Volunteer gold

My volunteering at Expo this year has been a little hit or miss.  I'm technically supposed to be the 'tutor' on my two days off for Eli's online math crew.  But the three boys undertaking online algebra have not come close to needing my help even once.  They get it and are cruising through the material unaided.  So I sometimes stroll down to Theo's class.  Although at that time he is not in there- he's off doing math in a different classroom.  But there are plenty of kids in Jan's class who could use a little extra attention.  And I am a fairly confident math speaker.  I even speak it with a couple different accents, in case kids don't understand my native way of speaking math.  The problem is that these kids do math in new ways. Lattice method?  Partial Quotient Division?  I've seen my boys bring this stuff home and never quite figured out what to do with it.  For the first half of the year I kind of blustered my way through when I worked with the kids in Jan's room- but in early February the gig was up when I was trying to do an example for Vernon.  I was multiplying the old school way (which doesn't have a name as far as I can tell beyond 'multiplying') when Vernon asked point blank if I knew how to use the lattice method.  I had to admit I did not.  Which thrilled him.  He then taught me.  And he did a good job- I actually get it now.  Not sure I will ever find a use for it, but it does make sense to me at long last.  Vernon was tickled to have taught me, as he should have been.

After math that day I was sitting in the back of the class gathering my goods as Jan was talking with the kids about the upcoming Valentine's situation.  She laid down the rules- if you make a card for one kid in the class, you make one for every kid in the class.  But.  But. If you wanted to go outside of the classroom you could pick and choose.  Make a card for the principal, the secretary, one kid in kindergarten, whoever you want.  Hands went up, kids working to get the rules firmly in grasp.  Can I make one for just Haakon next door?  Just Mr. Yerama?  Vernon's little hand went up and he looked back at me as he asked, "Can we make one for Gretchen?"  Of course! 

For the record, he didn't.  Or it got lost.  Or something. But the thought that he at one point might have had half a plan to make one for the silly woman who muddles through math with him warmed my heart.