The following are music videos to help math students who are struggling with multiplying numbers
times eight.

Think of these as video flash cards.

Work on these diligently, every evening and on weekends, at home, until you can work them quickly.
If you need to, get some actual flash cards
and study those, as well.

I must sound like a broken record.  I hear myself preaching about the need for fourth graders to improve their multiplication fluency...and I repeat myself...over...and over.  Yet, our class average on a timed test sits at an extremely low percentage (I dare not post the actual number!).  Ugh.

While we are making progress in math, we need to make more than baby steps to reach our goals.  I am still concerned that many of my fourth graders do not know their basic multiplication facts - and are not working on them at home.  It is CRUCIAL that everyone knows these facts fluently.  While the goal is to be able to do 100 facts in 5 minutes, ultimately students must know their facts in order for us to move forward in algebra and more.  The rest will come more naturally once they know their facts.

Parents, I am begging for your help on this.  This is the most important hurdle we have to jump in our race to be successful in math.  It does take some pushing.

Your child needs multiplication flash cards and MUST work on them nightly.  From my own fourth grade experience, I know how painful it is to memorize multiplication facts, but your effort will pay off tremendously, later in the year. 

Basic multiplication is something fourth graders should know on DAY ONE.  With new national standards for fourth graders, I am really asking for you to catch us up so we can move to the richer, more meaningful lessons.  With your help, I plan to take this class far.

Twelve years ago, the United States of America changed.  Not only did almost 3000 citizens lose their lives, but our way of life changed.  Airport security is tighter, the government has more access to our personal communications, and - after a brief moment of brotherly patriotism - we are as divided as ever on how to move forward.  It's hard to believe that our fourth graders were not even born when the planes took down the towers in New York City, crashed into the Pentagon, and dove into a Pennsylvania field.  For some, Wednesday in class was the first time they had heard of the event.  While we didn't dwell on the gory details, we were able to have a civilized conversation about the event that woke up the world.  While I didn't share the worst of the tragedy, I wanted my students to understand the human part of the event.

After a short video of interviews from the rescue/recovery workers, we took a moment to tune into the live coverage of the memorial, which included a reading of the nearly 3000 victims' names.  Some of it was emotionally difficult to watch, as family members recounted how much they miss their loved ones.  It is my hope that students emerge from such heartfelt brushes with history and tragedy with more compassion for their fellow men and more consideration for their families, and may someone, someday, develop a way to achieve peace.

Take a couple of minutes to watch this video:

The following are music videos to help math students who are struggling with multiplying numbers
times three.

Think of these as video flash cards.

Work on these diligently, every evening and on weekends, at home, until you can work them quickly.
If you need to, get some actual flash cards
and study those, as well.

Our playground makeover is going to be a work in progress, this year.  We are already enjoying our new pavilion (pictured, upper left), which replaces the one destroyed by the 2011 EF5 tornado.  Our soccer field has been leveled and sodded with new grass (pictured, bottom).  With water, it is looking greener than the week-old photos below indicate.  Lastly, the equipment (pictured, upper right) now nests on a new safer, more level surface (made from recycled tires).

This year, every student at Cecil Floyd will go to college!  Currently, students are selling caramel apples to pay for our fourth grade trip to Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.  We kicked off the Operation College Bound program, today, with a special assembly in the afternoon.  This is one program that could pay off for our students in many ways.

When we break apart the skills involved in reading comprehension, we are constantly amazed at how many skills there really are.  We use the same skills when we watch TV shows, listen to music, and view advertisements.

They are everywhere:  in magazines, in newspapers, on the radio, at the movie theater, and on television.  It is important that we protect ourselves from marketing "tricks", which are intended to "hook" the viewers/readers/
listeners.  Perhaps the product is cheaply made.  Maybe it isn't as it appears.  Is it worth the price?  Is it something you need?  Let's dive right in to a commercial and hone our reading skills along the way.

The commercial below is for insecticide.

As a kid in the 1970s, I watched cartoons every Saturday morning.  I was up before the three local TV stations came on the air, and I must have watched hours of the Indian test pattern or the color bars (Naturally, I still don't pretend to understand either one.).  With age, came 24-hour cartoon channels and edgy, poorly-conceived new toons (No more waiting, and no more early morning Saturdays for this kid!).

I enjoyed my share of Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner (I always rooted for the coyote.).  I watched Land of the Lost, every week, and cringed every time the Sleestaks came around (and I never figured out how they could sit down, considering each had a horn sticking out of his back side).  I remember a show called Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, in which a boy (the same actor who played Jody on Family Affair) befriended a seaweed-covered monster turned good (much to the consternation of his family).

Of course, this writing is one of a series based on our school"s 2013/4 theme of Super Citizenry - not just another stroll through childhood.  Among all of my favorites came a poorly animated show about my super friends, or more accurately, Super Friends.  I thought it was amazing that the same superheroes I watched in prime time - Wonder Woman - and in reruns - Superman (in black and white) and Batman (in living batcolor) could assemble together (along with Aquaman and the Wonder Twins) to fight evil.

Even at that time, I understood that, even with superpowers, these heroes needed each other.  They relied on each other, and they supported one another when circumstances turned against them.  While one hero was right for a particular task, other events called for the skills of another on the team.  And even the more immature Wonder Twins could get in on the action.

The Super Friends were based at the Hall of Justice (which I figured was somewhere in Washington, DC), and they had a crime computer long before the National Security Administration started listening to all our phone calls.I didn't know what justice was, but I understood the difference between good and bad.  I didn't know what that sculpture was in the front of the Hall of Justice, but I understood what it stood for.  I knew that Batman and Robin relied on their abilities to outsmart their adversaries, that Superman worked hard to overcome challenges, that Aquaman filled a niche like no other, and Wonder Woman always traveled light, but carried the right tools.  They worked together, and they complemented each other.  Where one was weak, another was strong.

It should not be difficult to draw connections between the Super Friends and the Hoggatteers.  We work very hard to bring the girls and boys of our classroom together.  I want us to be a family, to work collaboratively to wrestle with difficult material, to learn to use appropriate tools, and to support each other.  Manners, respect, cooperation, and responsibility are our super powers.  Simply put, with these powers, we cannot achieve anything but success.

Take four minutes to watch this video: