Why Dandelions?

Do you remember your first year of teaching when your students’ faces beamed as they brought you handfuls of golden yellow flowers from the playground?  Flash forward a few years as we become parents and homeowners plagued with allergies and lawn care chores. Those golden balls of sunshine become  puffballs of misery!

 

In my journeys throughout classrooms and schools I wonder when mathematics becomes weeds.  Kindergarten and 1st grade classrooms thrive with enthusiastic children diving into hands-on manipulatives and activities.  Yet go into any intermediate classroom and ask students to raise their hands if they love math and you will get very few takers. Worse yet, poll a group of adults and you will discover that the overwhelming majority are self-professed math haters.  There almost seems to be a bond between them when they share their math horror stories.

 

 

When and how do these lovers of math become haters?

It is easy to point fingers and blame particular teachers, curriculum, or math series but often the truth is that we are guilty of pushing our students away from math.  Too many students begin to give up because they don’t know the “secret” to solving a problem or the “magic” formula.  Problem solving becomes a challenge to just read the problem let alone figure out how to solve it.  Many students just lose interest in problem solving because the math has no relevance to their life today.

 

It is imperative that we capture on the natural curiosity of primary students to investigate their environment and problem solve.  It is our job to promote that curiosity by helping students organize their thoughts and problem solving skills.  They live in a world filled with television, tater-tots and dandelions.  We must use the things and situations that are relevant to them to help them recognize the every day math applications all around them.

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