Well....do we want them to know the facts? Or not? It's only one minute, how boring can it be?
I'm not for drill and kill mind you, but I'm more appalled by the kids that don't know their facts.
I don't know...I just hate to see schools bashed completely. Some really are trying to make the best of a less than ideal (government enforced) situation.
I probably have even more conservative thinking than Dottie on this subject. There have to be minimum standards, and consequences for teachers not teaching the material to meet those standards. One problem is the motivated & gifted students not being allowed to excel, but instead are held back while the slower kids need help.
I think we need to implement a non-grade approach to classroom divisions, and keep a child in Math 1, or Reading 1, etc. until the child has mastered those concepts; then move to Math 2, Reading 2, etc. There should be no passing until the material is mastered, and there should be no holding back the children who know the material.
FWIW, this was taken from a 4th grade teachers website, today. This is the teacher that GS8's teacher has recommended for him next year. I've edited it to remove students names.
We are working on learning our times tables.
Congrats to (3 students) for passing their twos.
Congrats to (6 students) for passing their threes.
Congratulations to (3 students) for passing their fours.
Congrats to (3 students) for passing their fives.
Congrats to (1 student) for passing his sixes.
Big Congrats to (3 students), for passing their sevens.
A big wow to (1 student) for passing his eights.
Good Job (1 student) for passing your tens.
Congratulations (1 student) for passing your twelves.
And Wow to (1 student) who passed her mixed review!
I predict alot of ice cream will be eaten in our room in May.
This is the beginning of the final quarter for 4th grade. I'm worried all over again about what GS8 will do in 4th grade as he already knows this, as well as adding, subtracting, & multiplying fractions.
Maybe what's even more worrisome is the fact that our school has around an 80% proficient rate in math on the state proficiency tests. I don't think this is asking much of our children, if 9 year olds are still learning their multiplication tables, yet 80% of them 'pass' the state requirements.
