Obvious is the Most Dangerous Word in Mathematics

[Deleted]

'obvious' is the most dangerous word in mathematics.
~ E. T. Bell

His third and final class for the day was coming up and yet again another lesson plan was about to take its course. Walking to the front of the classroom along with the students who had just left, Phillip took an eraser and removed the words that had been on the board and took red dry erase marker and wrote on the fairly clean board, Radicals. This was an algebra two class and they should very well know what radicals are. His phone buzzed and it popped up with Jackson’s name on it.

For the first time all day he smiled, full and toothy grin. Sending a simple response to his adopted son, ”Good” Phillip pocketed his phone and went back to what he was doing. With his past two classes he had asked a general question about the topics at hand and this class would be no different. The man didn’t really believe in hand outs, hand written notes were better in his mind as children could put the material in their own words and in turn most likely understand and remember it, more often than not. Standing at the front of his class he only had to wait for the children to arrive.

WORDS :: 205
TAGS :: algebra II students
OUTFIT :: here

Present:
Athena Achilles
@running7
@jasper38
@lukamason
Miranda Florin
@olivia
Peter Holden
Serenity Oliver
@jasper32

Absent:

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda left her history class with a smile. She was headed to math bext, but there was a quick stop in the bathroom. After she finished and had washed her hands, she slipped back out into the stream of people, making her way to the math wing. It was much more aptly named, she mused. After all, what they did in it was math, although some people might rather call it the torture wing. She wasn't one of those people, though. She made it to the wing without trouble and started searching for the room that had been listed, as the room changed with every teacher change.

Finally finding where she was supposed to be for class, she entered, nodding at yet another new teacher. This time, she chose a seat in the front, close to the wall but not the furthest to the wall, and pulled out a binder, which held a mixture of looseleaf lined and graph paper. Taking a mechanical pencil out of the pencil pouch in her backpack, she started by dating the first piece of lined paper that she came across, then put down the pencil, waiting for everyone to arrive and class to start.

[Deleted]

Mathy maths, math, math, math. It was a strange word, when one thought about it, but then, a strange, lying, slippery subject anyway. Why would anyone enjoy it? Olivia wasn't quite sure. She did well enough in the subject, but it would never top the list of her favourites.

Here she was, though, and there was no turning back, not that it had been an option. She entered the room, pausing to look up at the board in case there was another set of seating assignments, but that appeared not to be the case. With a nod at the teacher, she looked at the nearly empty mass of seats, finally settling for one near the middle of the room.

Once seated, she pulled out her notebook and a pencil, labelling the page and then dating it before she started thinking about what Radicals were. It had been a while since she had had math, due to a lack of teachers, but she vaguely remembered going over them two years previously, back in algebra one. Once she had done that, she started doodling along the margins, simple crosshatches for grass, and then some seriously deformed flowers. No, she should never consider an artist's work, either. At least, not for sketching. Photography was different.

[Athena Achilles]

Athena walked down the hallway, stepped around the students and stepping out of the way of others. She held her bag to her chest as she kept her head down, she was invisible and was happy for no one to notice her. She headed for the classroom of one of her favourite subjects, Mathematics. A lot of people hated the subject, which the girl struggled to understand. People were surrounded by numbers all the time, more figuratively then literally, and equestrians more-so than anyone else. Ice skating also had lots to do with numbers, which lead to her other favourite subject, Physics.

Walking into the classroom, she quickly looked around and then walked across to a table on the far side of the room. She eyed the things on her desk but didn't touch them as she slid into the seat and began to get her things out of her bag. She could feel her hands shaking, but hoped it didn't show. She closed her eyes as she forced herself to relax, she hadn't rushed from one class to another, so she wasn't the only student in here, so she just needed to pull herself together before someone noticed and called her out for it.

[Deleted]

Luka was grateful for the indoor heating of the academic building. Not for himself, but for Bruno, shivered in even the smallest breeze. The weather had improved since that awful cold front that lasted a few weeks, mainly because he didn't know how to keep his poor dog warm. The black and tan Spaniel looked smart in his service dog jersey, and Luka smiled as the dog stayed close to him as he made a pitstop at his locker, changing his books around for his maths class.

He enjoyed maths, especially algebra and strolled to the class, going inside. A new teacher, which meant more explaining, and he slipped the familiar letter out of his folder and placed it on the teacher's desk. Finally, he took a seat in front of the class, and with a quiet word to Bruno, he felt the dog settle at his feet.

Taking out the exam pad out of the folder, he jotted down the heading and underlined it. It helped to receive class notes, especially in his situation, but he would manage. He had before and he could still. He may have been deaf, but he didn't want special treatment or alter teaching styles just so that he could be accommodated.

