Bookmarks for Teaching Math

I'm always looking for ways to teach math to Younger Daughter, so I thought I'd write a post bookmarking useful sites.  Readers, please let me know if you have suggested additions!

Of course, I start with the great

Singapore Math

For the iPad:

Monty's Quest

Sushi Monster

Dragon Box

Math Ninja 

Worksheets, etc. :

math aids 

xtramath

thatquiz.org 

ixl math 

PS 150 Dumps Investigations Math

I only wish this was Younger Daughter's school.

I liked this comment from the principal of PS 234, which is retaining Investigations Math:

The school’s principal, Lisa Rip­perger, emphasized that more important than any individual program is support for the teachers. PS 234 has a math and a literacy coach who work only with the teachers. “Nothing to me in my budget is more important than my two full-time content coaches,” she said. - See more at: http://www.tribecatrib.com/content/ps-150-becomes-math-rebel-among-progressive-downtown-schools#sthash.DI1ob0tB.dpuf

The school’s principal, Lisa Rip­perger, emphasized that more important than any individual program is support for the teachers. PS 234 has a math and a literacy coach who work only with the teachers. “Nothing to me in my budget is more important than my two full-time content coaches,” she said. - See more at: http://www.tribecatrib.com/content/ps-150-becomes-math-rebel-among-progressive-downtown-schools#sthash.DI1ob0tB.dpuf

The school's principal, Lisa Ripperger, emphasized that more important than any individual program is support for the teachers.  PS 234 has a math and a literacy coach who work only with the teachers.  "Nothing to me in my budget is more important than my two full-time content coaches," she said.

How did we get to the point that elementary-school teachers can't teach basic math without the services of a full-time specialist?  Either the teachers are incompetent or the curriculum is baffling.  Or, even more frightening, both.

The school’s principal, Lisa Rip­perger, emphasized that more important than any individual program is support for the teachers. PS 234 has a math and a literacy coach who work only with the teachers. “Nothing to me in my budget is more important than my two full-time content coaches,” she said. - See more at: http://www.tribecatrib.com/content/ps-150-becomes-math-rebel-among-progressive-downtown-schools#sthash.DI1ob0tB.dpuf

The school’s principal, Lisa Rip­perger, emphasized that more important than any individual program is support for the teachers. PS 234 has a math and a literacy coach who work only with the teachers. “Nothing to me in my budget is more important than my two full-time content coaches,” she said. - See more at: http://www.tribecatrib.com/content/ps-150-becomes-math-rebel-among-progressive-downtown-schools#sthash.DI1ob0tB.dpuf

A Green Visitor

Did Katy blend in to the milkweed?  Katy did!

7 Myths of Education

I've been reading 7 Myths of Education, by  Daisy Christodoulou.  The book describes English schooling, but it's very relevant to some of the trends we see here.   You might call it "half-arsed progressivism" --  that is, it's a lot of poorly-understood progressive ideals pasted on to the traditional authoritarian system we're all accustomed to.  The result is the worst of both worlds:  an enforced school experience with no discernible content being taught.

As Ms. Christodoulou quite correctly points out, the schools are trying to follow the philosophy of people (e.g. Rousseau) who were against having schools at all.  That's where we are today:  we're trying to run schools according to the thinking of people who were opposed to schools.  Similarly, we're using a math curriculum designed by people who don't like math and would prefer to write journal entries.

A few relevant bits:

One of the strongest messages I received when I was training and beginning to teach was that I should not talk very much.  I remember one teacher trainer telling me that if I was talking, the pupils were not learning. 

It is a baffling overreaction:  to move from legitimate criticism of mindless rote learning to the complete denial of any kind of teacher-led activity.  The solution to mindless rote learning is not less teacher instruction; it is different and better teacher instruction.

Independent learning suggests a reduced and sometimes even non-existent role for the teacher.  If it really were possible to learn independently, why would we need teachers and schools?

While the final aim of education is for our pupils to be able to work independently, endlessly asking them to work independently is not an effective method for achieving this aim.

Just because our children are over-examined, it does not necessarily follow that they must therefore be overburdened with knowledge.

That last one really speaks to me.  I often find myself trying to explain to people how it is that our local schools are toxic pressure-cookers and simultaneously not teaching anything.   If the kids are overworked, why are they so undereducated?  It's because the work they do is pointless. 

Another Visitor

Another Imperial Moth.  This one might be female.

A Visitor

An Imperial Moth, hanging out on the screen of our kitchen window.

Skip Counting vs. the Times Tables

When I started teaching Younger Daughter the times tables, she protested that she already knew them -- at least for 2, 3, 4, and 5 -- because she had been taught them at school.  It turns out that what she knew is "skip counting" -- that is, "2, 4, 6, 8, ..." (Back in my day, when we weren't dying of the bubonic plague, we called this "counting by twos.")  But if you asked Younger Daughter what 2 x 3 is, she had to think about it for a while, and the answer she came up with might or might not be correct.  (She's getting better now, after a great deal of work on both of our parts.)

There's nothing wrong with skip counting, and it's a reasonable first step toward learning multiplication.  This is typical of the new "fuzzy math" curricula (Younger Daughter's school uses "TERC Investigations") -- they include some reasonable first steps, but they don't follow through and actually teach the skills and facts you need to know. 

The first unrelated-to-me kid that I tutored had a similar problem with adding fractions.  I was impressed when she knew that 1/2 + 1/4 is 3/4.  When I asked her how she knew this, she drew a little pie illustration.  Again, this is a reasonable first step.  But when I asked her what 2/50 + 1/100 was, she was completely stumped.  That's because Trailblazers doesn't follow through and actually teach the algorithm for adding fractions.

Feh!  The bad news is that the district of Upper Tax Bracket only adopted TERC Investigations a couple of years ago -- it'll take time for any kind of momentum to build against it.  In the meantime, I'm teaching Younger Daughter math at home.