One of the secrets of success in fourth grade is multiplication.  As we work on understanding the concept of multiplying, and as we work on number sense regarding multiplication, families can also help.

When I was in third and fourth grades, multiplying was my greatest enemy.  I didn't understand it conceptually, and I shed many, many tears while working with my flash cards.  I just could not outguess the flash cards.

I have always figured that the struggle in my own fourth grade class to finally learn it was an advantage in teaching it to my students.  I've tried rapping the facts.  I've tried drawing them while telling stories.  I've tried making rhymes.  And I've tried knocking students over their heads with flash cards like my parents and my fourth grade teacher did with me.

The struggle is real, people!

And sometimes it is painful.

And sometimes it creates tears.

In fact, sometimes those kids just get mad.

That's definitely not what we want, so let's think smart.  Right before the EF5 tornado carved a path across Joplin, I received a visit from a man with a multiplication program.  He visited our classroom and took one hour to teach students.  The thing is, he did not teach them the times tables; he taught them how to properly use flash cards. After the tornado, the same gentleman donated some materials to our class.  Since then, he has developed some apps for your electronic device to help with operation fluency.

Here is a copy of part of his program:

I've already had a few parents asking about help for their children in Math.  Please hear me now:  make them learn their basic multiplication facts!  Download and carefully read the 40-page file above.  Pay particular attention to page five.  If you can help them master these facts (in spite of the tears and fears), we can go so much further in class.  Let's take this one very seriously as we shatter records, this year!

If you missed my previous article concerning multiplication, please take the time to read it now:

Stepping Up to Multiplication

Saxophones are reed instruments.  The video on the left shows how they are made, but you might understand more about how they work by making an instrument of your own:  watch the video on the right for instructions.

Dave Koz is one of the hottest names among modern saxophonists.  Let's use of of his renditions to inspire some writing.  In our class, we refer to this activity as Mood Music.

 Why do we do it to them?

We throw our kids in a room with a stack of flash cards and expect them to learn.

We throw a box of paper cards at our kids, and we don't lift a finger to teach them how to properly use the cards.

We sit our children in front of 100 math problems, and we expect them to solve the problems with understanding and fluency.

Admittedly, I am guilty along with most American parents, but I have come to understand a number of things in the last few years.

• My personal experience of learning multiplication was a journey with lots of stumbling blocks.
• In teaching first and second graders for the first five years of my career, I realize the need for conceptual learning in math.
• Flash cards!  I diligently and reluctantly crammed those things into my brain, but I still didn't use them correctly.  Thanks to a man with an innovative program, I now understand there is better way to use them.
• After delivering about a million timed tests and getting limited improvement, there has to be something we're missing (besides blaming it on laziness, which admittedly is a part of things, as well).
• Reading about subitizing and reading articles about number sense have awakened my sensibilities in the area.

​We do a disservice to our students when we throw up an image like the one above.  There's a purpose for that image that we call the multiplication table, but it is overwhelming to a child who is already struggling with basic facts.  For the numbers 0 through 9, there are 100 problems to learn.  Kids can usually get the rules for 0s and 1s:

By the time they reach fourth grade, students usually also have the understanding of counting by twos and fives - even if they have to use their fingers.  These are fairly easy for most kids, but if not, a simple refresher in the multiples of two and multiples of five is in order.

In addition to prior knowledge of the simplest parts of the multiplication table, there is the ever-important Commutative Property of multiplication.  That's the statement that the factors can appear in any order in a multiplication statement (i.e., 4 x 7 is the same thing as 7 x 4).  With understanding of the Commutative Property, students should quickly see that the multiplication table can be reduced by nearly half of the ominous 100 problems.  Learn that "half", and you'll get there twice as fast!

So if there is a knowledge of the zeroes, ones, and twos (We'll exclude the fives for the time being), and if there is an understanding of the Commutative Property, as shown in my own chart below, there are only 28 more problems to master!

