I Basically Have A Superpower...

Well it was the first week back, and let me tell you it was a long week. I was excited to get back and see all of the kids after the break, but I knew what I had to teach this week was going to be rough. 

What was on the menu? Long Division...

Just take a second to soak that in. 



Okay...

I knew long division was a hard concept to understand, but I didn't really understand fully. The first day of it I thought went pretty well. Of course they all went home and slept, and they came back the next day and you would have thought that I never taught them anything about it. 

I made sure that they knew the steps. And I will say they know the steps! They just don't know how to use them. Long Division, I feel like, is a foreign language to them. It basically makes them think backwards, and they have a hard time with it. I think the biggest thing is staying patient. We spent three days practicing it, and I'm going to spend at least 2 more because I feel it is so important. 

They do great for the first few steps, but when they bring the next number down it's like their brains shut off. They just forget what they're doing and try to do something that doesn't make any sense. They are just learning how to do this, so when they make a mistake they aren't able to analyze where they went wrong. Almost all of them come up to me asking where they went wrong, and I have developed a keen sense of diagnosing long division problems. It is basically my superpower now. I explain what they did, and it is usually followed by a big Ohhhhhhhhhhh. I feel like they are on the cusp of getting it! They just keep making simple errors that can be fixed with more practice and getting use to the steps. 

I'm pretty sure I didn't learn long division in one day, and I can't expect my kids to either. I wish I could think of a way for them to understand better. We'll see how tomorrow goes after a weekend of not doing long division. Maybe that time off will help their brains recuperate! I'm definitely not going to give up, and just maybe they will all learn how to do long division by the end of it.

Unrelated note... I loved being back in the routine, and see my kids everyday. Sure they aren't always perfect, but that's what makes you love more when they are awesome. The first week of the spring semester is done, and we have a good ways to go. Summer will be here before we know it, and I'm determined to finish my first year out strong. Just got to get past long division first... haha.