Anon describes experience
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Oof, i can feel anon. Actually true probably, similar stuff happened to me. Also getting this writte in as bad behaviour as well. I started so many arguments with teachers because they were bullshitting. Maths is one thing, i was really into it as a child(still am) but i understand why a teacher has to teach things in order. Of course this could be solved with more resources, and more importantly, distrobuting resources better by having a bit more personalized education. But what i was on about is that its very common(in eastern europe at least) for teachers to spread actual complete fucking bullshit. The amount of times they took disciplinary action against me because i corrected their batshit insane claims is just sad. This mainly happened until 5th and 6th grade where i got to the conclusion that just discussing what we covered during the class, after the class, was a good way of clearing up the mess. Of course i knew way too much for a 10 year old(had an autistic sister who loved to infodump me, we still engage in it time to time ^_^) but the point is that if a 10 year old is constantly correcting his teachers theres a problem in the system. I hoped that more western systems would be better but actually i dont see (sweden in my case) being much better for children even with everyone hyping it up. Well sorry for the rant, idk what could actually solve these problems exactly as im not an expert but i really hope we adress it one day...
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I can believe this. Not fake, not gay. The math teaching of the past was so dumb. Even now, I have 2 kids who never got a bad math teacher and still love math; two who did (one teacher who actually thought women ought not get higher education) and those two do not
And a good math teacher is a treasure beyond words. Mr. Galing, if I could have had you teach my kids through high school I would have taken them anywhere.
how many kids do you have?
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Speaking of not teaching things kids have to unlearn later, I've often wondered why we don't just start teaching math with the expectation that you solve for "x".
i.e. Instead of
2 + 3 =Write
2 + 3 = xThis would prime the child to expect that math is about finding an unknown and you've already introduced the unknown that will be most prominent in their academic career. This will also reduce the steps necessary when teaching how to balance an equation as you no longer have the "well actually you were always solving for 'x' we just didn't write it, so you didn't know, also we're never going to use 'x' for multiplication again." stage.
But I'm not a teacher, parent, or child psychologist and this is just my blathering hypothesis based on watching my peers struggle with math for years.
I've taken accustomed to writing
2 + 3 = ___or2 + ___ = 5and then later seamlessly transitioning to "2 + 3 = z, write downz:" or "2 + t = y, wherey= 5. write downt:"because it just seems so natural to identify these letters with natural things, such as numbers of beer bottles or cookies. kids typically giggle over these things because they think i'm making it up to be funny for their entertainment.
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They get shot up because of easy access to guns, next question please!
they get shot up because of really poor mental health in large swaths of the population and non-existent gun control.
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how many kids do you have?
How many loaves of bread have you eaten?
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
So every four weeks or so, maths teacher would give us a test at upper primary level. This was at pre-computer times. One of the questions was always "how long is this line" with a pen-drawn line underneath. Except, the pen he used always left a blot at the end of the line and sometimes there was a little flick from where he lifted his pen up.
Simple I thought, the line is 10.2cm - 10-3cm! Easy! But, it was always marked wrong. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Correct answer: 10cm. It wasn't like to be rounded to the nearest cm or anything, just "how long is this line". The ink blot counted. It counted!
I'm still bitter.
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I had a kindergarten teacher try teaching syllables by clapping them out while saying the word:
ALL I GATOR! Alligator! ALL I GATOR! Three syllables.Tried correcting her, she just clapped and said gator again.
She would have been right with "CROC-A-DILE" though
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How many loaves of bread have you eaten?
wrote last edited by [email protected]16-24 slices per loaf, I have eaten on average 1.39‰ six dozen loaves today
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So every four weeks or so, maths teacher would give us a test at upper primary level. This was at pre-computer times. One of the questions was always "how long is this line" with a pen-drawn line underneath. Except, the pen he used always left a blot at the end of the line and sometimes there was a little flick from where he lifted his pen up.
Simple I thought, the line is 10.2cm - 10-3cm! Easy! But, it was always marked wrong. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Correct answer: 10cm. It wasn't like to be rounded to the nearest cm or anything, just "how long is this line". The ink blot counted. It counted!
I'm still bitter.
wrote last edited by [email protected]Factual incorrect, since teacher didn't state that the result has to be rounded. I only got barely through school, because of the tasks often being open to interpretation.
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The bajillion stories in the comments about horrible experiences with math just reinforce the fact that I've made the right career choice.
