DAY 129

I heard about a parent who went to her school board meeting. She asked the board members to do a couple of simple math problems. Then she showed them how her child was being required to do those problems following the Common Core curriculum and requested them to do the problems that way. She made her point.

Today I was in the Resource Room at a Livonia middle school and I helped a couple of kids with their homework and helped keep everyone on task. For a lot of the day, there was very little to do so I worked on my art project. I helped C., a 7th grader, with his math. He had to determine the perimeter of a shape – the measurements were provided. At first he was writing down the list of numbers (numbers given are random, not exact):

2+4=6+3=9+8=17+2=19+1=20+5=25

Sometimes he guessed and got the wrong answer. Always, he counted on his fingers (and still sometimes got it wrong, although he seemed to know what to do). I chided him for guessing (there’s no guessing in math – they haven’t gotten to estimating) and also showed him that he could just write the list of numbers in a column and then add them as he goes and not have to write each step out. Later, after he successfully did about 12 problems, I showed him that he could just look at the diagram and point to the numbers and add them together as he went around the shape – saving even more time. He seemed happy that he could do everything faster. Of course, he might have just been messing with me in the first place – I could tell that while he wasn’t quick, he did understand the concepts. I encouraged him to learn his multiplication tables this summer, also.

Honestly, I think I should start a Multiplication Tables Camp for a week at a time and get flash cards, games, and so forth and just drill on them for a couple hours a day. Hmmmmmmm. I would accept any age kid that wanted to learn them. 🙂 The 13 year olds could get inspired by the 7 year olds. 😦

Forgot to mention that on “Reading Rainbow” day, at least one child asked why the fiddle maker from Tennessee talked the way he did. 🙂 I imitated the accent (I probably sounded more Kentucky) and they were amused. I think those 1st graders were not aware of regional accents.