Unfinished business...

So today I came in looking forward to week 2… Thinking about all the fun and excited things the kids would do, who would make me laugh, would that one girl ever get my name right… You know, the usual teacher questions. For Crew today we did the “tie your shoes” initiative where the partners need to tie each other’s shoes but can only use one hand… So one hand behind your back and one hand of your partner and tie your shoes… After a goody model done by Mr. A and myself we set the kids loose on the shoes… It was sooooooooo interesting to see who could handle the challenge and went for it, advancing quickly into the next steps of the task (switch hands, 2 fingers, 1 finger, etc;) and who didn’t listen, who cheated and used both hands thinking Mr. A and I didn’t see… For those who got it, they excelled and listened to each other and found a great way to collaborate. When we finished Crew we transitioned into literacy and worked on descriptive paragraphs. We gave the kids pictures from magazines and asked them to use their senses (only 5 since, I hope, none of them can see dead people)… It was again interesting to see who got it and who didn’t. In the afternoon we worked on multiplication with 2-digit factors… It was a struggle, and I found that I learned multiplication differently than anyone else in the room… I tried to get into the heads of my kids and once I did, the math talk was easier. We then broke the kids into smaller groups and gave them 35x28 as a problem. Their task was to a) solve the problem and b) come up with a word problem for the numbers and c) clearly explain on a piece of chart paper how they got the answer they did… As is with everyday, there were simply NOT enough hours in the day and before I knew it… the kids were out the door…

Quote of the day comes from a Think, Pair, Share moment when asked to describe what multiplication is “It’s something you need to get into college, and to get a job. And well yeah if you’re a cashier.”