Friday, April 11, 2014

Random Tid Bits

  1. I was thinking about the Statue of Liberty. My kids were talking about it. If it were made today; I think most of it would be from China. The materials anyhow.

  2. Source

  3. Do you ever think about the end to mankind?

    Do you think we'll ever die out?
    If so...how?
    If we do I personally think we'll destroy ourselves somehow.

  4. I've been reading a lot about Common Core this week. I'm not against it, and I'm not for it. If you are not familiar with it, it's all about showing your work, backing up why and how you got to the answer you did, and if you do not show your work...even if you got the answer right, you just got the answer wrong for not showing your work.

  5. Most of the things I was reading were negative, but the negativity was coming from parents. I didn't know if parents felt badly about it because they didn't understand it, or was it because they truly thought it was a bad thing?

    Isaak's using Common Core, but Mica is not. I think when they put any new structure in a kid's curriculum, and want kids to switch gears, it's bad. They have to start the practice from the beginning. If it's taught as an alternative, then they should introduce the alternative in the beginning as well. Isaak's being started with it now in Kindergarten. Don't take a kid that is in third grade, throw them into common core, and expect them to grasp everything. It doesn't work.

    Parents should be educated on what the schools goals are. They want parents to work with their kids on homework, parents should understand what their kids are doing.

    I don't think Common Core should be the only way of learning. Have a few chapters on it. Every kid learns differently. I know I'm very right brained, and Common Core could have helped me. I'm a visual learner. Flat facts were hard for me to understand. Math didn't make sense until touch math was introduced to me. It was new when I learned it. Once I got that, math was understandable. Not everyone thinks the same way. I've always been in left field.  

    Isaak seems to be grasping math better than Mica. His math is like this 8-5= ? There are 8 dots above the problem. He has to fill in 5, and then count the reminder to put in the answer. He gets it! He gets subtraction to! Mica didn't learn subtraction until first grade. I do like that kids are learning to not just spit out an answer, but reason and logic is there to back up that answer. I get college students in all the time that can say artwork is nice, but they can't back up why they like it. When they get in the real world as young adults they will have to back up their portfolio pieces to sell their work. Otherwise they may not get a job they are interested in.  

    There is a great article on Common Core here if you'd like to read it. In the end I think everyone learns differently. Common Core may work for my kid, but not yours. I think different math practices should be taught from the beginning, and each kid can choose a way that works from them.

  6. Next month my sister has her baby! It's both crazy and exciting.

  7. My students are working on a Children's Book assignment. It's one of my favorite assignments!

6 comments:

Masshole Mommy said...

I don't like common core math. It's absurd the way they teach kids to do 3 or 4 problems to get the answer to ONE problem. It's a lot of extra work and it just makes NO sense to me at all.

~ Noelle said...

I am still so confused over common core... hope to figure it out before broxton :)
how cool about childrens books :)
do you let your boys help grade them?

Eat To Live said...

I try not to thing about the end of mankind, but the way things are going... it may not be far off.

Ai Sakura said...

haha you're probably right about the Statue of Liberty bit :P

I think it's good if kids can show how they arrived at the answer, because if it's wrong at least the teachers would know which step went wrong. However, I know some kids do sums in their heads and don't write every single step. You can't penalise kids that do it this way too.

Ai @ Sakura Haruka

mail4rosey said...

I hear a lot of buzz about Common Core, most of it is negative.

Are your students illustrating for a children's book?

Theresa Mahoney said...

I think Common Core sucks. My daughter can get the problem right, but she has a very hard time putting her thoughts into words sometimes. She then gets frustrated and hates school.

I do think there will be an end to the human race some day. I am not sure how we will go- the wrath of mother nature, disease, or killing each other off ourselves, but I do think it will happen.

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