Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I no longer have the worksheets, but I can tell you about what the problems were. One of them was multiple choice and there wasn't a correct answer provided in the answers. It was #+#= a, b, c, or d but none of them were the right answer!

The other one was even more infuriating. It was a lesson in greater than, less than and equal to. The question asked you to find the tree that's length was less than this tree but greater than that tree and it had the names of the trees and their lengths on a table. It was super confusing for me, so when I determined there was no solution, I handed it to dh (he's an engineer, so he's pretty good at math) and he even looked at the stupid thing for five minutes and tried to explain this bs to our ds.

So on the first one, there was a mistake on the worksheet? What does that have to do with the standards? Did you really never encounter an error in a textbook in all your years in school?

As for the second one, without knowing about the problem, there's no way to know what's going on there. There does seem to a trend in the responses to common core, though, that people of our generation who could get through math with just memorization and no deeper understanding of the material are struggling to understand and help with their kids' homework, because the focus on so much more on that deeper understanding that the parents were never taught. It's very frustrating to the parents (and probably doesn't feel great to realize they aren't as good at math as they thought), but that doesn't mean our kids shouldn't learn more than we did.

Really, my dh who is an engineer isn't as good at math as he thought? Lol. No, and he thought this math problem was stupid and confusing too.

You didn't say your husband didn't understand it, only that you didn't understand it when he tried to explain it. From what you described it actually doesn't sound that complicated, but perhaps there was something you were leaving out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I no longer have the worksheets, but I can tell you about what the problems were. One of them was multiple choice and there wasn't a correct answer provided in the answers. It was #+#= a, b, c, or d but none of them were the right answer!

The other one was even more infuriating. It was a lesson in greater than, less than and equal to. The question asked you to find the tree that's length was less than this tree but greater than that tree and it had the names of the trees and their lengths on a table. It was super confusing for me, so when I determined there was no solution, I handed it to dh (he's an engineer, so he's pretty good at math) and he even looked at the stupid thing for five minutes and tried to explain this bs to our ds.

So there was an answer (that your DH was trying to explain) but you and your ds didn't understand it? Just trying to get how this correlates with common core.

I have had the no correct answer on a worksheet thing happen. They don't get vetted the way books do, so I'm sure it happens a little more. Not a big deal, though, unless it was a common problem (has happened once in 2 years so far).

There was no way to solve the problem. There was no answer. Common core sucks. Just admit that you love it. I'm not sure why though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I no longer have the worksheets, but I can tell you about what the problems were. One of them was multiple choice and there wasn't a correct answer provided in the answers. It was #+#= a, b, c, or d but none of them were the right answer!

The other one was even more infuriating. It was a lesson in greater than, less than and equal to. The question asked you to find the tree that's length was less than this tree but greater than that tree and it had the names of the trees and their lengths on a table. It was super confusing for me, so when I determined there was no solution, I handed it to dh (he's an engineer, so he's pretty good at math) and he even looked at the stupid thing for five minutes and tried to explain this bs to our ds.

So on the first one, there was a mistake on the worksheet? What does that have to do with the standards? Did you really never encounter an error in a textbook in all your years in school?

As for the second one, without knowing about the problem, there's no way to know what's going on there. There does seem to a trend in the responses to common core, though, that people of our generation who could get through math with just memorization and no deeper understanding of the material are struggling to understand and help with their kids' homework, because the focus on so much more on that deeper understanding that the parents were never taught. It's very frustrating to the parents (and probably doesn't feel great to realize they aren't as good at math as they thought), but that doesn't mean our kids shouldn't learn more than we did.

Really, my dh who is an engineer isn't as good at math as he thought? Lol. No, and he thought this math problem was stupid and confusing too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I no longer have the worksheets, but I can tell you about what the problems were. One of them was multiple choice and there wasn't a correct answer provided in the answers. It was #+#= a, b, c, or d but none of them were the right answer!

The other one was even more infuriating. It was a lesson in greater than, less than and equal to. The question asked you to find the tree that's length was less than this tree but greater than that tree and it had the names of the trees and their lengths on a table. It was super confusing for me, so when I determined there was no solution, I handed it to dh (he's an engineer, so he's pretty good at math) and he even looked at the stupid thing for five minutes and tried to explain this bs to our ds.

So there was an answer (that your DH was trying to explain) but you and your ds didn't understand it? Just trying to get how this correlates with common core.