I became an elementary teacher as a second career specifically because so many elementary teachers are absolutely terrible at teaching math. (Mostly because they don't actually understand the math that they're teaching. In my university cohort, almost 50% of my classmates failed the math entrance exam the first time. There was nothing more complex than 5th grade math on that test.)
Students should be allowed to use the strategies that work for them, and they should definitely never be punished for knowing math from higher grade levels.
If a student in my class knows something more advanced, I will challenge them to use grade-level-appropriate strategies to prove that their answers are correct. And if they demonstrate that they can do both, I'll give them more advanced work to help them grow.
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this reminds me of a time (similar situation, english as a second language, and i knew english better than the english teacher) the teacher was talking about past tense, and trying to find a word that ends with a "y" to show an example of adding "ed" to the end.
the example? buy turning into buyed. i corrected her, saying the past tense of buy was bought. she gave another example: fly turning into flyed. i corrected her again, saying it was flew, but she just gave up and used flyed as the example anyway
wrote last edited by [email protected]When we started learning about past tense (primary school, probably 6th year, amazing teacher), the first thing we learned was a list of irregular verbs. We spent at least a week just memorizing them before the regular -d/-ed verbs were even mentioned. I'd like to think it was a deliberate choice, to condition us to consider irregular verbs first when using past tense.
That same teacher also taught us how to write and read the international phonetic alphabet. Again, she was amazing.
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how many kids do you have?
4 I gave birth to plus 5 step kids - when we married 3 were already grown and 4 were in high school, only 2 were small (and we doubled up on birth control) so we didn't have an impossible household situation. Enough kids to draw conclusions about the school system though.
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4 I gave birth to plus 5 step kids - when we married 3 were already grown and 4 were in high school, only 2 were small (and we doubled up on birth control) so we didn't have an impossible household situation. Enough kids to draw conclusions about the school system though.
That's a lot! Props to you for keeping your sanity.
Can I ask what your cultural background is? Mormon? Indian? Catholic? South-east asian?
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why does this gat dang kid keep complaining about his itchy knee?!?
I do have eczema, so maybe they did think that's what I was saying.
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That's a lot! Props to you for keeping your sanity.
Can I ask what your cultural background is? Mormon? Indian? Catholic? South-east asian?
Ha! Not religious, but yes from Catholic background both me & husband. I do like kids, and they are all glad now to have such an extensive network of siblings. White mostly by way of Southern Europe on my side, husband mostly by way of Eastern Europe.
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I had a kindergarten teacher try teaching syllables by clapping them out while saying the word:
ALL I GATOR! Alligator! ALL I GATOR! Three syllables.Tried correcting her, she just clapped and said gator again.
I mean, clapping between words (syllables in this case, but who cares) automatically makes your claims the indisputable truth. Anyone with some internet experience can tell you that.
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The bajillion stories in the comments about horrible experiences with math just reinforce the fact that I've made the right career choice.
I became an elementary teacher as a second career specifically because so many elementary teachers are absolutely terrible at teaching math. (Mostly because they don't actually understand the math that they're teaching. In my university cohort, almost 50% of my classmates failed the math entrance exam the first time. There was nothing more complex than 5th grade math on that test.)
Students should be allowed to use the strategies that work for them, and they should definitely never be punished for knowing math from higher grade levels.
If a student in my class knows something more advanced, I will challenge them to use grade-level-appropriate strategies to prove that their answers are correct. And if they demonstrate that they can do both, I'll give them more advanced work to help them grow.
There's good out there too. I was good at maths in school and was encouraged to do more advanced stuff
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Ah I recall my "science" teacher when I was 13 explaining to us that all materials expand when heated and shrink when cooled.
So I ask how ice floats, or how ice cubes swell above the tray.
And a good teacher would have told you that water freezing is one of the weird cases, as water has a less dense solid form than its liquid form. Although even water is less dense at 2° than at 20°
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Ha! Not religious, but yes from Catholic background both me & husband. I do like kids, and they are all glad now to have such an extensive network of siblings. White mostly by way of Southern Europe on my side, husband mostly by way of Eastern Europe.
Sounds like there were a lot of fights growing up but now they're at somewhat peace with one another
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This post did not contain any content.wrote last edited by [email protected]
And now, I feel rage too. Be very afraid, unnamed teacher!
AI is coming for your job!
