As a teacher of 27 years and like many of you…we have seen trends, lingo, and fads come and go. These trends have their moments which drive teachers crazy and then they fade away. I remember when “cray cray ” was popular. My mother still uses this to just to be cool with her grandkids. More recently, when the kids were using “sus” , I had to use context clues to decipher this word. About 2-3 years ago, teachers everywhere were hearing the words of “Skibiti toilet”, “rizz” and “bussing” which would drive us bonkers. I first heard the word “bussing” in an SNL sketch (Lisa from Temecula has me in tears of laughter every single time. Ego Nwodim is a gem!). When I used the word in context to my 19 year old son, he started cracking up. I had no idea what I was saying.
The current lingo is one that I’m embracing. I don’t have a clue where this 6-7 thing came from, but I heard it immediately during the first days of school (along with the hand movements). And then it started haunting me. I took a flight up to Spokane, Washington to visit my son and look what gate I left from. And you could tell the other teachers on my flight because we were all taking pictures of the same thing.
If you want to read more about this 6-7 thing….NPR had a conversation about it.
But rather than fight this trend, we finally have something that’s math related. We can use this to our advantage. Here’s how I’m leaning into this with my students.
- Attention Getters – usually I count down 3 – 2- 1 to get student’s attention, but lately I’ve been yelling out 30+37. They yell back 6 – 7. 44 + 23 = 6- 7. Kids will giggle that you are in on this. (whatever it is).
- Number Talks – you can use these as part of your number of the day or to have a number talk. Here’s #1, #2, and #3. (Click the red numbers for the document)
- 6-7 Challenge –using 6s and 7s and operations to find certain answers. Go HERE for the activity.
Enjoy the math-i-ness of it all!
Until next time,
Kristen