Matrix Theory

On Wednesday, the unthinkable happened: my computer died. The poor Year 10s were in for a long double lesson because I was like a fish out of water: I couldn’t wiki, blog, upload, download, surf mathworld or research quadratic residues. So I resorted to old-fashioned teaching: I lectured about Matrix Theory for an hour.

I had meant to lecture for only ten minutes but things move slowly with the Year 10s because they don’t know very much. For example, I had to explain that there is a special number, 1, such that 1*x = x = x*1 for any real number x. Then Nick asked, “are there fake numbers?” which led to another ten-minute digression.

During the lecture there were a lot of giggles and smirks. Now, I know Matrix Theory is fun but it shouldn’t be THAT much fun. Finally, I marched through the classroom trying to find out what was amusing them. Most students were taking notes but when I got to within two steps of the row of naughty girls in the back: click, click, click, click. It was like a row of falling dominoes, except for the impeccably honest Suthida who had left open her browser from the break: it showed my blog! Surely, Matrix Theory can’t be THAT boring!

Oh no! The blog has backfired. The idea was that I would blog for ten minutes and leave them in peace to study Matrix Theory. Instead, I am lecturing about Matrix Theory while they are reading my stupid blog!