array helps you find factors because any time you find an array that doesn't have 1, 2, or more left out you can just count the dots on the top and left and you have your two factors. Then you can use another array to find more. Also, it lays out factors in such a open way that you can't do anything but immediately start learning them by heart.

I liked the lesson 1*6, page 16 because I learned a lot of prime numbers, as well as the relationship between composite and prime. I think prime numbers are very cool. I also like lesson 1*5 page 14 because Divisibility Rules are just plain helpful.

Sep. 16. Post One.

Reading

I love reading. It's how I learn, how I relax, and how I kill time. I'm quite good at it, I suppose, and a do it a lot. Like I said, I learn best by reading, as well as by watching. Last year, I read so many books that sometimes my reading log overflowed. I can write down my thinking, but it takes a lot of concentration because I'm usually too lost in the book to notice or care. I know I have to work on this, but it's really hard for me because my constant immersion with the state of mind called "flow". When I read, I don't know I'm reading until I have to turn the page. Unless, of course, it's louder and more disruptive than "Flight of the Bumblebee" on minimum volume. Note: Flight of the Bumblebee is my favorite song! I fully recommend anybody who's reading to listen to it. But I digress. My final note on how I learn with reading: I read all the time if I can help it.