It's not as unreachable as we thought, is it?  In our room, we begin with the foundation of the square problems at the bottom of the chart.  Along with reinforcing the concept of multiplication, we will chant, over and over, the products of these square expressions:

We also do them in reverse:

We might even make some new flash cards to help us along:

Then we'll start at the bottom step.  Notice, there are no nines problems on the chart to learn.  Thanks to the Commutative Property, the nines all appear under other columns.  Because of this, there is only a single eight (8 x 9) to learn, two sevens (7 x 8 and 7 x 9), and three sixes (6 x 7, 6 x 8, and 6 x 9).  Since the sixes, sevens, and eights are traditionally the toughest of the basic facts, having only six to remember should be a great relief.

The fives are back, but may not be as hard to remember.  Then come the "easier" problems under the fours and threes columns.  Step by step, we learn and overcome the difficulty in learning basic multiplication facts with fluency.  Next: bring on the timed quiz!

So much of math is based on the central concept of multiplication.  Mastery, or fluency, will make everything else possible in a big way.  I want to encourage students to walk through the pain of understanding and learning the basics now in order to make things easier in the coming weeks and years.  Likewise, I want to encourage parents to take the reins here, and ensure that the painful part is happening at home as well as at school.  I know it's difficult, but learning the hard things now, and for good, will be highly beneficial for your children.

• Science:  when investigating a site, conducting an experiment, and making conclusions, we must cite observable evidence. Even hypotheses should be grounded in the observable facts.

• Mathematics:  our answers/ solutions must be responses to the text of a problem.  We must find evidence in a given prompt and understand how to use in to solve the problems.

​

• Writing:  here's where we get the chance do drop our own breadcrumbs of evidence for readers to interpret. It can even be fun as we play with the reader by revealing things a little at a time.  Not easy, but fun nevertheless.

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As our first observation, I also wanted to limit students' view.  We used loops of rope to mark a "circle" of land around some of the trees at the edge of our spacious playground.  Then we looked only at the area within those loops, making notes of the contents, living or nonliving, as well as the colors and textures.

Back inside, each cleaned up his/her notes by transferring his/her drawings to another page, adding color along the way.  We didn't have much time, but many of the sketches turned out pretty good.

We'll just keep building things from here.

Look for your children to respond differently. Look for them to speak with kinder voices and to express themselves with manners.  Look for them to naturally say thank you at appropriate times.  I hope you can see them just dripping with maturity.  These are habits we can all get behind.

I do not expect any student to come to me with these skills in place.  If some have these abilities, indeed, it is truly a thrill, but I envision a classful of fourth graders who can and do every bit of this.

Yesterday morning, the fourth grade teachers introduced students to some basic cafeteria etiquette - starting with placing a napkin in your lap.  We even discussed the choice of picking up food with a spoon or using your fingers.

I've recently updated our page for Missouri birthdays, along with the recording sheet that accompanies it:

With Happy Birthday, Missouri!, our plan is to combine nonfiction reading with some basic math, as well as geography and history.  This is a year-long activity.

Missouri has a rich history.  Our state's history has always been very influential on the history of our great nation. Rather than learn our history in a linear fashion (in the order events occurred), I've plugged in the birthdays of some of our famous citizens.  In this manner, I hope to emphasize the achievements and individual motivations and intrigue that drive individuals to success, rather than just memorize a list of places and dates.

We are also aware that all of history is not romantic.  In fact, some of it is absolutely ugly.  There's certainly enough to learn from the mistakes of history, as well.

While Happy Birthday, Missouri! is not the only history we will learn, it should keep us on our toes.  Plus, there may be some surprises along the way.

In the beginning days of class, I like to do several things:

• Introduce myself.
• Get to know my new students.
• Make everybody comfortable.
• Establish respect.
• Make our class feel different.
• Teach manners.
• Foster new, positive roles for the members of our class.
• Practice procedures.
• Raise expectations.

