Very strongly disagree with other teacher's approach

amother

Wed, May 15 2024, 12:28 pm

This is basically a vent because I'm pretty sure there's nothing I can do about it.

I provide special ed services in a school. I'm paid by a third party agency, not the school. I try to work closely with the classroom teachers to make sure I'm supporting the students to do well in class, as well as to make sure they aren't falling behind while they're out of the class with me.

This year they have a new teacher for the upper grades math. I have no idea what this teacher's prior experience and qualifications are but I find this school has a highish turnover rate and often the new teachers come in full of themselves with some battle plan that I don't know has been tested.

Anyway this newer math teacher is adamant that they do all computation manually. In the upper grades, the curriculum deliberately has them using calculators for most units so they can focus on more advanced concepts and manipulate higher numbers without getting bogged down by a missing zero in 5 digits of multiplication. In 4th and 5th grade they focused on computation and hopefully got a grounding in the concepts, and by now if they didn't master it it's time to move on so they can cover more ground instead of spending hours upon hours on things that any adult does with a calculator.

For example, if I'm doing a unit on data and statistics, I want them to understand what the mean is, how to use these numbers meaningfully, how to know if a chart attached to a news article makes sense. And he wants them spending a week adding and dividing by hand to find the mean of lists of ten numbers with decimals.

It makes me so angry. I can tell him my special ed students need to be allowed to use a calculator, but I'm still upset on behalf of the other 20 kids in each class who are wasting their life on busywork. Plus, my kids are still going to be bored while the rest of them are doing this, and they're still not going to be learning more important concepts during that class.

Not sure whether to bring these concerns to the principal. I've never had any interaction with him before.

amother

Babyblue

Wed, May 15 2024, 1:43 pm

Sorry but
1. I agree with the teacher
2. Your job is to give support to the student.

I was in a department store the other day.
This store gives 10% discount to ppl 55 and older. Someone asked if they get a discount on a certain item. The salesperson said yes, it’s $100, so it will come out to about 80-something-$.
I had to speak up
I was a few rows away. I said loudly $90
Another lady heard me and said ThankYou “it annoys me when the younger generation can’t do simple math”

Success10

Wed, May 15 2024, 1:51 pm

amother Babyblue wrote:

Fractions and percent situations come up everyday. But forcing the students to write out long division isn't going to help with that. It's good to teach it to the little grades to build up brain cells. But it's not truly a needed skill anymore.

seeker

Wed, May 15 2024, 2:02 pm

It's good to be able to estimate things like percentages, but when it comes time to pay and you need the exact number to the second decimal point, there's no shame in pulling out a calculator.

Though a 10% discount should be easy for anyone who isn't seriously disabled.

I'm pretty good at math but I pull out my phone calculator whenever I'm in a rush or need to be very sure. Anyone can make mistakes.