2.0 1st grade curriculum: Carbon Dioxide? Yes! Telling time? No!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS sucks!! It's getting worse every year. Very disappointing.

If you think MCPS then you are truly misinformed. There are several other counties in Maryland that are much worse. One of them is located directly under Montgomery County

Not the PP, but I think public school in the US is just in a pretty bad state. For all sorts of reasons. I do NOT think MCPS is the worst, by any means, but I really do think that this county should be able to do SO MUCH better for its kids.

From talking to other friends and family around the country, I think there are pockets of schools that seem to do a great job, but definitely school systems that are worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[

I'm an engineer, I've had more math than most math teachers, I've done 3D calculus long hand before computers. I've never had a bad math textbook in my life. It's pretty damn simple, there is an explanation, some sample problems and exercises. Answers to the evens or odds, usually in the back of the book. Front and back of the books, have charts and tables of properties, which you learn to reference to be able to apply to solve problems.

Teacher explains the lesson, if the explanation does not stick you ask him/her the next day, come in before or after school to get help. Does that sound familiar? Haven't seen an MCPS teacher yet that offers help outside of class time, but that may change as my children get older. I can't tell you how many times I have heard "my child doesn't remember how the teacher told them to do x, but when I tell my kid they tell me I'm not doing it the way the teacher did." All because there is no reference.

What I have seen is chaotic classrooms with unsure kids working in groups by themselves. I've seen them draw sticks and dots for years to the point they are so bored they can do it blindfolded. Maybe this remedial work helps those who can't grasp math or do not have the home life that supports learning, but the rest of the children also matter. It's gotten so the pendulum has slid all the way to remedial without consideration of the needs of the average or above average learner.

Meanwhile we are facing an increase in property tax, to support a 2 Billion (that is Billion with a B) plus school budget for a school system that can't buy a book or implement a curriculum. How much of that property tax increase will benefit my kids? None, it's going to salary increases and to prepare for the onslaught of non english speaking kids that will overwhelm our school system.

Okay so drawing 3 rows of 5 dots can be beneficial for understanding the concept of 3 x 5 = 15. But year after year, my kids do busy work without learning the core facts.

I refuse to buy books any more, and will only go to the library. My kids are so bored with school, they just read the whole day. The only feedback I get from teachers is that my kids are reading too much and not paying attention, while the cruise through with A's and the younger ones with P's. This system is killing their love of learning.

Yes, it's a very common belief that if you know how to learn math, then you know how to teach math. But it's an incorrect belief.

(It's also a very common belief, on DCUM, that the entire purpose of MCPS is to keep my sweet, bright Larlo dumb while throwing money down a hole at undeserving future gang members only there for the free baby-sitting.)

You can peddle your racist bull$hit somewhere else. The lack of curriculum hurts all kids. A textbook would be an incredibly helpful tool for an immigrant family to have as a reference.

Just because I advocate for a real curriculum and textbooks does not mean that I think immigrant children are future gang members. That is a disgusting accusation. I can guarantee that I have done way more voluntary tutoring for at risk children than.you have. I have found the children whose parents engage and care, will work their way out of poverty. It doesn't matter of they are working three jobs they make time for their kids and stay on top of them.

The ones whose parents don't care, stop coming because they don't want to be bothered with the followup or extra time it takes.

I don't agree with everything you said but 100 percent agree with the need for textbooks. So important for kids who learn a little differently. I was a very successful student (as successful as it gets, if grades and college admissions are the measure) and I never learned in class. I learned at home when I went over what we learned on my own with the book. Think of all the ADd-inattentive kids. It's so much easier to learn from a book at home when there aren't 25 other kids providing a distraction in the classroom. That's what I did. Having a book that tracks what your teacher is doing in the classroom is crucial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't agree with everything you said but 100 percent agree with the need for textbooks. So important for kids who learn a little differently. I was a very successful student (as successful as it gets, if grades and college admissions are the measure) and I never learned in class. I learned at home when I went over what we learned on my own with the book. Think of all the ADd-inattentive kids. It's so much easier to learn from a book at home when there aren't 25 other kids providing a distraction in the classroom. That's what I did. Having a book that tracks what your teacher is doing in the classroom is crucial.

