Louis's Grandma comments about her teacher

My teacher made only one mistake. That was choosing me as his student. I have only very basic comprehension of math and fell of "honor roll" for the first time half way through high school algebra. However, he was extremely patient with me, took lots of time with explanations, and was never critical or derisive. He definitely knew what he was doing.

Comments about the calculator:

 I have only ever used the calculator (pocket size) to add subtract, multiply and divide. If I had to solve the assigned problem by myself, it would have taken me a long, long time with hit-and-miss calculation with paper and pencil. When my teacher showed how to transpose the problem into an algebraic formula and programmed it into the calculator, created the graph, and ran through the entire gamete of possible answers until we reached the solution, it was a whole new amazing world to me. It would take a long time and much more instruction for me to learn how to do this on my own.

Comments about the project:

 I have four grandsons. This teacher is the youngest. The oldest, a math major, has graduated from college three years ago and is now married. No, I will not say how old I am. All these years I have tried to impress these boys and their parents with my wisdom, common sense, and experience, and have encourages them to come to me for help and advice. With these project, I have reduced my credibility immeasurably But I was very impressed by the knowledge of my teacher and collier of their work.

Louis's response about the project

Comments about the student:

 My student had sparse amount of math knowledge to fall back on and extremely limited technological knowledge, Therefore I made it my goal to try and help her understand the possibilities of the new technology. I tried to let her do as much as possible as she could, such as making up the algebraic equation as possible and had to work calculator for her. She understood how to get the solution by "table + intersection" but couldn't do it herself and understood all the buttons. She now understands how to graph on calculator and what it represents. In short, she understands the process but cant do it herself.

Comments about the calculator:

 Teaching my grandmother how to use the calculator is like telling someone who has never used a computer to check my e-mail. Teaching the very basics would take another 3 hours which I don’t have.

Comments about project:

 The project was a good exercise in teaching. However, I do not think it is possible to totally teach my grandmother, because of the wide knowledge gap. It was unsuccessful, though because she learned the possibilities of technology and how graphs work in solving problems. Teaching her the hand-solution is impossible as I struggled to understand her to do it.