I know, I know this blog may come as a surprise, me (a teacher), composing a blog on Tuesday, June 28 in the middle of summer! Although, it is raining outside. We tell our students to read during the summer, so I figure me doing some typing couldn't hurt. This blog is happening because I am in a math workshop-- Project LEAD (Leading Educators in Academic Discourse) from 8:30-3:30 in Santa Rosa all week. So far I am really enjoying getting up at 7:10am and getting home around 4:20pm all week.
Speaking of reading, my 4 year old daughter and I have been doing quite a bit of it together this summer. One of her favorite books that she has discovered and continually wants me to read to her is The Eloise Ready-to-Read Treasury. Every story starts out like this, "I am Eloise. I am a city child. I live at the Plaza Hotel on the tippy-top floor." In addition to being a spoiled brat, some other things I like about Eloise are that she has a dog named Weenie and a turtle named Skipperdee. Eloise also happens to have a tutor named Philip. In one story Philip comes to the tippy-top floor to teach Eloise a math lesson. As the story progresses, Eloise continues to mock and annoy Philip. They get to the math problem of, "What is five plus six?" Eloise is doing everything she can to avoid answering the question. She is pretending like the chalk is a straw, she is repeating the question, etc. Then, out of nowhere, Eloise says, "Five plus six is the same as six plus five." Philip responds with, "Oh, Eloise!" The illustration shows Philip with his head in his hands. He is obviously frustrated and maybe even discouraged with Eloise. After I read this part, I turned to my daughter and said (with a lot of excitement), "Camille, while Eloise may be a spoiled brat, she demonstrated the Commutative Property of Addition, which states, When two numbers are added, the sum is the same regardless of the order of the addends. For example 4 + 2 = 2 + 4!" I was excited! Camille on the other hand, was not.
The moral of the story is that if I was not participating in Project LEAD (the math workshop), I would not have made this connection. Another connection that I made is with Philip (the tutor's reaction). Eloise is a popular book. I can't help but question, "Is this frustrated reaction to math too much engrained in popular culture?" Why couldn't Philip's reaction have been...."Eloise, that is great! You have identified the Commutative Property of Addition! Five plus six is six plus five! You are right, they both equal eleven and that is true when adding any set of numbers. Numbers can be added in any way and the sum is still the same!" Ok, maybe my rewritten version is a little over the top for a four year old, but I hope you get my point.
