I teach 5th grade math. It is amazing how much the “proper way to teach” has changed since I learned as a 5th grader myself. Every lesson has to be a dog and pony show now because certain groups “don’t learn like you did.” Excuse me, but they don’t LEARN like we did because they do not BEHAVE like we did! In every lesson I have to plan a physical movement every 10 minutes because the student population of my school are “physical learners.” Even though it is in my written plans those physical movements rarely seem to make it into the actual lessons. :-)
Very interesting. I never got over “set theory”.
Do you think your students are learning math with these latest methods?
I was just talking to a guy that is probably a genius. He said he was very rambunctious as a kid. He had one teacher that realized his need for activity. If he started squirming in class:
“Johnny. Why don’t you run around the entire playground as fast as you can - I’ll time you and we can use it in our lesson.”
Just fill them up with drugs to quiet them down now.
Thanks for keeping up the fight. We continue to have issues with high-school math teachers passing out the work sheet, the teacher saying “work on these together”, and then she goes sits at her computer. My daughter saw her shopping for clothes one time! (Good neighborhood too). We have complained, but it is the new “learning style of Discovery math”.
I used to say these bad teachers should be hanged. Treason against America. I have stopped saying that, as my kids were at first aghast - but now agree. (Well, sort of.) I have backed off to a more reasonable tar and feathering approach.
My one daughter takes an additional math helps class. She was saying today that “It’s really sad when I’m the smartest kid in the room! I mean, a lot of these kids can’t do simple multiplication. How are they supposed to figure out algebra? Especially when in the main class the teachers just hand out worksheets!?”
It’s going to be another long year for their somewhat math oriented dad. (An old white guy!)