Modeling career!!

YOU are a model ! and you! and you! we are all models and when I think of what our children see  and hear us model, it helps clear up the questions about what's wrong with education.  On the radio the other day(the most recent event of it's kind), a speaker said, in part, "...them are..." . Simple grammar and language skills are often ignored - both in the teaching and in the learning -
          I think we've become lazy in our expectations - not only in grammar and language, but also in our expectations of correct and accurate information, among so many things. (Lack of good manners is a huge pet pieve for me! just fyi:-)
       In, and of, themselves, none of these behaviors is tragic.  However, I believe they are signs and symptoms of a much bigger problem.  If our children are surrounded by low expectations, and inferior performance of communication, responsibility, work ethic, fun, growth, and much more, then how can we hope that they will want to learn, achieve and grow to their fullest ability?
      And if we choose to surround our children with inappropriate models, we are failing our responsibility to do the job of parenting.

That's it for now.

Math problems

Since retirement, I have been tutoring several students in a variety of grade levels from 1st through 7th. Each and every one of them required help in math.  It seems that in math instruction, the focus is on concepts first and foremost.  Now, I agree that understanding concepts behind learned responses creates deeper understanding and application.  However, I also believe that for some students, the procedure needs to come before the concept is recognized.  Math-minded students (and yes, I do believe some of us are math minded and some are not so much!) can learn concepts and hold onto them in order to apply them to appropriate problems.  Students who are not so "math-savvy" need to have the concrete problems, and process to solve them, first, in order to have something to which  the concept can connect.  They need connections to previous learning that is concrete rather than conceptual.
Unfortunately, classroom teachers have limited hours/minutes in the day to address both kinds of learners. Needless to say, the math-minded students move more efficiently and successfully through the long list of objectives required, and the less-math-minded students, needing more time and effort, have hope the first week of school only to see it wear away steadily and quickly as the concepts pile up.
Fortunately for me, I get to take the time to fill in the gaps with the concrete strategies and watch the light come to their eyes when they"get it"!!

Strolling into Summer!

Hmmmm - I chose this font today because it reminds me of typewriters.  And typewriters remind me of more thoughtful times- times when we had to think more to get our words on paper - yea - paper:-) We had to pre-think what we wanted to get down because, oh my gosh! the hastle we had to go through to make a "correction"!and if there was carbon paper involved (to have more copies),the corrections were nearly defeating!!
     'think I'll try for typewriter conversations this summer!

...a place for my observations and lessons learned along the way...