Oops. I almost put October for the month. I'm so happy to see a new month! I can't wait for more snow :)
Thank you SOOOO MUCH to everyone who volunteered and/or visited our Halloween party yesterday. It was a beautifully planned party. Thanks to Lisa for putting it all together.
Here is an example of our story problem from today. I wanted to point out something very important.
See how he tried to write the equation (2+4 4) at the top? When I had a sub, she taught them the equation. UGH. Do not teach your child this yet.
They were trying to figure out why in the world I didn't want them to do that...so I asked, "What does plus mean?" Then they totally got it. They knew that because they couldn't explain it, they weren't ready. So hopefully I won't be seeing anymore of that. Kids can easily memorize things like symbols/equations....this does NOT mean they understand what we're really doing with the numbers....and they might not even have simple things like conservation of a number. It takes awhile for them to truly understand that a numeral represents a number of objects.
See how he tried to write the equation (2+4 4) at the top? When I had a sub, she taught them the equation. UGH. Do not teach your child this yet.
They were trying to figure out why in the world I didn't want them to do that...so I asked, "What does plus mean?" Then they totally got it. They knew that because they couldn't explain it, they weren't ready. So hopefully I won't be seeing anymore of that. Kids can easily memorize things like symbols/equations....this does NOT mean they understand what we're really doing with the numbers....and they might not even have simple things like conservation of a number. It takes awhile for them to truly understand that a numeral represents a number of objects.
Sorry to babble on and on....but I was one of those kiddos growing up who memorized everything. I got A's....but I hated math and thought I was no good at it well into my late 20's. Only in the past few years with some great training through South Dakota Counts (along with other programs like AVMR) have I finally figured out where my math holes were. I am finally comfortable solving math problems in front of other teachers. I know I can do it and I want your children to realize that everybody's best looks different! They all can learn and improve upon where they're currently at.
Do not let your child think that a failure defines them in any way. I'll post an article I recently read. It's REALLY good and re-defines a lot of things that should be going on in classrooms. I hope you have time to read it too.
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