This task ended up giving me a headache. The first two questions were easier because I knew what I was looking for. The last two questions were a little confusing. I used trial and error to try to figure them out. There are just way to many numbers to choose from using trial and error. I was pretty lucky picking the numbers to try. For 7, 11, and 17 I started with 43 hoping they would be the same but, I was wrong.
My first reaction to the video was why in the world is a meteorologist speaking about math curriculum. As I listened to her I noticed she had some valid points. Over the summer I tutored an upcoming 3rd grader. Her parents had no clue how to help her with the homework she had brought home during the school year. This is very challenging for parents that are trying help their students practice at home. Her parents, just like me, were taught how to solve problems by the standard algorithms.
I thought the Turk strategies for solving the multiplication and division problems were confusing. How can we expect students just learning multiplication and division to understand? Then it makes me wonder…if it was confusing for me because I have only been taught to solve using the standard way??
I am not trying to say that students should only be taught the standard algorithms. When students understand the concept being taught then I believe they can try different ways to solve problems. My big fear is that I let my students try to figure out ways on their on and they never fully understand the concept. I know there are students that could be handed the multiplication or division problem she completed in the video and figure it out the Turk or Everyday Math way. But, what about the other students that get confused, miss a step, and get every question wrong?
This leads me into how I believe curriculum should be used in the classroom. I have come to believe that textbooks should not be the top priority of a teacher. In the few years of my career I have heard teachers complain about their being no money to buy textbooks. So what? I had an Investigation textbook for every student in my class last year. I could count on both hands the number of times I used in it the 180 days of school.
One of the quotes from the reading that really stood out to me was: Teacher and students interacting bring curriculum to life and create something that cannot exist in a textbook. I have seen this happen in my classroom multiple times. Teachers are being able to see how their students are thinking and working through problems. Students are seeing that their teachers are interested in how they are working out their problem. I remember sitting in my high school math classes working out problems from the textbook as my teacher sat at her desk. Then when I turned my paper in she circle where I messed up, which was usually the same on half the problems. If she were up interacting with the other students and myself, I may have been able to stop making the mistakes.
I believe that some math curriculums are very helpful. I do not believe that teachers should have to follow them word by word. Not every student will learn by them. Teachers should be able to use their judgment and use the curriculum as they see fit.
This week the standard we are teaching deals with positional words. The lesson planned for today dealt with the students going to the older playground right outside our classroom. Students were asked to go on top, under, beside, between, in front, and behind certain items on the playground. Next, I asked the students to find a certain spot on the playground. Now all you primary grade teachers are probably thinking you did not give them enough direction…so true! They all went to the two “coolest” spots on the playground. I had to regroup and tell them to find a spot not close to anyone. Once we got into our individual spots the students had to tell the class where they were with positional words. They did WONDERFUL. It showed that having the students pick and describe their location really helped them understand the definition of the words. We had been doing activities in the classroom with the smart board and manipulatives but, it was not clicking with some of the students. I am very lucky to have that old and never used playground outside my room. We will definitely be using it for more activities like this!
Storage Unit Exploration:
I enjoyed completing this task. It really made me think and I know students in higher grades would love it. This task had students making real world connects. Students needed to understand area, volume, multiplication, and division. This task involved trail and error to be used to design their building. It took me multiple times to get the storage units in the correct spots. Students then had to change the cost by volume for the storage units.
The Largest Container:
Students were discussing the different formulas to find volume. Their teacher gave them the challenge for creating the largest container. Students were given paper, rulers, scissors, and tape. I loved how this activity was so hands on. One of the students said that it was a lot easy to understand by doing then reading a book explaining how to do it. I really like how they were in groups and allowed to help each other through the task. There was not one student off task even with being in groups!
The students and I have been discussing the number of the day since the first day of school. I am using this as a count down as well. 🙂 We write the number word, tally marks, ten frames, and draw a picture to represent each number. This is the first time I have used number of the day and I am really enjoying it. Even though in kindergarten we are only focused on numbers 1-20 students are being introduce to higher numbers! Students are becoming familiar with tallies and ten frames. I taught second grade last year and was supposed at the students that did not know tallies and ten frames. I am excited to see how well my students will continue to do with number of the day.
We have been approved to spend time teaching calendar during math!! I could not believe that in the past teachers were told NOT to teacher calendar. Everyone needs to be able to read and understand a calendar. This is not a skill that you pick up in one day. Students need to know days of the week and months of the year. My students LOVE our calendar time. We sing songs about the weeks and months. My students are still having a hard time deciding what is a month and what is a day. Most student understand that there are 7 days and 12 months. When I ask what month we are in some will say the day and when I ask the day some will say the month. It is interesting to me that students have not connected that we are in school Monday through Friday so, Saturday and Sunday are the weekend. We will continue to practice EVERYDAY!
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