COUNT ME OUT

[Neville Briggs]

COUNT ME OUT

Once two is two
two twos are four
three twos are six
four twos are eight.

Stand up in class
say the times table,
made me so scared
'cause I weren't able.

Five twos are ten
six twos are twelve
seven twos are fourteen.

Bottom of the class
in arithmetic,
Betty and Jim
made me feel sick.

Eight twos are sixteen
nine twos are eighteen
ten twos are twenty.

Lesson ten, children,
we do a problem.
Can't do the numbers
that's my problem.

[alongtimegone]

That's a bit sad Neville. Making you stand up in class to recite tables ... definitely a no no today. Primary schools of the present are a happier place for kids. Apart from tests like Naplan which can be stressful, their time at school should be enjoyable regardless of attainments. I think most teachers, primary, are friendlier than their counterparts of the past. I know that there were teachers when I was a pupil that scared the sh...ers out of me and I didn't have much trouble in the classroom.
By the way, just an aside, I believe that teaching/learning those number facts is easier for kids when the number of the table eg two times, is the first number in the equation.
2x1=2
2x2=4
2x3=6
2x4=8 rather than

1x2=2
2x2=4
3x2=6
4x2=8 the learning is easier (my opinion) to embed when the pattern remains constant.

Most I've had to say for yonks I think.
Cheers... Wazza

Oh one more thing ... you know them now.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Don't worry Neville - you 've done pretty well for an abysmal failure at maths

[Neville Briggs]

Thanks Warren, Maureen. Saved by the digital calculator By the way, I came top of the class in English and History.

[Heather]

WE can't all be good at everything Neville. I never mastered times tables either Neville and to this day maths simply does not compute, and like you, I did well at English, English literature and geography.

[Ron]

Neville Wrote: 'I came top of the class in English and history'

Why am I not surprised Nev!!

Ron

[Bob Pacey]

Just because you sit in the front row does not mean you are at the top Nev ?


Bob

[Neville Briggs]

We must be the right-brain tribe Heather.

Ron, I think that those subjects seemed to have feeling and imagination, and English lessons in those days included poems by Banjo Paterson, Dorothea Mackellar and Henry Lawson. I didn't do so good on Shakespeare because nobody told me that it was verse, I think that would have made a difference. . Maths seemed to be just abstract and taught by teachers who were clones of Mr Spock.

I used to sit up the back Bob, better to plot mayhem with the other hooligans.

[Bob Pacey]

I always sat at the front Nev cause I figured they thought that I would be awake !

Did you know that if you crush your potato sticks under the desk lid you can eat them quietly ?

they did however make me sit in the middle because I was forever gazing out the window.

Bob

[Heather]

Thank goodness for calculators Neville. Can't say I've ever really needed maths in my day to day life except for adding and subtracting when doing bookwork but I used a calculator to do it. I think of all those years I had to do math at school and hated every minute of it and couldn't wait for year 11 so I didn't have to do it anymore. Brains are interesting things. The only person I've met to date who can do both is David Campbell - English and Maths teacher - most unusual. I also disliked history at school but produced a history book in 2007 and am working on another now. I think it was they way it was taught. I have my own ideas on how kids should be taught history.