Not the PP, but I agree that textbooks are really quite useful. My oldest is in 3rd and we have not seen any textbooks yet. Maybe they come later?

I also learned best when reviewing the material later. Plus, it was so useful to have a 'reference' to go back to in case I had trouble with a previous topic.

My kids only bring home the random worksheets (if that). There is no feedback on the worksheets anyway, and by the time they get sent home, the teachers are on to another topic.

We do get monthly newsletters explaining what broad topics they are working on, so we try to help the kids with those. A textbook would be useful, all around. I understand that in certain classes, it's tough to have up to date textbooks, but in early ES, it's pretty simple to have textbooks that cover basic math and English/grammar. They could continue with the worksheets for science and SS if they have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1. For math, a book is infinitely better than a jumble of worksheets because a book uses consistent definitions/terminology and promotes a clear building of each new concept from the previous ones. That is the crux of mathematical thinking. It is confusing as hell to jump back and forth among topics and inconsistent definitions/terminology/conventions.

2. Often DD shows me blatant errors in the math worksheets she was given, and every single time it says "Curriculum 2.0" at the top.

Evidently you've never encountered any of the very many bad math textbooks that are out there.

Did we just smoke out a perpetrator of the C2.0 worksheets?

Not a PP, but I wholeheartedly agree about textbooks. The "Everyday Mathematics" series is excellent for early grades, and there are many other good ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1. For math, a book is infinitely better than a jumble of worksheets because a book uses consistent definitions/terminology and promotes a clear building of each new concept from the previous ones. That is the crux of mathematical thinking. It is confusing as hell to jump back and forth among topics and inconsistent definitions/terminology/conventions.

2. Often DD shows me blatant errors in the math worksheets she was given, and every single time it says "Curriculum 2.0" at the top.

Evidently you've never encountered any of the very many bad math textbooks that are out there.

Did we just smoke out a perpetrator of the C2.0 worksheets?

Not a PP, but I wholeheartedly agree about textbooks. The "Everyday Mathematics" series is excellent for early grades, and there are many other good ones.

I hated Everyday Math, and I'm a math person.

[Anonymous]

Earlier in the thread someone stated they do not get a textbook until PreCalculus. In MCPS I think that is 9th grade?

Two billion dollar budget and they can't afford textbooks. Unbelievable.

Next time you go into a classroom ask the teacher how much time they spend at a copier every week. Just imagine if they had a actual textbook to work from, to plan ahead and work out a lesson plan, instead of a nebulous instructions from a newsletter.

[Anonymous]

My kids have had text books for several years now...definitely since algebra. Maybe it is by school. I will admit that I don't see them referred to much. My kids tend to use on line resources mode.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have had text books for several years now...definitely since algebra. Maybe it is by school. I will admit that I don't see them referred to much. My kids tend to use on line resources mode.

The books went out with the 2.0 rollout, so Alg II this was the first year without a text, Geometry last year, etc. Some teachers still issue the old books. My oldest is in Alg II at Blair and hasn't seen a math text yet. If you look at the curriculum pages for each course there's no official text, just the online flexbooks which the teachers also don't refer to.

[Anonymous]

Teacher here. Last fall, teachers in my district were sent an email inviting us to come to a used book giveaway at a local school. I went with a colleague after school hoping to pick up some books for my classroom library. The school gym and cafeteria as well as hallways in all directions of this recently closed school were jammed with huge boxes of mostly textbooks of all kinds. They so had entire class sets of classic literature like Huck Finn and To Kill A Mockingbird. It made me sick that they wouldn't be using all of these books anymore. I'm sure they threw them out after offering them as freebies. I took Spanish books and every math book my son would need through high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids have had text books for several years now...definitely since algebra. Maybe it is by school. I will admit that I don't see them referred to much. My kids tend to use on line resources mode.