I have had the no correct answer on a worksheet thing happen. They don't get vetted the way books do, so I'm sure it happens a little more. Not a big deal, though, unless it was a common problem (has happened once in 2 years so far).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I no longer have the worksheets, but I can tell you about what the problems were. One of them was multiple choice and there wasn't a correct answer provided in the answers. It was #+#= a, b, c, or d but none of them were the right answer!

The other one was even more infuriating. It was a lesson in greater than, less than and equal to. The question asked you to find the tree that's length was less than this tree but greater than that tree and it had the names of the trees and their lengths on a table. It was super confusing for me, so when I determined there was no solution, I handed it to dh (he's an engineer, so he's pretty good at math) and he even looked at the stupid thing for five minutes and tried to explain this bs to our ds.

So on the first one, there was a mistake on the worksheet? What does that have to do with the standards? Did you really never encounter an error in a textbook in all your years in school?

As for the second one, without knowing about the problem, there's no way to know what's going on there. There does seem to a trend in the responses to common core, though, that people of our generation who could get through math with just memorization and no deeper understanding of the material are struggling to understand and help with their kids' homework, because the focus on so much more on that deeper understanding that the parents were never taught. It's very frustrating to the parents (and probably doesn't feel great to realize they aren't as good at math as they thought), but that doesn't mean our kids shouldn't learn more than we did.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I no longer have the worksheets, but I can tell you about what the problems were. One of them was multiple choice and there wasn't a correct answer provided in the answers. It was #+#= a, b, c, or d but none of them were the right answer!

The other one was even more infuriating. It was a lesson in greater than, less than and equal to. The question asked you to find the tree that's length was less than this tree but greater than that tree and it had the names of the trees and their lengths on a table. It was super confusing for me, so when I determined there was no solution, I handed it to dh (he's an engineer, so he's pretty good at math) and he even looked at the stupid thing for five minutes and tried to explain this bs to our ds.

Worksheets are a result of teaches and administration running scared on test scores. As long as those test scores are given so much weight, you will continue to see worksheets. Sadly, the test scores would be better if they spent their time teaching.

Posting again to share this awesome video of an Arkansas mom standing up to the local school board to say common core needs to go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZEGijN_8R0

Anonymous wrote:A little off topic, but I feel like these worksheets are replacing true instruction during the day as well. I ask my daughter every day what she did in school, and every day she talks about all the worksheets they did. It's a concern how much instruction is, or is not happening during the day..

I 100% agree!!! I get folders full of worksheets. I ask about actual lessons and it sounds like they are brief and boring mostly with the occasional creative lesson thrown in. Usually over half the worksheets have not been checked by the teacher so I go over mistakes. Whatever happened to textbooks? At least with a text I could read the lesson myself and come up with a novel way to teach it to my child.

There have been some great teachers too, but they just make the bad ones all the more unbearable. Is anything even being done to help the paper pushers and endless test-givers make learning more interesting. Is there any oversight beyond parents having to complain repeatedly. Usually it has to be about 10 parents who have expressed concern to the teacher and then if things don't improve, to the principal before anything is done.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I thought Virginia didn't accept the common core. My daughter has a teacher from another state and she's a common core robot. She spews out endless insane and inane worksheets and tests the kids constantly using tests with strange wording that don't even seem to measure if the child has a basic understanding. I asked her why kids so young need to be tested so often in every single subject and I questioned the use of these common core worksheets that make simple problems into a nightmare that would send an accountant screaming in the street. I said it can suck the love of learning right out them. This did not compute. She went right back to churning out worksheets that address varies aspects of common core and she keeps testing.

Not officially, but it sure seems like it sometimes! I am fed up with third grade math. My child has had at least two homework worksheets that had a math problem that couldn't be answered correctly. There was no answer. What's the point of this for a third grader? To show them that math is hard? To waste their time? To aggravate the parents who have to try to explain this to their kid? My kid isn't learning anything at school this year. He comes home tired, and completely overwhelmed by the amount of homework he has to do. What are they doing all day in school? He's there 7 hours a day and then he's supposed to come home and spend ANOTHER hour on homework? And he honestly seems like he has no clue what to do most of the time.

Can you post the unsolvable math problems? I am really curious.

I'm curious to know what the math problem was as well. Sometimes the problems are unsolveable to help kids learn to realize when they can't solve a problem, and to figure out what additional information they would need to solve it (an important critical thinking skill). It's also entirely possible there was an error in the worksheet, which has been happening ever since there were worksheets, long before common core.