Teachers having a hard time teaching the new math

[Anonymous]

My child has come home a number of times telling me examples of how the teacher goes through the math problem and then gets the wrong answer or can not get the problem to "work" . I am wondering if anyone else is seeing this problem.

It's a shame that the kids are sitting there attentive to what's being taught and then they slam into a wall. "The math road to nowhere"

[Anonymous]

Don't you people ever get tired of whining the same things every day?

[Anonymous]

Teachers we've had so far have been fine with math. I've read how some teachers in the younger grades are very weak in math. What grade is this?

There have always been weak math teachers. Sucks, but I would supplement at home. You can probably go on the MCPS website and find some info on the curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Don't you people ever get tired of whining the same things every day?

I am OP. While I do whine on occasion, especially when I am overstretched, I never whined about this before. I was just amazed to hear of another story of "math lesson gone wrong" from my kid. My kid tells me in detail, how the lesson went, and I just can not believe the time they waste. And also, I am wondering, what they think about school and teachers when this is a regular thing?

Likely a problem with the new math and not the teacher, but really, why teach math like this? What is the benefit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers we've had so far have been fine with math. I've read how some teachers in the younger grades are very weak in math. What grade is this?

There have always been weak math teachers. Sucks, but I would supplement at home. You can probably go on the MCPS website and find some info on the curriculum.

This is under 4th grade, so it is simple stuff to us adults, but why confuse the kids and have them think the school/teachers/school system do not know what they are doing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Don't you people ever get tired of whining the same things every day?

I am OP. While I do whine on occasion, especially when I am overstretched, I never whined about this before. I was just amazed to hear of another story of "math lesson gone wrong" from my kid. My kid tells me in detail, how the lesson went, and I just can not believe the time they waste. And also, I am wondering, what they think about school and teachers when this is a regular thing?

Likely a problem with the new math and not the teacher, but really, why teach math like this? What is the benefit?

Why do you say this? I think it's likely a problem that the teacher has not had enough training.

Also, why teach math like this? Because the way we've been teaching math does not work.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/27/magazine/why-do-americans-stink-at-math.html?_r=0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers we've had so far have been fine with math. I've read how some teachers in the younger grades are very weak in math. What grade is this?

There have always been weak math teachers. Sucks, but I would supplement at home. You can probably go on the MCPS website and find some info on the curriculum.

This is under 4th grade, so it is simple stuff to us adults, but why confuse the kids and have them think the school/teachers/school system do not know what they are doing?

Wow, that sucks. I think this is a teacher problem. My DC is in 4th. ok, DC is in compacted math, but I haven't heard the non-compacted math teachers in our school were that weak.

Have you tried talking to the teacher, and then maybe the Principle? Other parents? I don't know. Throwing some things out.

[Anonymous]

No..lets just have a 28 page post complaining about math and looking back to the good old days pre 2.0..when we also complained about math. Too bad there was no web in the 70's or 80's..my guess is we could have read old posts also complaining about math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No..lets just have a 28 page post complaining about math and looking back to the good old days pre 2.0..when we also complained about math. Too bad there was no web in the 70's or 80's..my guess is we could have read old posts also complaining about math.

Okay, so what's your solution. Obviously there is a problem. No?

[Anonymous]

Oddly, there isn't anything all that new about the actual math strategies in 2.0. Decomposing has been around forever. I find it really strange how MCPS is acting or pretending that it is has invented this new way.

2.0 is just really disorganized and they don't have the materials together which isn't fair to the teachers or the students. All it would take would be a wee bit of competence to create better materials, examples, and organize this into a logical flow. Doing something really bad very slow and repeating it again and again doesn't magically produce a good result in the end. Its a really poor excuse for a curriculum. Sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oddly, there isn't anything all that new about the actual math strategies in 2.0. Decomposing has been around forever. I find it really strange how MCPS is acting or pretending that it is has invented this new way.

2.0 is just really disorganized and they don't have the materials together which isn't fair to the teachers or the students. All it would take would be a wee bit of competence to create better materials, examples, and organize this into a logical flow. Doing something really bad very slow and repeating it again and again doesn't magically produce a good result in the end. Its a really poor excuse for a curriculum. Sad.

I agree to a degree. The rollout of 2.0 has been a disgrace.

But as you said, there is nothing really new about the math itself. I am sorry to tell you, op, this teacher is indeed horribly weak in math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oddly, there isn't anything all that new about the actual math strategies in 2.0. Decomposing has been around forever. I find it really strange how MCPS is acting or pretending that it is has invented this new way.

2.0 is just really disorganized and they don't have the materials together which isn't fair to the teachers or the students. All it would take would be a wee bit of competence to create better materials, examples, and organize this into a logical flow. Doing something really bad very slow and repeating it again and again doesn't magically produce a good result in the end. Its a really poor excuse for a curriculum. Sad.

Where has MCPS done this? Especially given that MCPS explicitly says that that the 2.0 math curriculum is aligned to the Common Core standards?

What I find strange is posters on DCUM who believe that MCPS invented all of this, and it's unique to MCPS, and nobody else does it like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Don't you people ever get tired of whining the same things every day?

The only way to change something is to bitch and complain and be as much of a squeaky wheel as possible. OP I am with you. This is ridiculous!! Math has been taught the same way for a hundred years now some stupid ass Mother EFFers with some kind of sinister political agenda have decided to turn our worlds upside down.

HATE IT!!

[Anonymous]

Common core failed

[Anonymous]

It will be interesting to see how low mcps ratings and scores will fall once all of the students who were taught under the previous system are out of the schools. Once the ratings and rankings falloff the affluent tax payers will either move or do private.