3rd grade math?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:<vent>
Looking through the online math book for my 3rd grader -- are they *really* going to do double digit additions AGAIN? How does it work? Please tell me that there is a twist somewhere -- like "now they will work on mental math" or something. This doesn't seem in line with the curriculum for 3rd grade...

Watching my kid learn math on this curriculum is like watching a stone grow -- only I don't have that inner peace. The time to talk about adding the tens together and adding the ones together was in 1st grade!!!

</vent>

Same fustration with my 3rd grader. Now I use Singapore Math program to keep DS challenged.
http://www.singaporemath.com/Primary_Math_Intensive_Practice_s/139.htm

[Anonymous]

Do all 3rd graders have online books in FCPS or just certain schools?

[Anonymous]

All of them. Whether or not the school actually uses it, I don't know, but the parents and teachers should all have access to it.

[Anonymous]

Exactly! (Oh, how this lights. me. up!)
What kind of parent/teacher team is being established when the curriculum used at school is inaccessible to those at home? And, to be clear, I'm not faulting the teachers on this. I'm sure they would love us to have access and be able to support our learners here at home. This decision comes down to the supervisor (more below).

IMO, the negatives far outweigh the positives when it comes to an online textbook... especially for elementary aged children.
The arguments of accessibility/usability are not slight either:
1) having to be at home or owning a portable device that supports the software (Guessing it's flash based, as iOS definitely does not support their format. My iPad displays "The content you have attempted to view is not supported on your device. If you need to see this content, please view this content on your desktop.) Now how exactly is that going to work in the myriad after school settings children have? I can't count the number of times as a kid that I did my homework sitting in a lobby or in the car while waiting to go do x extra-curricular. If I needed to refer back to the lesson I'd learned earlier that day, it was a quick flip within my textbook. Surely I can't have been alone.

2) not owning enough desktops/laptops within a household to split amongst multiple children needing access for homework time

3) in our case, not being provided with a login by the school until TODAY... with a measly 4 days left in the quarter. This is not due to lack of trying. I asked for the login at back to school night (Sept. 9th) and was told they were still setting up the accounts. My 3rd grader has been there now 4 years and they can't be on the ball for the start of a school year and THEN take an additional 7 weeks to setup a simple account and login?? I would love to know what the experience has been at other schools -- is this a problem with our IT staff? our administration? or is this typical of the county? And how many others aren't even aware they have been using the online textbooks for the last two years?

4) many do not have the means to purchase the traditional textbook (roughly $100-$150/year/child/subject) to circumvent this poorly thought out decision. I cannot support a public system that moves on decisions that ultimately discriminate against and entrench people below a certain earning bracket.


Furthermore, there is this article http://vienna.patch.com/groups/opinion/p/letter-to-the-editor-new-online-math-program-a-model-d128b95c5d that discusses this genius move and who is responsible: "Later, it was discovered that FCPS administration had the nerve to sign the contract for the math series before the school board even approved the money for it. ... The fact that the new math series was to be primarily an online resource (vs. the more ‘traditional’ approach) was never emphasized."

This online curriculum was a $7.7 million dollar purchase by FCPS, and from my experience, was a complete waste from an accessibility standpoint. Who cares how engaging and shiny the curriculum is if you can't even get to it?! To make matters worse, in light of the severe budget issues we're now facing, I wonder what use was that $7.7 million? In our experience, the move toward online math textbooks across the board effectively equates as having no textbook at all for the full first quarter of the school year. How are we supposed to set our students up for success with that?

A supervisor that cannot be transparent and involve stakeholders is not worthy of the position. The election cycle cannot come fast enough IMO.