Thursday, October 18, 2007

blogging on blogging .

I thought our last unit on "wages and salaries", was basically knowing how to multiply numbers together to get a final answer. At first, i found it confusing to figure out the gross pay after someone has worked overtime because of their overtime rate, which was either 1.5 (time and a half) or 2 (double time), depending on how much their employer pays them for working extra hours. To me it was simple to calculate the gross pay after i memorized a formula for each scenario.

GROSS PAY ( without overtime ) = total hours x hourly rate
GROSS PAY ( OT - time & a half ) = total hours x hourly rate x 1.5
GROSS PAY ( OT - double time ) = total hours x hourly rate x 2

In the beginning, i kept forgetting to multiply the total hours and the hourly rate by either 1.5 or 2, to get the total pay or gross pay including overtime pay, but after practicing and doing my homework, i got the hang of it. Something i found difficult was calculating time on time cards, and i don't think i'm the only one. I think a few of us had a hard time, 'cause we were used to calculating from 100 instead of 60. I had no problems with hours that ended in 00, 15, 30, or 45, what i had trouble with was hours that started or ended in odd numbers like 07, or 39 for example, but after Mr. K. did a few questions with us in class and showed us multiple ways to find the total hours, i understood it better and found it easier to do. The strategy i found easiest to use is when you begin with the starting time, find out how many minutes it is until the following hour, then use the following hour, and figure out how many hours is between it and the last hour worked, then i take the last hour and find how much time is between it and the last minute worked.
FOR EXAMPLE:
If someone works from 8:07 AM to 11:59 AM, I'd find out the answer like this..

8:07 AM - 9:00 AM = 53 mins.
9:00 AM - 11:00 AM = 2 hrs.
11:00 AM - 11:59 AM = 59mins.

...53 mins
...02 hrs
+ 59 mins
02 hrs & 112 mins

since 112 mins. is more than an hour, you deduct 60 (an hour) from it, and get 52 remaining minutes, and since you subtracted 60 mins from 112 mins, don't forget to add that 1 hr to the 2 hrs you already had. Thus, our answer becomes 3 hrs & 52 mins, if I'm not mistaken.

6 comments:

Vero said...

This is great and very clean work!

I noticed how you emphasized your points with examples and this was really good. It's often very important, not only to say something because you know it, but to prove something so that someone else can understand. You demonstrated good understanding and I encourage you to keep giving examples. This is often the best way for me to learn because I am a visual learner and i like to picture the example in my mind. As for your colleagues, I am sure they will also appreciate it!

Veronique P (mentor)
University of Regina

Unknown said...

I remember doing this in Math! I agree with you that time cards with "awkward times" like 07 and 53 minutes are much harder to do. I have to say though, You did a great job of explaining it on your blog. If I was in your class and I needed to remember how to do it, I would go back and read your post. I also think your page set-up was easy to read. In my University education classes I am learning about page set-up and how it makes a difference towards reading; especially kids just learning how to read. If you put too many words in one spot, it becomes a race to try and get through them, but you spaced everything quite nicely! Good work.
Danielle (mentor)
U of R

Anonymous said...

Good job explaining what you have been learning in class. I liked that you used an example to illustrate your point. One suggestion that I have for you is to be aware of when you are adding up your time.

For example:
53 mins
02 hrs
59 mins

What I always do is to convert everything into minutes first
53 mins
120 mins
59 mins

The reason that I say that is so you don't add those 2 hours as minutes by mistake. Make sure that you read questions carefully and take your time. Overall you have done a good job but try to keep everything in a simple form.

David C (Mentor)
University of Regina

deaarly said...

HELLOOO :D thaank you for complimenting on my work :) i figured that, if i understood other peoples posts more when they were spaced out, i might as well make my blog like that so that other people could read and understand it more clearly, right?

danielle, i think your right when you say "if you put too many words in one spot, it becomes a race to try and get through them". im like that, especially when i have to read a load. i just quickly read through all the long paragraphs and rush to finish, even though i didn't fully understand it.

and david, thanks for the suggestion. your right, it is kind of confusing to mix up hours and minutes when calculating. its easy to make errors, especially errors that simple. ill keep that in mind the next time im figuring out these kind of questions :) thanks!

Unknown said...

Good job on giving an example on how to break down the work to find out the number of hours someone worked. I am sure you also now remember to multiply by 1.5 or 2 since you have written it down. I find that if you write a formula out like that somewhere you will probably remember it better. You set up your page so that it was easy to read which is also very helpful to others students who will read it. These other students will also learn from your work because i know I already have. Just make sure you double check your work so you don't forgot to change the hours to minutes.
Keep up the good work!
Crystal F(Mentor)
University of Regina

deaarly said...

Sorry for replying really late, Crystal! I rarely check my gmail, i should start getting used to checking it each night.

Anywho, thanks for complimenting on my work :) I'm glad to hear that you've learned from my blog. I learned all this from Mr. K. he REALLY is a GREAT teacher :)

One of the other mentors mentioned something like that too, about changing the hours to minutes so i don't get confused when i calculate it. I think that's a good suggestion, it is really easy to get confused.

Thanks again for commenting on my work :) I appreciate it :D