[Deleted]

 The maths class was right in front of Dennis as he walked through the crowds of people in the hall trying to find his maths class but then he noticed it. He was in the algebra two class which Den thought would not be so bad, he was not much of a maths person but he will try hard at any class. He walked into the class which already had people sitting at the desks. He pulled off his messenger bag as he sat down at a desk. He took out his notebook and pencil and started.

 He wrote the date on a piece of his notebook paper and then his name. He looked up at the board which clearly said radicals. Den tried to remember what radicals are and then a light bulb sprung into his head- an expression which has a square root, cube root etc. Then Dennis tried to remember the names of the different parts of it which he wrote down as index, radical symbol and then the radicand. Writing it down made it easier for Dennis to understand and he was anxious that the teacher might give him into trouble for writing that down in his notes.

[Peter Holden]

    Peter arrived to his Algebra II class with notebooks in hand, and found a seat in the class as quickly as he could, not putting much thought into where he sat. Once seated, he opened his notebook and pulled out a mechanical pencil and large pink eraser. He kept his calculator under his desk with the rest of his books for now, as he didn't know whether or not he would end up needing it this class.
    
    Radicals were a topic he was familiar with, so at least they would be working on something that he already had a base in. He titled his page by writing the word in the upper left corner, and then wrote the date on the other side of the page. As he waited for the class to begin, he began to sketch on the back of the previous page that hadn't been filled by notes. It was something he was prone to doing, and hopefully the teacher wouldn't call him out on it, so long as he didn't do it while he was teaching. Soon, the shapes began to come together on the page to form a rough landscape of pastures with a couple horses grazing. The mechanical pencil made the shading sharp and scratchy, but it didn't really matter.

[Deleted]

 Zachary walked quickly to his maths class he was hoping not to be late. He accidentally bumped into someone in the hall but he apologised to the person the walked slower to the classroom door.This was it, his Algebra II class. He put his black messenger back down below the desk he chose to sit by and looked up at the teacher, Mr Mackenzie then he looked at the board which clearly said Radicals. He enjoyed maths and tried his best in the subject. He took out a pencil and notebook and started to write what radicals were because he knew off by heart the definition of radicals. He would never call himself smart but there were certain things he did know of by heart even though most of them were to do with horse riding.
 
 He wrote his name and labeled his sheet of paper with the word "radicals" before he wrote the definition. Thankfully he had good maths teachers previously and understood many things about algebra. He hoped he would stick in at maths at Blue Ridge like Zak had done at his previous school. He lifted his head waiting on the teacher to tell him what they were to do and Zak would follow the orders.

[Deleted]

Kennedy entered her math class with a small grimace. While she wasn't bad at math, it was easily not her favorite class in the world. By far, honestly... She didn't enjoy working with numbers. She sighed softly as she took a seat near the middle and tried to look enthusiastic, though it didn't really work that well. While waiting for the class to begin, Kennedy took a moment to remove her thick coat and scarf and wrap them around the back of the seat.

After getting fairly comfortable, she took a notebook from her stack of books and grabbed a pen, copying down what the teacher had written on the board. She really wasn't partial to radicals. Her strength in math lay in division. She placed the rest of her books, books from her other classes, under her desk so that they'd be out of the way and spent the next several minutes writing her name and the class in the corner of her paper.

After finishing and still waiting for the teacher to tell them what they'd be doing with radicals, Kennedy glanced around the classroom, noting which other students were in the class with her. Some she recognized and others she didn't.

[Serenity Oliver]

Serenity raced through the hallways that were gradually emptying out and slipped into the classroom where she was supposed to be, releasing a relieved sigh when she saw that the class hadn't yet started. She smiled at the students as she wound her way through the class to an empty table and sat down.

She chewed her lip, a smile playing on her lips as she got the things she needed out of her bag. She could have been here earlier, but the clouds in the sky outside were such amazing patterns that day and she wanted to take a few moments to look at them. One of the clouds had even looked like a dragon coming out of it's cave and she had almost been tempted to run to her dorm to grab a book she had, but knew that she would have really been late for class then.

The girl glanced at the board and gave a small giggle at the day's topic, it suited her perfectly! She opened her notebook and wrote the date down on the top of the page along with the title: Radicals, she then began doodling a boarder around the edges of the page. At first it was just a wiggly line, but once she started adding leaves, it took on the look of a vine.

[Deleted]

Ugh, math. Caroline didn’t like it at all; she was more of the reading and writing type of person. She would rather have history than math. Yet it was still one of her required courses for her to graduate. Having already taken algebra I as a freshman in the school that she attended before, she was forced to take the next level. Walking down the hallway to the classroom it was clear that it was nearing the end of the time she had to get to class. With a note in her hand she walked into the room to see a crap ton of students already there.

