Unaccountable talk

Last week, I assigned a homework over missing information that some of the kids did great on and some didn't get at all. The sort of question like "Sherri has 7 bookshelves. She wants to find the total number of books that she has. What information does she need to find the total number of books? (The answer being: what color her shirt is. Just kidding. She needs to know how many books are on each shelf.)

So I paired up the kids who had gotten all 3 questions right with the kids who had not and had them go over their answers and their reasoning. As they did this, I walked around and listened in.

I happened to overhear one boy asking the girl he was paired with, "So you probably didn't even read this problem, did you? You weren't paying attention, and that's why you got it wrong!" The girl replied, "Yes, I was paying attention," to which the boy responded, "Come on, you weren't, were you?

I had to ask the boy to be just a bit nicer in his "help."

Today, we were looking at word problems. I've been trying to help the kids decide what operation they should use by looking at the units. If the units are the same (ie, 10 bears and 5 more bears), they can add or subtract. If the units are different (ie, 10 bears and 5 cages), they should multiply or divide.

The problem I had tasked them with talked about M&Ms and Skittles and asked how many more M&Ms there were than Skittles. They were discussing what to do in pairs. One little girl (NOT my brightest) was telling her partner that they should multiply or divide because M&Ms and Skittles are different things. The boy, instead of just telling her she was wrong was asking probing questions. "What are they?" he asked. "They are the units," she said. He answered, "But what ARE they? Are they nails and boxes? How are they different?"

He was (correctly) trying to get her to see that they were both types of candy and thus the same, but I had to walk away or risk laughing out loud at their conversation.

Finally, on our way out to the buses today, one of my little girls told me that when her dad got out of jail (!) they were going to move away from the United States. I figured she meant to Mexico, so I was being facetious when I asked, "You will move to Japan?" "No!" she answered. "The moon?" I asked. "No!" again. When I asked her where, she replied, "To Miami."

Geography just is not her strong suit.

I got nothin'

This is what one of my kids actually said the other day in class. We were having a class discussion, and he had raised his hand. Typically, with my kids, they raise their hands and consider being called on their cue to begin THINKING about what their answer might be. As opposed to me calling on them being their cue to STATE their already thought of answer.

So I call on A, and he gets that look like the gears have begun slowly turning -- eyes rolled back in the head, soul has left the body -- but no answer comes out. Just as I'm about to call on the child in front of him, A says, "I got nothin'."

One of those times I had to just stifle the laughter.

Got a few "quick hits" here, as the local sports station would call them.

Someone pointed out to me that there have only been a few entries to the March Monday Madness Contest, and that therefore their chances of winning were tremendous. Since third grade probability is fresh in my mind, as we covered it last week, I have to admit that this statement is true. Let's change that! All you have to do is leave a comment and you're in the running!

Speaking of contests, I won one!!! Bill over at Instructify ran a contest asking teachers to submit their best mnemonic device (QUITE different from their best pneumatic device) for helping kids remember something academically. I submitted the "Punch It up" method of estimation. And it was deemed the best of the bunch! Sometime over spring break, I should be receiving my prize, which is a very awesome sounding MP3 player!

The 161st Carnival of Education is up and running, this week over at The Education Wonks. I haven't completely sifted through it yet, but it looks like there are a lot of really good entries this week.

Even more pertinent is that the 162nd Carnival of Education will be hosted right HERE at Learn Me Good! I've been watching my number of subscribers climb recently, and I hope that all of you who read my blog on a regular basis will contribute to next week's Carnival. It's really a great way to get extra readers and more exposure. If you have a post that you'd like to contribute, send me an e-mail with the link, or use this handy dandy submission form.

Last but not least -- TAKS is over!!! (At least until April)