Almost There

Tomorrow is my first day at School W! My fingerprints finally cleared (again), and I start at 7am. Looks like no more late Sunday nights for me.

Since I'll no longer have all this excess time for studying and homework I am making the great attempt not only to get all 21 assignments that are due today turned in on time (oh, hello again procrastination), but also to get ahead on all my classes. It shall be my own personal Sherman's March, in which I shall hopefully play the part of Major General Sherman and not of the cities he razed.

I want to be the guy on the horse.
(Image used courtesy of Wikipedia)

Job Hunt Drama (?)

So today was an exciting and interesting day: I had an interview at another school (school P) this morning to be a teaching assistant in an MOID classroom, and I felt that the interview went really well. I really liked the principal and staff, and the principals office was full of awesome comic book paraphernalia, so I was immediately at ease and thought to myself, "Yes, this school."

However, I had no sooner left the interview when the school who had rejected me earlier in the week  (school W) called. Instead of a secretary as I was expecting, it was the principal; she wanted me to come and see her within the next 20 minutes. Another position was opening and she wanted to talk to me again about working there. When I arrived, she essentially said I had been one of the worst applicants she had ever interviewed, which was a downer. After going over my interview guffaws with me, she went on to say that she wanted to take a chance on hiring me, and offered me a position as a teaching assistant in one of their kindergarten classrooms.

Here's where the drama begins. As I was on my way to get my transcripts and head over to HR to be processed into the school district, the OTHER school called me back and said they were eager to hire me. I had missed the call, so I had the opportunity to mull over the two and make my decision. First I called my mom who was at work and couldn't really give an opinion; then I called my boyfriend to ask what he thought and got the time/distance/pay spiel I knew I was getting. All of my teacher friends were (duh) teaching, so I couldn't ask them. I called my department advisor and asked for her opinion; she helped me weigh the pro's and con's, and told me that she thought I would do best in the kindergarten classroom. So I called back to tell school P that I had already accepted a position at another school just before they called. They said they were sad the had missed the chance, and wished me good luck. Then called back twice just to make sure.

Probability (Part I)

So I'm about a week (or so) behind on updates, but I'd like to think I spent the time putting together an amazing wealth of knowledge in preparation for my first math-centric post. Though I would not necessarily deny any accusations of procrastination to avoid my arch nemesis for as long as possible.

Used with permission from MathFunny.com

Math and I have never been the best of friends, especially during times when probabilities and/or statistics are involved. But the information we've been going over in class the last couple of weeks has helped to make me (albeit, a very small amount) more confident.

How Probabilities are Determined

We begin with the basics: vocabulary terms. Often the definition of words change depending upon what field you are using them in; things that have one meaning in layman's terms will have a completely different meaning in science, math, and especially law. Math is like another language entirely, and studying it is essentially learning the definitions of each word or equation. Each formula, equation, etc., has its' own definition which tells you what it means and how to properly use it.

• Experiment - An activity in which results can be observed and recorded.
• Outcome - Each of the possible results of an experiment. (Ex.: With coins the outcome is heads or tails)
• Sample Space - A set of all possible outcomes for an experiment. Results such as S = (H,T) can be modeled by a tree diagram, which we will look at later.
• Event - Any subset of a sample space, such as the event of dice; an example of this would be 
  S = (2, 4, 6) where the sample space for S is rolling a standard die with even numbers as the outcome.

When determining probability, there is Experimental (or empirical), and Theoretical. the difference between the two is that experimental is what you actually observe while theoretical is what would happen under perfect and ideal conditions. Additionally, we believe in and try to abide by Bernoulli's Theorem which states that if an experiment is repeated enough times that the empirical probability will become closer to the theoretical probability. Sort of like the whole monkeys and typewriters idea.

We encounter from time to time events that are impossible or certain. These are represented in an equation as  0 and 1, respectively. If something is equally as likely to happen as another option, we often describe that as being a 50/50 chance or probability, however we would write that as a 1/2 probability. Events can also be mutually exclusive or complementary. With mutually exclusive events if one thing happens the other cannot, OR they are mutually exclusive if the events have no elements in common. Complementary events are along the lines of: Chance of rain = 25%, so the chance of no rain is 100% - 25% = 75% or 3/4 probability of no rain. 

On a somewhat related note, the probability of many home
owners in the Phoenix Metro Area getting flood insurance after
this weeks crazy, valley-wide flooding is very high. 
Image courtesy of the Associated Press & BBC World News

The following websites do a much better job at explaining introductory probability than I do:

Math Is Fun

Khan Academy

Math Goodies