Number Sense

A couple of weeks ago I was in meeting where the topic of a particular student's number sense came up. He can identify coins, the math teacher said, but he has no idea about value. I am not a math teacher, although I do love math, and I like to show off my own math skills anytime I have the chance. For example after-school homework club:

Me: What's wrong?
Student: I can't figure this out.
Me: Can I help?
Student (with doubt and a dab of disdain): I'm in advanced math...
Me: Yeah, I think I can probably give you a hand.

A few minutes later...

Student: You should be a math teacher!

And so it goes, but, as I also like to tell the students, I have been in sixth grade for an awfully time, and it would be pretty sad if I didn't know the curriculum by now.

So this discussion about the student and money threw me for a loop. Not having children of my own, I never considered how you teach monetary value. I'm guessing an allowance and shopping opportunities, but I was surprised again yesterday when one of my homeroom students came up to my desk.

"Can I go to my locker?" he whispered.

"Why?" I inquired.

"My mom gave me an envelope with 12,000 dollars in it," he told me.

"What!? She did not! Why would she do that?"

"It's for the thing," he said quietly.

"What thing? You do not have 12,000 dollars in your locker..." I started, but then I realized the quickest way to get to the bottom of all this was for him to go get it.

He returned a few minutes later looking sheepish. "It wasn't 12,000 dollars," he said.

I was not surprised.

"It was only eleven thousand two hundred," he continued.

"Let me see that," I said. "This says 112.00 dollars!" I told him.

"Oooooh," he answered apologetically.

"What's it for?"

"Math summer school," he whispered.

"Good," I nodded. "Good."

Stay in Touch

Yesterday, I stood in a large crowd downtown while a man to my left carried on a loud phone conversation. Where are you? By the theater? I can see the theater. Are you near the guy in the chef's coat? Oh, you're past him? Which way are you going? What side of the street are you on? Wait there-- I'm coming to get you. No. I see you. Do you have a thing in your hair? I'm waving. Do you see me? Come on over. Bye.

By the end, I was as anxious to see his friend as he was, maybe even more so because of how curious I was about the thing in her hair. Fortunately, it wasn't long at all before she and her pink silk flower walked past me, her arms outstretched, her hand still clutching her phone, and soon I tuned out their face to face conversation, trying to remember how we ever connected before we had our mobile phones.

This morning I heard a little story on the Writer's Almanac about Maxine Kumin and her best friend Anne Sexton. Back in the early 60s, these poets were so close that they had extra phone lines installed in their houses so that they would never have to hang up on each other. I'm sure at the time it was considered a bit extreme, but they were definitely on the right track. Visionary, even.

The Post-Alphabiography Post Syndrome Post

They say it only takes 30 days to develop a lasting habit. Could be. I'll tell you what, tonight all I can think of are possible alphbiography topics: W is for Weeding, X is for X-men, P is for PostHunt (F is for Fink-- you know who you are), and 2 is for Could There Really Be Over 2 Weeks Left?

A is for Alphabiography, Again

Today is the last day of the challenge I issued to my students back at the end of April. It started out as twenty-six posts for the month of May, one for each letter of the alphabet, but we expanded it to numbers for the kids who wanted to continue posting every single day, so there ended up being 35 possible topics, and those of us who did them all are on our last post today.

I am very proud of my students for all the great writing they have done this month. Most of them really stepped up to the challenge. Last week as part of another assignment, one of the kids was interviewing me. "So, how did you come up with the alphabiographies?" he asked.

I explained that I had adapted other teachers' ideas that I'd read about on the internet, and I told him that one of my objectives was for the students to build writing fluency. He looked puzzled. "You know," I said, "the ability to write more easily-- longer, faster?"

"Ooooohh," he seemed surprised. "Because I've really noticed that in myself lately and was wondering how it happened."

Life Lesson: It's not rocket surgery: skills improve with practice.

1 is for Just One of Those Things

Every year since 2001, our sixth grade team has taken a trip in June to go dolphin watching. It's about three hours away, so we charter buses, spend a couple of hours at the beach, and then board a really big boat for a 2-hour cruise skirting the capes of Delaware in search of marine mammals. Next it's back on the bus, and a few hours later we're home. It's usually a nice day and a pleasant way to end the year. It also offers experiences that many of our students have never had: the beach, the boat, or both.

This year will be an exception to the tradition. Our school system has adopted a stricter set of guidelines for planning field trips, and the charter company we use could not produce the paper work we needed to have the trip approved. I don't want to judge either the new rules or the guy who owns the charter boat; I believe everyone involved wants what's right and what's safe-- it just didn't work out for the kids this year.

Life Lessons:

1) Better safe than sorry...
2) A person's word and a handshake ought to mean something.

6 is for 6000 Steps or So

Tomorrow we're walking to a local park for our annual water cleanliness and testing field trip. Because we have about 100 kids on the team, we're taking them in two groups. It's always a negotiation to decide which teachers will go and which will stay back on such a trip. Of course, the science teacher goes; it's her curriculum, but after that? It all depends on who's absent, who's healthy, who's willing, and whose turn it is.

This year, like last year, I'm present, healthy, and willing, and so I'm going both times. Lucky me! The walk is lovely, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous, and the activity is fun. Not only do I get to be outside all day, but I'll get a little exercise, too.

Life Lesson:

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life.
It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way,
If we keep on the sunny side of life. 
~Ada Blenkhorn

8 is for 823

That is the number of this post-- I've posted to my blog 823 consecutive days. Usually, I try to avoid writing about the number of times I've posted, even the milestones, because I've decided over the last couple of years that there are two types of blog posts that are crushingly boring: writing about how you don't know what to write and writing about how much you have written.

Don't get me wrong. I've definitely written several of each type, but I try to give those pieces either an alternate focus, an original spin, or both. I'm not saying I succeed at that, and in truth I've almost made peace with the fact that it's okay to post something I don't love. It's okay, because it means I'll write again tomorrow, and who knows? That one might be awesome.

Do you know what will really be a milestone for me? The day I stop caring about how many times I've posted in a row. Because then writing every day will not be a chore or a requirement, but rather just a thing I do.

Life Lesson: If you have to think about it, it's not a habit.