Greetings Students:

These are some of my favorite classroom teaching and math oriented quotes, phrases and idioms.  You have heard me recite some of these in class on many occasions (I'm sure). 

Some of these statements are mine, and the others I have read or heard and remembered from past conversations.  They have provided me with guidance, inspiration and most importantly, they made me THINK.

Enjoy.

Cordially yours,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvTTUfkJC0A

Mr. Isaacs

JLI/s
06FEB11

"When you kill time, you murder success."

"Time flies like an arrow.  Fruit flies like a banana." Groucho Marx 

( I saw this Groucho quote on a big wall going up town to Athens from my dorm when I was a student at Ohio University.  On this particular wall students would spray paint slogans and messages for all to see.  I loved this quote and I never forgot it.  Mr. Isaacs

"With every mistake, we must surely be learning."  George Harrison

"A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding."  Bob Dylan (aka Bobby D)

"A mistake . . . is good mistake . . . if you learn from it . . . and bad one . . . if you repeat it."  John L. Isaacs

"Experience is the best teacher." JLI

"Are you ready?  . . . I was born ready."  JLI

"Calculus is beautiful."  Gerald B. Isaacs

"In college, you chase knowledge."  JLI 

"You give something up for everything you gain."  Bobby D

"Nothing . . . feels better than success."  JLI

"All that a college education tells an employer . . . you know how to listen, . . follow instructions . . . and learn."  Johnny McDowell

"In academics, always remember that you are in competition with yourself."  OU Marketing Professor

"A good teacher is a good communicator." JLI

"THIS IS THE LAST FREE MATH CLASS FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE." (regarding FM at WHS), JLI

"Persistence, persistence, persistence . . . that's the key . . . to success  . . . in mathematics."  Gerald B. Isaacs

"I want you to be successful as fast as possible."  JLI

"Burn the midnight oil."  Gerald B. Isaacs

"In Mathematics . . . you seek the truth."  JLI

"You learn by doing." ?

"Don't send them to the study table, meet them at the study table."  Woody Hayes

"If you don't get it, get me."  JLI

You can see a lot by just looking.  ~Yogi Berra, also often quoted as "You can observe a lot by just looking." (original wording as yet unverified)

"Liking math has nothing to do with it, you just have to know how to do it."  JLI

"80% of the work is done by 20% of the people."  The 80-20 Rule     (In other words roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes."  The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity)

"You do enough math problems . . . until you're good at it, . . . and for some . . . it may be five problems . . . and for others it may be 25 problems."  JLI

"Find out where the Math Help Room is located and go to the Math Help Room."  JLI

"You have to believe in yourself."  Sun Tzu

"Don't be afraid to ask questions.  The only stupid question is the one not asked.  Be smart, ask questions."  JLI

"Your education is an investment in your future."  Helmut T. Zwahlen, Ph.D. OU ISE Prof. (my professor and mentor)

"You have two eyes, two ears and one mouth.  Use them in proportion."  Professor E. Ralph Sims, OU ISE Prof.(my professor and advisor)

"The two key words in our department are 'current' and 'relevant.'  If it isn't current it's history.  If it isn't relevant, it's not helping students get jobs today, so why teach it ?"  Dr. James Fales, OU IT Prof.(my Prof)

"When you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences." 

"You can smell the pinewood burnin’
You can hear the school bell ring
Gotta get up near the teacher if you can
If you wanna learn anything"

                                       Bob Dylan

"I teach BELL to BELL."  JLI

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized."  Sun Tzu

 "Mathematics is about precision not perfection."  JLI

"Hand Cranked Calculations." Gerald B. Isaacs

"When you are going through HELL, . . . keep going."  Winston Churchill

"SILENT and LISTEN are spelled the same way.  You must be silent before you can listen."  Class Poster

"I have an engraved rock that reads "Never, never quit", . . . and those are good words, however though I truly believe that a smart person . . . knows WHEN to quit."  JLI

"Lets meet up at RESPECT, it's a two way street." JLI

"NO HUNTING" Classroom sign translation NO HAZING

"When math is boring, . . . boring's good,  . . . because when it's boring . . . that means you've learned it, . . . now it's time to move onto something else." JLI

"Think Globally, Act Locally." John Lennon

"An easy math teacher isn't a math teacher that gives easy work or easy grades.  An easy math teacher is a math teacher that makes math easy to understand and enjoy regardsless of the rigor of the topic.  I would like to think of myself as an 'Easy Math Teacher."  JLI

When you've got nothing, you've got nothing to loose."
— Bob Dylan

"Math can be hard, . . . but it's the hard . . . that makes it great.  If it wasn't hard, . . . it wouldn't be great."  JLI 

"No Miracle Answers"  Ted Fisher (no work without proof)

"In the study of graphing inequalities, the truth is shady, so . . . shade the truth."  JLI

"If you can do a half-assed job of anything, you're a one-eyed man in a kingdom of the blind."  Kurt Vonnegut US Novelist

"Jump the Fence."  JLI

"I had to believe it before I could see it."  Yogi Berra

"Algebra is like a teeter-totter or seesaw, you seek balance, a balanced equation, that leads to conclusion."  JLI

"Live simply so you can simply live."  JLI

"Got an Apple (iPod Touch) and took a bite."  JLI

"What I learn through teaching, with current and relevant technology, is surpassed from what I learn about teaching, from my 21st Century learners."  John L. Isaacs

  "Pretzel Logic - - thinking like a pretzel . . . logically"  JLI  

"No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place."  ~Zen

"I am everyone whom I have ever known."  JLI

"When the student is ready, the master appears."  ~Buddhist Proverb

     "My job is simple . . . to make math easy to understand."  JLI     

"An artist never really finishes his work; he merely abandons it."
Paul Ambroise Valery

She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She’s got everything she needs
She’s an artist, she don’t look back
She can take the dark out of the nighttime
And paint the daytime black"

Bobby D

"Don't criticize what you can't understand."