Guess what my 5th graders did today?

[nemo137]

Election math. The 5th grade class I work in (I'm a classroom aide and literacy tutor) crunched numbers to see if Hillary could win the nom. They took her average margin of victory (turns out to be about 9%) in the states she won, and projected that across the remaining contests. Assuming she wins all of them, she gets 119 more delegates, which means she goes into the convention needing 215 supers to get the nom. Best case scenario the kids came up with was she wins all the remaining states by 17% (her largest margin, in NY) and gets 130, and then only needs 204 delegates to win.

I'm real proud of the kids, for a few reasons. First, they got the numbers, crunched them, and worked out what they needed to do to figure out margins and delegate counts themselves, with minimal prompting from myself and their teacher. Second, I work in the Urbana, IL public schools - pretty solid Obama territory. They managed to do their work without ragging on Hillary or each other. Third, they asked good questions - "Why hasn't she dropped out?" "How come the Republicans only need 1000 votes for their nomination?" "Why don't FL and MI count?" - things like that.

It was a good last day of work for the year.

[GetTheRightVote]

1. Young people getting involved is always a good thing, Go Kids !!!

[Jed Dilligan]

2. Great story, and happy summer vacation!!!

[nemo137]

15. thanks.

It's kind of sad, since they've still got a few weeks left in the year, and I'm not allowed to work past U of I's finals week. But I got hugs and high-fives as I was leaving along with hope for the future, so it's all good.

[Jed Dilligan]

17. Awesome. This was an important day in your education as an educator.

Kids can do SO much better than most of us expect of them.

[BlooInBloo]

3. That's about the same level of math as college kids....

Probably much more satisfying for you.

[uponit7771]

yeap

[nemo137]

6. It was neat.

I have not seen them go at math like that all year!

[BlooInBloo]

12. :)

[Window]

4. That's great and very good for the kids.

:thumbsup:

[Fire_brand]

5. Maybe they should work for the Clinton campaign

[Bucky]

7. All we did was watch a movie in my class today.

Teachers like you make me look lazy. Of course if I was hardworking, I'd have a different candidate...

[nemo137]

11. I'm not a teacher. Just an aide.

Frankly, Ms. N surprises me - in the best way possible - with how much she expects from those kids. I have 400-level professors who don't make us think that hard.

[lligrd]

8. You Sound Like A Great Teacher.

:headbang:

[nemo137]

14. Not a teacher, but I have so much respect for what they do.

Anyone who says that teachers have it easy is, frankly, an asshole. Sorry about the language, but it's true.

[Tinksrival]

9. Cool!

Many lessons learned!

I myself hate math! :toast: Here's to math teachers,, their aids and the kids!

[GreenPartyVoter]

10. Terrific stuff!

[redqueen]

13. That's good to hear...

sounds like a bright bunch of kids! :D

[Kber]

16. Maybe they should submit job applications to Mark Penn's consulting co.

He could use the help.

[Triana]

18. Teachers and teacher's aides don't get paid nearly enough...

....for the incredibly important work they do.

Smart kids!

[nemo137]

20. Very smart kids.

[dana_b]

19. you sound like a good teacher!!

Giving them examples of mathematical situations in real life AND integrating social/political science into it. Those kind of lessons were always a lot more fun to me than stupid, rote exercises that some teachers made us do.

LOL - I just saw post #8.

[rug]

21. Did they start calling each other names by the end of the day?

Or are fifth graders smarter than GDP posters?

[KSinTX]

22. 5th graders are great, aren't they?

Used to run an after-school newspaper/web site with 5th grade reporters and they will just knock your socks off with how smart they are, won't they. Good stuff you're doing here and keep up the super work!