Bill's Learning

Last week, we took a benchmark test in Science class.  I scored an 88 on the benchmark. Here's my item analysis: What I noticed about the questions that I got wrong is that two out of the three of them are about the layers of the earth .  I'm not totally surprised that I missed those:  We studied the layers of the earth a long time ago.  But it does mean that I need to go back and check that content out again.  That's worth reviewing for sure.   I think I'm most disappointed in myself for missing question 25.  It asked why the inner core of the earth is a solid ball of iron.  I answered that it was because of extreme temperature.  I should have realized that when I want something -- think snow or sand -- to be "more solid," I don't add heat to it.  Instead, I add pressure to it.  I think that's a question that I could have gotten right if I had thought a little more carefully. What I'm proud of, though, is that I made ...

One of the things that I’m currently proud of is the 95 that I earned on my Calculating Percentages test.   This is a pretty important accomplishment for me mostly because I wasn’t all that sure that calculating percentages mattered, so I wasn’t putting a whole lot of effort into learning how to do it.  But when I was out at dinner with my dad, I saw him calculating percentages so he could figure out how much of a tip to leave for our waiter.   That made me interested and I started practicing with calculating percentages everywhere that I go.   What I’m proudest of is that I actually know why multiplying by a decimal makes sense when calculating percentages.  That means that not only can I answer questions about the process of calculating percentages, I know WHY that process works.