I Am Sorry...

I need to apologize to many of my students.  I taught them to memorize their multiplications facts, which is not a bad thing.  We sang songs, we chanted them, we took 5 min. timings over them, we even celebrated with a banana split! What I did fail to do was to teach them the whys behind what they were memorizing.  I failed to help them discover the patterns the numbers make.  I failed to help them take a quantity of items and break them into equal groups or how to use equal groups to quickly find the quantity.   Yes, yes, and super yes, I taught them the process.  We made sure each column was perfectly aligned, where to put the number to be carried, how to write the answer and how to skip two lines between each problem.  When we divided, it was the same process.  All lines nice and neat, each number in it's place and a place for each number.  I taught the process well...but I failed to teach them the why, I failed to help them discover how numbers work.  Part of me hates to put this out in public, but oh well, here it goes.  Part of the reason I failed to teach them is because I didn't have a grasp of what was happening either!  I knew the process, retaught the process, but not  the whys.  I didn't understand, I didn't know the importance of the why and so I didn't help students discover them in my classroom.

Yes, they all survived, just like I did.  Most grew up and found gainful employment even without me teaching them the why.  But, now that I know better, I can and will do better. Ensuring that each student at Hawthorne Elementary has a number sense foundation to build on is my new passion.