Friday 14 January 2011

it has warmed up

a bit. But turned wet and windy. Last Friday the snow continued most of the day. Unfortunately I did not manage to capture it with the camera as the batteries failed and the spare ones had not been recharged.We ended up with 3-4cm which hung around for days and caused icy patches


On Saturday afternoon we went to a concert of waltzes at St George's Hall it was light hearted and not quite as opulent as the Vienna New year concert we watched on television.

I have gone back to school this week and I am tutoring children in maths. Although not my favourite subject I am enjoying it. Dividing seems to be an issue with many children nowadays. They do not seem to learn tables as rigourously as I did in primary school and modern methods involve chunking when calculating long division. Subtraction is calculated on number lines and decomposition ( or borrowing ) does not come into much later. My multiplying and dividing skills were quite good at school but I would have loved the new practice of partitioning when adding. If this makes no sense to you then you will be happy to know that most parents do not understand these new methods. They are really good for children who find maths difficult but the whizz kids ( daughter was one of those ) might feel held back. I feel that most maths should be practical and relevant. I remember questions that involved farmers ploughing field with furrows a certain width and there for how many furrows did he get from a field of a certain size. Did I care? No! Then there were the ones about workmen digging holes. Three men took x amount of time to dig a hole how long would it take two men. Longer?
So I work in chocolate or shopping for toys and comics and things that children can relate too.

Biddle's new jumper needs to be sewn up. I should have done it by now but just have not got around to it. He is not happy, King Kenny has not delivered the goods. Well the team has not. Liverpool is hovering above the relegation zone and out of the FA cup.
My foot continues to heal although it is sore after too much walking. The boots protect it while I am out but I pay for it later.

That is it I think


Thanks for visiting

5 comments:

Jennytc said...

I do think the new methods benefit most children. The problem for me used to be setting aside the ways I had learned in order to get to grips with the new ones! ;)But I used to enjoy Numeracy Hour, and I couldn't say that about my maths lessons as a child.

Twiggy said...

Thanks for dropping by my blog :) I did GCSE maths 4 years ago at the ripe old age of 36. I was a total maths phobic and determined to pass. I had a super tutor and ended up getting a B grade. However as you say it has changed completely, the methods to add and multiply etc were all new to me!!
Twiggy x

Sally said...

Glad to hear your foot is healing nicely.

It's turned a tad bit chilly again!

Thank you for your email and your kind thoughts. It's been rather stressful and I don't think it's over yet.

mumzy said...

Glad to see you are on the mend.

Math was my favorite subject and it served me well in my career.

Pumpkin said...

That's awesome that you're back to school :o) Yup, you totally lost me with that explanation. LOL!