By Susana Patrick. 3rd Grade Math. Published at Sunday, October 25th, 2020 - 13:08:09 PM.
What I consider to be his worst mistake, and this is again an inexperience issue because he hasnt yet seen this happen, is that he didnt consider the mathematical harm that he would cause his students. They wont experience the harm until next year when their 4th grade teacher expects certain knowledge that they wont have. I have no doubt that this young man can teach mathematics to 3rd graders. But I know from many years of experience with UCSMP, that the terminology used and the methods used vary greatly from what is found in a more traditional text. Unless he has been fired or put back on the district path, his 3rd grade students will have a difficult time in 4th grade math. His students deserved better from him.
The abacus is the perfect way to make your child understand number systems. The abacus can adopt itself to any base system and allows you to quickly perform calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division - even with decimal places. If you want your child to realize his potential and utilize it too then you need to put them on correct path of learning to be able to facilitate this. Math can be pretty daunting but if your child is able to master it then his confidence will grow manifold. Obviously you dont envisage a future for your child totally dependent on the electronic calculator even for the smallest calculation. The present education scenario is fast leading to that. That is why many schools in Asia and elsewhere too have adopted the abacus formally for teaching mathematics.
A child who enjoys the art of building would love a project that involves the making of a model to demonstrate a concept or results. 3rd grade science fair projects may be a collection of objects or insects (for example). For the project to be interesting, make sure that it answers a question relating to the topic. Encourage your child to experiment and to write down his findings. The child will then be used to this idea when he must present projects for school purposes. 3rd grade science fair projects can be presented in various ways. The student could write the results in a report or make an attractive poster. Models, as mentioned above, are also fascinating. Help your child organize his poster or display in a neat and logical fashion. Photos or computer printouts help towards the visual appeal of the project. The use of color is important to make each section of the project stand out on its own, but make sure that the main focal point is the purpose and original question of the project. The pictures, results and conclusions can be arranged around the main purpose of the project.
So, whats wrong with this picture? It certainly seems that he cares about his students and wants what is best for their mathematical futures. If you have read any of my other articles, read my bio, or have been to my website, then you know how important mathematics education is to me; and this situation quite literally appalls me on many levels. New teachers! Are you paying attention? When you get hired by a school district, you are agreeing to teach what they want you to teach, when they want you to teach it, and how they want you to teach it. If you dont want to do that, then you go teach elsewhere. You do not get to unilaterally decide to go off on your own. The school district chose that math series for a reason. This teacher deserved to be fired for breach of contract at the very least. If he was so troubled by the math series, he should have talked to his supervisor immediately. There were solutions to his problems that never got explored because he was so sure he knew better than anyone else. And FYI: Those older teachers have survived in the teaching field because they are wiser and have lots of valuable experiences and lessons to teach you. Take advantage of them. (I am pretty sure that his problems resulted as much from his lack of experience as from the textbook series. The first year of teaching is difficult for everyone.)
Everyone knows by the time theyre in 3rd grade that its teachers pet who has the honor of cleaning the erasers, wiping down the blackboard, and replacing stubs with fresh, long white pieces of chock that felt amazingly smooth as your fingers slid lightly over their cool hardness as you placed them neatly in the chock tray. Mrs. Conroy smiled at me as she arranged the pages of each students best cursive writing on the bulletin boards flanking both sides of the clean blackboard. We had everything in place for tomorrow. It would be a great day. And I was, indeed, a good girl who had learned the hard way to wiggle her toes a few months ago with the encouragement of the physical therapy heroes.
Most school districts are rather lenient when it comes to new teacher mistakes. However, because of a lack of experience, there are several things that can and do get new teachers fired. This article is about one specific action by one specific teacher; although Im beginning to wonder if he is one of those Urban Legends. First, some background. A couple weeks ago I was doing some research for an article about UCSMP (University of Chicago School Mathematics Project) and trends in mathematics. I taught high school math in a school district that started using UCSMP (we referred to it as the Chicago Series) in 1988. My feelings about the Chicago Series will be in another article, but overall, I considered it to be an excellent math series with tremendous potential for improving student understanding of mathematics but with a couple major flaws that always seemed to lead to its demise. For my research, I just wanted to know if it still existed. I came across an article that I thought was written this year by a 23-year-old, male, 3rd grade math, 1st year teacher. My immediate reaction to his article was that he should be fired for several reasons.
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