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Division - the subject that brings us all together

Ah...division.  The 4th and final fundamental operation of elementary math. But I bet when I said that more than a few people were sent back to the days of long division being brutal. I think just about everyone can agree, long division was a HIGH hurdle of elementary school.
While division is the partner to multiplication (more on that later), for whatever reason it's also Cinderella's ugly stepsister that nobody wants to acknowledge is really there.

Division is incredibly applicable though - need to give each of your kids an equal number of cookies from what's left in the package so nobody fights? Or do you need to figure out how many more glasses of wine you can get from what's left in the bottle...  Either way, division is real life.

Luckily, instead of pushing students to just memorize more number facts (which is useful - to a point) we teach multiple ways for students to arrive at their answers, giving them some number dexterity. Your student probably has a stronger ability to "see" their math problems than you ever did in elementary school, and that's because we stress that now early and often.  Story problems are no longer for the end of every assignment; they are now the driving force behind WHY students learn what they do.


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