The black tent moves among us

Only because I wore my black hat, boots and Aussie rain trench to elementary school drop-off. Today is the inaugural blog of me, and I am toasting with a tepid over-steeped cup of black (blech) tea.

I started this blog as a place for me to try and make sense of math. Again blech! So the black tent that I am today welcomes you to my current world of Everyday Math. What's not to love about a third grade textbook that includes this awe-ispiring chart on page "SRBCA11": "California Data Bank"

English learners by language, 2004-2005

...The table below shows the primary languages spoken by the students learning English in California

Spanish 1,357,778 85.3%

Vietnamese 34,333 2.2%

(and so on)

Did I miss something? Why is this in my kid's textbook?

Oh, and the "partial sums" and "lattice" methods of arithmetic? Yeah- here's a great alternative to traditional math that we parents know- gosh, who needs the burden of doing math in one's head? I always have my shopping bags and calculator ready while I'm pushing the cart at Trader Joes! Or doing Macy's algebra with coupons and star rewards and early-bird discount hours????

I did have a meeting with our school principal and three 3rd grade teachers this week, though. Perhaps if I would have worn my black tent (giant Marin burqa?) I could have hid my outrage over Everyday Math a little better...

Here's a link (hope it works! remember I'm new at this) to Palo Alto's website that has much information concerning Everyday Math:

http://pamath2009.wordpress.com/experiences-of-other-districts-with-edm/