"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power." - Thomas Jefferson 1820

"There is a growing technology of testing that permits us now to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn't be doing at all." - Dr. Gerald Bracey author of Rotten Apples in Education

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Friday, April 27, 2012

The Love of Learning Doesn't Require Computer Adapted Assessments



I received this youtube video and comment from a friend who has been a math teacher.  A tutor is teaching a young student her "7" multiplication facts.  The best part of the video is at the very end.  The child's last statement captures what happened in this math tutoring session and reveals what true education is all about: a creative teacher, the love of learning and pride of mastery.  Out of the mouths of children....
 

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I remember hearing my elementary principal in the early 80s (and others since then) say it wasn't important for kids to learn their multiplication facts.  This was before calculators were available in classrooms.  Fortunately, none of those principals forbade me from teaching the multiplication facts and having students develop fluency with those facts.  

Do people think it is too hard for students to learn their facts?  Or do people think it is too hard to teach students the facts?  We don't give young students enough credit.  They can learn the facts.

Watch this video of my friend Linh-Co teaching a kindergarten student her facts for multiplication facts for the 7s in 30 minutes (the video condenses the session to about seven and half minutes).  This is the second session Linh-Co had with this girl.  In the first session the girl learned about multiplication and learned her facts for multiplying by 4.  See what this precious girl says at the very end. 





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