The Collective Exercises

The Collective Exercises (aka: addition/subtraction etc. with the golden beads) can be the highlight of my day or the absolute bane of my existence. I find myself dreading the lesson or getting excited when a new group is ready. From my experience, it all depends on the children you pick for the lesson.

So far, I have given this lesson (addition) a few times over the course of the year. The first group that I gave it to early in the year to some of my third years. They just hadn't had time to fit it in during the second year. I chose another third year who had already had the lesson to be my helper. This very logical choice, which has worked wonderfully in the past, backfired on so many levels. The child was bored, rushed the other children and made the whole experience unpleasant for everyone (especially me). Not surprisingly, the other children didn't want to take out the material to repeat.

Time went on and I gave the lesson again to my last two third years who are simply working at their own (albeit snail-like) pace through the materials. By this time, most of the other third years knew how to do this work. Yet, after the initial presentation (which was me and just those two!) the other third years were just as terrible when working with the final two. It caused constant bickering. Ugh. I was about to throw all of my golden bead material out of the window.

Today, I had a group of second year students who were ready for the lesson. This time, the chemistry was right on. The three children I chose (two second years and one third year) are pretty quiet, and all three are girls. One of them -my shadow from last year- still refuses to speak but was literally squealing with delight as I gave her this lesson. This exact lesson, which had been the source of so much frustration and irritation to me, became a little squeal of glee for myself. How can you not be the happiest teacher around when a child is bursting out of their shell to do math?

Collective Exercises - choose your groups wisely and enjoy the ride :)