kitchen table math, the sequel: apocalypse now

Saturday, November 8, 2008

apocalypse now


“A tooty-ta, a tooty-ta, a tooty-ta-ta,” she sang while standing in a circle with 25 other kindergarten teachers echoing. “Thumbs up. Elbows back. Feet apart. Knees together. Bottoms up. Tongue out. Eyes shut. Turn around.”

Everyday Math teaches students about sequencing
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16 comments:

concernedCTparent said...

"A tooty-ta, a tooty-ta, a tooty-ta."

Just shoot me now.

November 8, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Barry Garelick said...

Is this the professional development that is needed in order to teach EM effectively, and without which it is a failure? Apologists for EM such as Catherine Cullen who was blogging at Eduwonk a while back, claims that you have to teach EM the right way in order for it to be effective.

Well if she does, I know what to tell her:

"A tooty-ta, a tooty-ta, a tooty-ta-ta!"

November 8, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Barry Garelick said...

Of course, if I had been taught this way, there's no telling how much further I would have gone. I'm talking about college, not first grade!

Bada-bing, bada-bam!! I gotta million of 'em, folks!

November 8, 2008 at 12:07 PM
Anonymous said...

I'm sorry, parents. Do not try this at home. You do not have the proper certification. You could ruin your child for the rest of his school career.

Especially the last part.

Please, let the professionals do their job.

And no, the Hokey Pokey is not proper sequencing. Neither is the Farmer in the Dell, Old McDonald Had a Farm, or any of those other Kindergarten songs you learned so very long ago.

SusanS

November 8, 2008 at 1:13 PM
concernedCTparent said...

Susan, that's hysterical. Hysterical and true. Which, of course, makes the whole thing really disturbing.

November 8, 2008 at 2:11 PM
Anonymous said...

Why do we think this has anything to do with Everyday Math?

-Mark Roulo

November 8, 2008 at 2:33 PM
concerned said...

Mark,

Go to the link to read the article.

Professional development is more often than not about entertaining "the client" and selling "the program" than it is about improving teaching methods for authentic coherent content.

November 8, 2008 at 3:11 PM
Anonymous said...

From the caption:

"The song teaches students about sequencing and is part of a lesson on patterns. It’s also an element of the new curriculum for Beaufort County schools, called “Everyday Math,” which is being applied districtwide next school year."

November 8, 2008 at 3:16 PM
Anonymous said...

I must be very slow today (I *am* fighting some sort of sore throat thingie ...).

What link to which article? I click on the image and a movie plays.

What caption? Under the movie, I see the words "Comment on this video | Rate this video | Share this video" and under that I see as quoted text, "A tooty-ta, a tooty-ta, a tooty-ta-ta,” she sang while standing in a circle with 25 other kindergarten teachers echoing. “Thumbs up. Elbows back. Feet apart. Knees together. Bottoms up. Tongue out. Eyes shut. Turn around."

No visible link. No caption.

Help ?!?

-Mark Roulo

November 8, 2008 at 5:34 PM
Anonymous said...

Above there is a link "Everyday Math teaches students about sequencing" that leads you to this:


http://www2.islandpacket.com/node/31727

November 8, 2008 at 5:44 PM
concernedCTparent said...

Oh my goodness. Just in case you wanted to read the lyrics, have at it:

http://www.songsforteaching.com/drjean/tootyta.htm

If you want to see a child performing this masterpiece, here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgLZqEDO8b4

Just "you-tube" tooty-ta.

Help me.

November 8, 2008 at 5:55 PM
Anonymous said...

"Above there is a link "Everyday Math teaches students about sequencing" that leads you to this:..."

I didn't realize this was a link!

Thanks.

Sigh.

Still ... this *is* only KG, right? This is pretty much what I envision KG is like ... I just wouldn't think to score this activity as "math."

I miss all this fun stuff because I homeschool ...

-Mark Roulo

November 8, 2008 at 7:00 PM
SteveH said...

This IS Kindergarten, and they are already starting; claiming less (singing and dancing), is more (mathematical sequencing). The problem is not that they are doing this in Kindergarten, but that they are treating us like we're really, really stupid. Oops. Maybe they really believe this stuff. That's scarier.

November 8, 2008 at 7:37 PM
SteveH said...

"Just 'you-tube' tooty-ta."

I like the one where all of the kids (in graduating caps and gowns) perform it in front of a line of parents with video cameras.

HELLO! Parents! Are you catching on yet? Don't feel bad. It took me a while too.

November 8, 2008 at 7:51 PM
Niels Henrik Abel said...

What on earth was that? It looks like a pretty lame initiation into the mysteries of some off-the-wall cult.

November 8, 2008 at 9:45 PM
Unknown said...

I've been doing professional development in Singapore Math all wrong. Forget training teachers what compensation is, mental math strategies or how to divide fractions.

What I need is a catchy tune.

(And, yes - I do need to teach most teachers fraction division when teaching SM. Below 4th grade they don't know or understand, above 4th grade they can frequently do the algorithm, but struggle with creating a word problem.)

November 10, 2008 at 2:01 PM

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