The debate and sharing of ideas regarding "zero" as a number has been quite interesting. I appreciate all the comments, musings and the effort to share. My kindergarten teacher mind is always thinking about how to make concrete connections to language that we use for mathematical concepts. Zero is a word, but what I find interesting is how students explain it's meaning in their minds. "It means nothing!" "There is nothing there (questioning look on students face)." "It's invisible." "It's like when my glass is empty and I haven't got any more milk." This last comment by a kindergartener is one of my favorites because it is connected to a real experience. It is very concrete.
The continued debate about zero jogged my memory about another student conversation about number words and math language. Two kindergarten boys were hotly debating which was bigger google-plex or infinity. For them it was a matter of whose idea was winning. As they argued a little girl in my class walked up to the boys with her hands on her hips. “You guys should know that both of those [meaning google-plex and infinity] are words. Google-plex and infinity are too big to count so we use words for them.” Wow! I was amazed. I couldn’t have said it any better.
MTM academy has reaffirmed for me how important it is to really listen to my students. It is so easy to get swept away by our curriculum expectations, etc. and forget to hear where the students are coming from. So….. “To infinity and beyond.”
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Deb, so true about hearing and presently "listening" what students are saying and where they come from.......!! Your students are so fortunate to have you, who really listen to them!!! I have to remind myself, often time, to really listen and I think the Center for Grieving Children, where I volunteer every Monday evening, help me to develop the "listening" skill!!
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