There are probably other things to add to this list, but that at least gets us started.

On the first day of school, I asked everyone to think about whether they consider themselves more as followers or as leaders.  The class was split, with a few standing firmly and comfortably on the follower side of things.

On the fourth day of class, we used the windbags (pictured) to illustrate the difference between a good leader and an ineffective leader.  Students huffed and puffed to try to blow up these long tubes, but failed miserably.  Of course, that was the point.  First, I had not given them any specific instructions for easily inflating the tubes, and second, there is a scientific principle of which each of them was unaware (It's all about Bernoulli, but that's for another time.).  All of the blowing and light-headedness in the world is only minimally successful at this point.

And yet, the teacher can inflate the tube in a single breath.

Obviously, the tube is larger than the capacity of my own lungs, so how is this possible?

Just like an effective leader, I had to step back from the situation and not just dive right in.  With the windbags, that means I need to stay six or eight inches back, away from the opening.  In this way, my single breath attracts the air around it which then follows my breath into the bag.  Again, this is akin to good leadership; instead of jumping right in and doing all of the work myself, I need to develop the skills to bring people, willingly, along with me.  For a positive leader, this means less work and a more effective team.

The windbags help us establish a working relationship in which all work toward a single goal.  I'll gladly take some time out at the beginning of the year to get that ball rolling in the right direction!

Sadly, this book disappointed me.  I began it with no expectations, not knowing anything about it.  I ended it with more questions than I started.  And not in a good way.  Granted, The Missing Pieces of Me was easy to read and easy to follow, but exactly to where did we follow it?  It's as if she finished the book only to have her editor ask her for more pages, at which point she infused another story inside the main one.

​What is this one about?  If you ask the author's website here is your answer:

If you ask me, the intelligent reader, what the book is about, I would give you a different answer.  The book seems to have an identity crisis.  Just as you're figuring out that Weezie's mother is stressed and uncomfortably resentful of her illegitimate daughter and her absent father, the story shifts to Weezie's fixation on a stray cat.  After a while, the storyline shifts to her search for information for her father (which comes way to easily).  Finally, the book moves to a story about dealing with revelation and loss, but fails wholeheartedly to resolve either.  And at some point that cat gets injured, but we don't know how.).  When it's convenient, Weezie recalls her deceased grandmother, who she clearly misses as the one adult in her family who might have been a reasonable role model.

The Missing Pieces of Me made me uncomfortable, but I'm not sure that was the author's intention.  I'm all right with a character thinking her mother hates her, but this character never finds out differently.  Her mother doesn't change her point of view considering her daughter, and her daughter doesn't ever discover that she was misreading her mother.

When a grown man, Weezie's brother's estranged dad, drives off with Weezie on the back of his motorcycle, Weezie's mother is right to call the police.  Why this man, who otherwise seems to be in the middle of becoming a more responsible father, puts her in this kind of situation is inconsistent with his developing character.

Additionally, there's a teenage pregnancy here with no talk about it being an issue.  In fact, it's just accepted as a normal thing that happens.  While it does occur more often than I'd like to admit, that's not the message I want my daughter picking up when she's twelve.

Why is Weezie's mother is constantly angry?  It's obvious she has made her bed.  She clearly has a record of making bad choices in her life, but she takes out her anger on everybody else.  She doesn't like her daughter's friend Calvin, pushing her instead to another classmate in the neighborhood.  When Weezie gets close to her new friend, her mother resents the new girl.  She never has anything positive to say about anything, and she clearly likes Weezie's siblings more than Weezie.

Is the book about the anger of a parent?  Is it about a girl finding her missing father?  Is it about the dangers of talking to strangers?  Is it about a stray cat?  A dead grandmother?  A kind neighbor?  Lying to show up a bully?  At any rate, not a single one of these themes is brought to a close.  In the end, Weezie's mother still does not like her, Weezie still doesn't have any direction in her life, her grandmother is still dead, her father remains absent, the bully is still there, her original friend remains distracted, and the cat is still feral.

