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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...
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Trust the Process: Fractions - the Real F Word

                                              I know it's not exactly the most comforting advice to adults who have been through a lot of change, but 1 thing I know for sure is that no school, no teacher, no administrator, no aide wants any child to be poorly educated.  Instead those teachers, administrators, aides, and school officials all know that there is a building process from Kindergarten (or 4K) through senior year of high school.  There is a progression that they've spent (countless) hours working to align so that every topic is covered, every concept is given time to develop, and every student has access to the material when they're ready. The long and short of it is that there is a well thought out process - please trust it.  While it may be frustrating for you at times, remember that you have all the "keys to the castle" as an adult who's be...
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It's not new, it's meta

Metacognition: a buzz word that educators like to throw around Metacognition: thinking about thinking Yes, that's a real thing teachers are asked to do on a regular basis. We are expected to anticipate errors our students might make before they make them. We are constantly on the look out for students who have a different approach than their peers to a problem. And now we're seeing these "metacognition" problems showing up on standardized tests for all ages. The practice of explaining your thinking can be a tough one to wrap our heads around as adults. It feels easier to say "It just IS the answer." But we want to dig deeper into HOW or WHY you arrived at your answer because It's Not New, It's Meta
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