Calculators

I'm astounded at how poorly designed calculators are. I mean, if I had a nickel for each time that a kid (by their own admission) put an expression into a calculator and the calculator gave them a wrong answer, I'd be a rich man.

Okay, update: Yes, I was being sarcastic. Kids assume that what they write on a piece of paper or what is written in a book is what they are putting into a calculator. 

We are doing exponential growth models right now. They may have to put in 45(1+0.05)³, but they won't get what they are supposed to. They'll blame it on the calculator which "gives wrong answers all the time". They just don't understand that they aren't using it correctly. 

My Reputation

I pass out a short quiz to my students on linear equations. One question was about Marcus, who buys a snow shovel and then begins to shovel sidewalks for people. 

Once the quiz was turned in, the lesson was given, and some classwork was completed, kids begin to head out the door. One kid says, "Did you mean to write snot-shoveling business?" I just laughed and said, "No!, Is that what it says?" Sure enough, it did. The rest of the class starts to laugh and they all said that coming from me, it was just as they expected. We all had a pretty good laugh at that one.