The books went out with the 2.0 rollout, so Alg II this was the first year without a text, Geometry last year, etc. Some teachers still issue the old books. My oldest is in Alg II at Blair and hasn't seen a math text yet. If you look at the curriculum pages for each course there's no official text, just the online flexbooks which the teachers also don't refer to.

Except I have 1 in Algebra II right now and one in Geometry right now and they both have math books..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Earlier in the thread someone stated they do not get a textbook until PreCalculus. In MCPS I think that is 9th grade?

Two billion dollar budget and they can't afford textbooks. Unbelievable.

Next time you go into a classroom ask the teacher how much time they spend at a copier every week. Just imagine if they had a actual textbook to work from, to plan ahead and work out a lesson plan, instead of a nebulous instructions from a newsletter.

This.

I make copies for my kids 1st grade teacher weekly. Tons of copies every week, and I know she does more copying on her own time. The copy machine is ALWAYS in demand because the teachers need to come up with their own worksheets (often gotten online, or from the other teachers) and copy them. Some of the online worksheets are just crap, IMO. I wish there was a better thought out method/book.

[Anonymous]

No fan of Common Core here, that video of a teacher telling parents it's ok if their children think 2+2=5 as long as they can explain it really opened my eyes. At the same time at Parent night our teacher explained that we should not help our children with math because we will teach it to them wrong. I have three post graduate degrees, trust me I know math and how to teach it, yet ironically the math assignments my child would bring home (3rd grade) were incomprehensible.

Also the STEM training is somewhat of a joke. Hard to teach children that CO2 is vital for life, that we exhale it with every breathe because its produced via our respiratory metabolic cycle when they come home in near tears because they were told this natural gas is a pollutant. We pay exorbitant taxes yet the quality of our children's education is rapidly declining. What's frustrating is because the taxes are so high we cannot really afford private school. The irony is we moved here vice Northern Virginia because we heard the schools were so good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1. For math, a book is infinitely better than a jumble of worksheets because a book uses consistent definitions/terminology and promotes a clear building of each new concept from the previous ones. That is the crux of mathematical thinking. It is confusing as hell to jump back and forth among topics and inconsistent definitions/terminology/conventions.

2. Often DD shows me blatant errors in the math worksheets she was given, and every single time it says "Curriculum 2.0" at the top.

Evidently you've never encountered any of the very many bad math textbooks that are out there.

Did we just smoke out a perpetrator of the C2.0 worksheets?

Not a PP, but I wholeheartedly agree about textbooks. The "Everyday Mathematics" series is excellent for early grades, and there are many other good ones.

Of all math textbooks in the US, you pick Everyday Math to recommend? Oh boy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Earlier in the thread someone stated they do not get a textbook until PreCalculus. In MCPS I think that is 9th grade?

Two billion dollar budget and they can't afford textbooks. Unbelievable.

Next time you go into a classroom ask the teacher how much time they spend at a copier every week. Just imagine if they had a actual textbook to work from, to plan ahead and work out a lesson plan, instead of a nebulous instructions from a newsletter.

Please provide a reference to one instance of someone explaining on behalf of MCPS that the reason there are no math textbooks in elementary schools is that MCPS can't afford them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Earlier in the thread someone stated they do not get a textbook until PreCalculus. In MCPS I think that is 9th grade?

Two billion dollar budget and they can't afford textbooks. Unbelievable.

Next time you go into a classroom ask the teacher how much time they spend at a copier every week. Just imagine if they had a actual textbook to work from, to plan ahead and work out a lesson plan, instead of a nebulous instructions from a newsletter.

Please provide a reference to one instance of someone explaining on behalf of MCPS that the reason there are no math textbooks in elementary schools is that MCPS can't afford them.

Oh, I've got this. March 8, 2016 Business Meeting, Agenda item 7.1 Math Plan and Data Review, around 74 minutes in, there's a question about math packets and discussion of textbooks. Don't think it's possible to provide a direct link, look it up here: http://www.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/Public# (I would like to hear the discussion when this was originally decided but not certain when that happened.)