The second day's harder than the first for an elementary teacher.  On the first day, he wakes up with energy and vigor, but on the second day, he's tired before he even gets started.

Everybody showed up on time, Friday, for our day-long lesson about first impressions, friend-making, and respectful behavior.  We got into some of our school expectations, but for the most part our focus was on personal relationships, with an emphasis on making other people feel like they are important.  One of our conversations concerned the award-winning short film, Validation ​(with one word muted).

This film follows a man who loves to build people up.  We see the affect that his behavior has on the people around him.  We also observe as he is affected by another person and "broken" down himself before finally being restored.

How do we do that?  How do we build people up?  And in doing so, do we also build up ourselves?

Do people like this man find more people who want to be his friends?  Why is that?  I suppose it's because he is genuinely interested in the other people.  They feel validated by his approach.

Can we replicate this type of behavior in fourth graders?  I've seen many cases in recent years that indicate that it's very possible.  Those students who can look people in the eyes, offer firm handshakes, and conduct a mature conversation (sans silliness), amaze the people around them.  And when they take those skills (and others, of course) out the school doors and into the community, they might just find their lives made a tad easier.

Let's strive to validate one another, this year.  Make people believe that you care about them.  And see if people want to be friendlier to you in return.

We were certainly up and about at an early hour on the first day, weren't we?  While buses unloaded their precious cargo on the south end of the building, other vehicles dropped off our students on the east side.  Still other students arrived on their own two feet.

Our thanks to Star 104.3 for their support.  Our 90s-to-Now hit radio station provided our entry music as students and their parents paraded to the front doors.  Bus riders also streamed through the front doors instead of sauntering down the hall as they usually will.

Have you met Principal Bozarth yet?  He was also on hand and was visibly greeting everybody as they arrived.

I had a marginally negative response when I asked my students if they trusted me.  It's to be suspected:  I'm new to them.  I don't know if I would trust me either.

I asked ALLIE to get a cup of water from beside the sink.  When she brought it to me, I wasn't satisfied with the cup it was in.  I poured it into a more acceptable cup and proceeded to pour it over ALLIE's head.

Nothing came out.  She could trust me.

What they couldn't see was a little bit of powder in the bottom of the second cup.  The powder?  A super absorbent polymer similar to the contents of a disposable diaper.  The powder absorbed the water instantly and stuck inside the cup as a "blob" of squishiness (though that's probably not the scientific term).

Now, with the trust conversation in the past, I proceeded to explain that our class is a family - that we are much like the polymer.  We look after each other, help each other, and build each other up.  We stick together.

Now for a changing variable - a scientific experiment:  I split the goo in half and placed each half in its own zipper bag.  I was careful to change only one variable in a single zipper bag:  I poured a very small amount of table salt into one of the bags and left the other bag as our control.  Almost instantly, the salted bag returned to liquid, while the other bag remained a squishy blob.

If our class (our family) sticks together, then it takes a single infraction (or invasion from outside forces) to split us up.  We must not allow something like that to happen.  We really need to work at this new and wonderful relationship.

Later in the day we considered the Latin phrase  Erudito Est Potentia, which, as you know, means Imagine Your Potential.

I passed out some plastic cord and two beads to each student, and these became bracelets.  The plain white beads represented their potential, their futures.  It represented what they could be, what they, with effort, could become.  I told them they have tremendous potential to become something beautiful - a person people could respect, an amazing friend, a successful professional, etc.

And I left it at that.

It was time for recess, so we lined up and walked outside.

When I picked up my class after their 15-minute break, my students were astounded.  Their beads had changed colors!  They had become something different, something "beautiful".

"Of course," I told them.  "I told you that you have potential!"

During day two, I think we might hit on some essential expectations, rules, and procedures.

