Wednesday, December 9, 2009

CMC - A Debrief

We're back from a whirlwind trip to Asilomar, CMC South. It had to be the least stressful (and most fun)of all our trips to speak at conferences. That we had Keys School 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade math teachers (Emma Samuels and Rupal Jain) with us made us feel invincible.

The speaking experience was also enriched by having both Kathleen and myself there. We love the repartee that goes on between us both (often unscripted... we're considering moonlighting as improv comedians) and the audience picks up on this rapport. From then the energy is taken to another level.

Our session was well attended with about 30 people attending. Rather decent, actually, considering that our time slot was not the most desirable - 3.30 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon, just before the close of the conference.

1 comment:

  1. Questions from 1st Grade - Would love some direction. Thanks!

    (1) Can I cover time/money earlier than scheduled in the text? Is there some reason why it's saved until later in the year, some concept they should know before that study that I'm just missing?


    (2) I'm concerned that when the kids play games there is not enough supervision. What if they are making mistakes? Do I need to have direct teacher observation?


    (3) My book doesn't tell me to have them use manipulatives as often as I expected it would. Every time they do something on paper should they also be using manips? Also, what kind of manips does a typical first grade use? I've been using blocks, beans, beads....is that ok? What else is good?


    (4) I need more ideas for 1st grade mental math. The text doesn't offer much direction in this area. We've been playing count-count goose (a game idea i got from Corrine), and doing little addition/subtraction problems in our minds based on the pairs of 10, and playing popcorn pairs of 10. What else can I do?


    (5) Should I be returning tests to students in this grade? I haven't been. I've been going over questions they've missed with them individually. But I keep their tests in their file. What is their thought about that?


    (6) i have one parent in particular who is convinced that his son is bored in math b/c it's too easy. Other than having my Singapore parent night, is there anything specifically that I can tell this Dad to ease his concerns and help him understand the complexity of what looks to be simple? Is there a good website that I can direct him to that would allow him to do some research on his own to understand the curriculum better?

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