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Annie Fetter

@mfannie.bsky.social

790 followers 84 following 350 posts

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Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Jun 13

An architect friend of my dad's gave me the Altair Design coloring books in the early 70's. Loved them, but felt bad using them up! I should pull them back out - pretty sure they're still in the same drawer at my dad's house.

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Jun 13

Tuesday works for me. The German place was very German! I'd eat there again.

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 28

Pretty sure I have never seen a tetradecagon in the wild until now!

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A12: This is so thoughtful..we can't just have a rule that says "distribute if you used addition to break up one number, but not if you used multiplication". That's not helping anyone thing about "why". #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A11: When it gets applied procedurally without being backed up with sense-making, it can get pretty messed up. As in students just "do" the wrong thing - not multiply all the decomposed parts by the initial multiplier, for example - because they are missing the underlying concept. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A10: Makes me wonder how much the whole denominator thing can freak people out. "Are we allowed to write that second line? How do you know it's okay?" Or am I just making that up? #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

Also A9: a difference is that the left one has a single numerical answer in the end, and the red one is in terms of x. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

Yea, you just want a couple of kids to go, "Ohhhhhh! I get it! I can totally do that next time!" I mean, saying "use the area model" doesn't help if they missed the fact that you're literally finding the areas of rectangles and they view it as procedural mysticism. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A8: I see the "multiplication wrestling", or area model, or partial products in each. Each part of Number A multiplied by each part of Number B, even when we don't know what they are and have to use an x. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

I like the area model, too - so helpful! And I like tying it to the partial products, in case students find that sufficient instead of drawing the rectangle each time. But gives more support. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A6: As a mature adult, I was glad to learn the partial products algorithm, which I'd never seen before, but it seemed much less mystical than the traditional "standard" algorithm, where you sort of ignore place value and just know when to "bring down" a 0 and when to carry a 1. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

Way back I was digging into Everyday Math to support some schools, and in Gr4 they called one method "multiplication wrestling" - basically each part of 27 (or 20 + 7) would wrestle with each part of 33 (or 30 + 3). #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

It's funny because I totally know ("own") that 100/8 is 12.5, but my brain didn't go to 125*8=1000 nearly as quickly. Aren't brains fun?? #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A5: One is drilling down, "What did you do? Tell me more!" etc., and the other is "Why did you pick that way? How did you decide?" Getting them to reflect on WHY they did what they did, beyond just what they did. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

Yea, seemed natural to me. John's 125 * 8 makes sense once he says it, but I'd have to think about what the answer to that is. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A4: For this one I would split 126 into 100+20+6, because I can do that easily, and I know how to multiply each of those by 8. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

and I love it when you do this in class and show all the ways (a la number talks) and kids say, "OMG! THAT way is so much more awesome than what I did!". #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A3: I guess I would be less inclined to do the subtraction one, and the (10+5+3) one, reflexively, when the other two are what I would think of first. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A2: My reflex is to do 4*10 + 4*8, so 40+32. But then I wondered about 4*9 + 4*9, so I only have to do one multiplication problem. Then I ask if I want to add 40+32 or 36+36, since arithmetic isn't my strong suit. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

And at some point (have to remember where), I learned that facility with number decomposition/recomposition was a big indicator of future math understanding and success. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

Oh, for sure! Depends what we're doing, but that could be useful. And those are nice small numbers (or number) I know a lot about. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

A1: I think of it as taking a number apart (and then putting back together). Like 16 is 10 + 6. Or 8 + 8. #ElemMathChat

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 18

Hi #ElemMathChat! I'm Annie, joining from suburban Philly. I'm mostly a consultant. Today I saw a math educator colleague from the very first post-college job I had - first time I've seen her in 15+ years. Great memories and conversation.

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 11

Thanks for joining us for #ElemMathChat!

Annie Fetter @mfannie.bsky.social · Apr 11

Q10: What are some upcoming topics in your class/situation? What sort of prompt might you use to start a math conversation? #ElemMathChat