I spent a little time hanging out in my Small One’s classroom this morning.
She’s in third grade and has a different teacher than her sister had, so I don’t know him well yet.
When I was there, they were working on math.
He had some simple addition problems up on the chalkboard but I realized pretty soon that they were just illustrations for the bigger point he was trying to make.
"Memorizing basic math facts is always a good idea," he said, "because you’ll be able to figure things out quickly — even more complex things — for the rest of your lives." (This is when kids think, "Yeah, right, like you need to do math problems as a grown up. Ha.")
But then he went on to say, "But if you don’t have the basics memorized, that’s okay. There are a lot of strategies you can use." And he proceeded to share a bunch of them — everything from using fingers and hash marks, to adding 10 and substracting 1 if you’re supposed to be working with a 9. And so on.
"What really matters," he said, "is that you figure out which strategies work for you!"
Hallelujah, I thought.
(Me with the crazy little math tricks that help me figure out tips and tax and percentages and such…)
Praise the teachers who tell kids there is more than one way to do things ‘right’.
Yay!
I love Mr. Seuhs! He’s got great songs for math, too!
Kali
Re: Yay!
I am just really getting his vibe and I like it a lot!
Oh this makes me so very, very, happy. I wish every child had a teacher like this one.
Me, too. My girls have been extrordinarily lucky in the teacher department so far. It makes all the difference….
Tanita Says 🙂
**YES**
When I was teaching 5th grade (at a private school for kids with learning disabilities) I taught the 9 times table trick that you do with your fingers, and got a reprimand. “THAT IS NOT HOW WE DO IT.” I was told.
Um, that’s how SOME of us do it, and guess what? It works.
There IS MORE THAN ONE WAY to do nearly everything. There are many gates and many roads, and if there’s only one answer so be it, but there are ten ways to get there. I hate it when people try to stop kids from finding other ways. Yay for Small One’s teacher.
Re: Tanita Says 🙂
RIGHT! A couple of years ago, Tall One taught ME that 9s trick and I could.not.believe.it. Like, basically, someone had been holding out on me all these years.
There are sooooo many good paths to nearly every place we need to get. Yes, indeed…