Much like the road to salvation or the process of writing, this process of winning is easily convoluted by breaking it into steps.  As a believer, I realize that the road to salvation...

What I mean to say is that the process of winning in life is easily convoluted when we break it down into little, individual steps.  It's like the writing process.  As an author, I realize that the writing process does not look like the chart pictured here at all.  While it might be important to be aware of each of the components of such a chart, they must not be portrayed as steps in the process.  The fact is, I'm all over this chart when I'm writing.  I revise as I go, edit when I'm finished, brainstorm ideas in the middle, and I revise again.  I write more, edit more, revise and write more.  I move paragraph 20 to paragraph 3.  I remove characters, change their voices, add scenes, insert figurative language, and I correct mistakes throughout.  The process of writing is dirty and gritty, and I love it.

But that's not the purpose of this article.

The 2016/7 slogan for our school is Race to Excellence.  It's a pretty broad statement that could be broken down into steps:  

• Buy the proper equipment (If running, this might include shoes.)
• Find a safe place to run.
• Stretch.
• Train for the race (Start small, and incrementally increase your distance.)
• Monitor your vital statistics, and track your improvement.
• Enlist in a race, and show up on race day.
• Wait for the signal to start.
• Run your best race.
• Cross the finish line (hopefully as the winner).

That's all good (I suppose), but I think our school slogan might not be about running (or NASCAR, etc.).  Rather, I think our slogan reflects racing for success in life.  And that's a whole different kind of racing.

You see, we have to understand that our daily races rarely have finish lines.  We will not always feel the tape break against our chests, we won't always see a checkered flag, and we probably won't experience too many winner's circles or receive paychecks for endorsing breakfast cereals.  Our successes in life's race come to us more incrementally, sometimes covertly, and sometimes not at all.

Why is that?

Someone once said, Just when you think you have all the answers, someone changes the questions, and you know that's true.  Getting the the bottom of something often uncovers new things you have to get the the bottom of. We can chase rabbits (or Pokemon critters) all day long, but we're not ever going to catch them all.  Someone will inevitably throw more rabbits into the ring before we're finished.

Our training for our race is not something we can do to prepare for the race itself.  In fact, the training for ongoing race runs concurrent with the race itself.  We constantly run, not only to prepare for future races, but we run our races simultaneously with our training.

Perhaps that's our true circle of life.  It's not only about maintaining our places in the food chain, and it's not just about continuing our family name by producing new generations.  My circle of life is the circuitous running that I do to survive within my family and among my peers.  It's how I handle confrontation, how I deal with people who have different personalities, or beliefs, or (dare I say) skin colors.  It's how I respond to ignorance, grief, and pride.  My circle of life involves tremendous on-the-job training as I learn to navigate the seas of humanity in a world of uncertainty and growing conflict.

I don't suppose it's very comforting, but we have to understand that our learning - training - does not stop when we conclude elementary school, when we graduate from high school, when we receive a college degree, or when we reach a certain age.  Our learning is lifelong for a race that extends beyond our years.  I must train with the intention of winning my race, but the finish lines are moving targets.  And just because I might run over one of them never means I am finished racing.

I may never race to​ excellence, but I can always race excellently.

I was so happy to greet 19 of the 24 newest Hoggatteers for Tuesday's Open House event.  There was a great deal of activity in the room while parents filled out forms with varying purposes.

Did you miss it?  If you were not able to attend, I have sent your forms home to be completed; please do so as soon as you can so we can hit the ground running.

Additionally, I sent home instructions for signing up to get your child's reports and information through the ClassDojo app on your phone.  Eight parents signed up on the evening of Open House!  This app makes it very simple for you to communicate with me (and vice versa).

Again, did you miss it?  If you haven't taken advantage of this valuable tool, please download the app and sign up with the secure and unique code on the paper I sent home.  If you misplaced the code, please let me know, and I'll get it to you.