Walking to the teacher she held out the note to him, ”I’m Caroline Thompson and I got transferred into your class.” She said bluntly. Taking her seat she waited for the teacher to start class. Before he did, Caroline pulled out her red notebook and scribbled down in her own chicken scratch what was written on the board, Radicals . She dated the page and laid her pencil down across the notebook. Already not wanting to be in a class was not a good start. While waiting she looked around to see all the faces in her class.

outfit

[Deleted]

The highest level of class that he taught had the highest number of students in it. A good diversity of genders, grades, and personalities from what he could tell. A boy walked up to his desk and laid a note on it, this made Phillip remember the packet that he had made up for the student who had just laid the paper on the man’s desk.

He also was reminded of the packet as the student had a dog with him who gave him away. The man walked over to Luka’s desk and placed the packet on his desk and simply walked away. Phillip would have to remind himself to stay facing forward when he could help it. A few more students gave him notes that told him they were now going to be in his class.

The more the merrier. He thought. As soon as the bell rung Phillip placed himself in the middle front of the class. ”I am Mr. Mackenzie or Mr. Mack whichever you prefer.” He was just happy that this was the last class. ”You are in the right class if you are here for algebra two.” Thinking back to the topic of algebra he had put on the board he decided to jump right in. ”I’m not here to make sure you know each other’s names so if no one is going to object I would like to get started. Today we will be focusing on radicals.” To get to the students involved he asked a general question, ”Would anyone like to tell the class what radicals are?”

WORDS :: 264
TAGS :: algebra II students
OUTFIT :: here

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda looked up as the bell rang, glancing over at the teacher. As he began promptly, she found herself liking his style already, although she knew she shouldn't form impressions on such trivial things. As he introduced himself, she noted the shortening, but decided that she would call him by his full last name, unless he expressed a preference in the shortened version, which he hadn't.

Well, at least she was in the right class. It didn't surprise her, but it was nice to have it verified, probably especially for the newer students, who weren't sure where anything was just yet. When the lesson began, she pushed her chair out slightly and bent over her paper, writing down the title of the lesson, which she hadn't done previously, then raised her hand.

"Radicals, which are also called roots, are the opposites of exponential functions." That was what she'd learned, and if it didn't go into the nitty-gritty, so what? Someone else could pick that up, surely she wasn't the only one in the classroom that had taken Algebra I and learned something from it, although she couldn't remember all of the formulas they'd had thrown at them. Some of them were really unimportant, though.

[Deleted]

After she had finished drawing the lawn, Olivia looked down at her doodle, considering what else she could add. Eventually, she gave up and instead started drawing the SAR team's logo, a sketch that she'd done so often while in school that it was the one drawn thing that she could get right. Then again, it didn't call for any great realism, which was probably a big part of it.

When the teacher called the class to order, Olivia kept drawing, although she was listening. She didn't need to be looking at him to hear his name, or that he didn't care about their names. It was when she was putting the final touches on the sketch in the corner of her paper that he got to the actual content of the class, but when he asked about radicals, she remained quiet. It wasn't that she didn't know what she was doing, but rather, she didn't have a grasp of what to say in terms other than those pretty close to what the blonde girl had said. So, rather than just repeat what had already been said, Olivia kept quiet, waiting for others to contribute instead so that her silence went unnoticed.

[Deleted]

So far, Candice had gone unnoticed by everyone around her, which was fine by her. Although how she had done it was beyond her. Up until now, Candice had been home schooled and to say she was having a bit of culture shock was an understatement. Previously, she had done her schoolwork on the computer and would only communicate with other student via an online forum and had to schedule calls with her 'teachers' if she needed further help. Thankfully, she had been given a short list of necessary items to attend a physical school; including the Algebra II book, a calculator, and a huge notebook and of course pencils were needed for this class. 

She had chosen to sit in the back of the class to better observe what was typical classroom behavior. She had changed out of her heavier jacket from earlier, instead having a jet medium weight coat over the back of her chair and now wore her hair in a bun to keep the long strands from getting in the way. She still sported her boots and jeans, although she had quickly cleaned up her boots as to not track in dirt. Around her student scribbled doodles in their notebook without seeming to pay attention to their teacher, Mr. Mackenzie as he introduced himself. She was used to her schoolwork being packed into as short a time frame as possible and so every moment ones full attention was needed. Candice sat upright with her attention on her new teacher. In front of her lay her notebook, tilted slightly to the right on the left side of her desk. She held her mechanical pencil in her left hand although she did not have the typical 'left hook' way of holding her hand as she wrote. Candice took a quick glance around to confirm proper protocol, around her students were writing quick notes. In order to not fall behind she quickly jotted down today's date and lesson number in the top right hand corner and then Radicals on the top line in large letters. Beneath the title for todays lesson she jotted down a quick description as another student answered the teacher question. Afterward Candice awaited further instruction from Mr. Mackenzie.