Students Hating School: Is it me?

I know I shouldn't take it personally but how can I not? At parent teacher conference, I heard a couple of times, that he or she hates school. They didn't say anything about hating me, thank goodness, but still, it makes me sad when I hear that one of my students hates school. 

On their exit passes that they do daily (a learning log), no one ever says, I love math, though they do say they love science a LOT. Oh yeah, there is one student who does love math. So I conclude, the problem is math, and it is not easy if you are not on grade level, which very few of them are, even less with the Common Core as the standard. 

I used to hear more positive comments about math when I was teaching a more hands-on curriculum called Investigations. Yes, there were problems with it, having to do with alignment to standards, and how time-consuming some of the investigations were. But the students enjoyed it. They learned to see patterns. They developed conceptual understanding.

 This new Common Core aligned curriculum is definitely not fun. Fun is not the point. The Common Core is the point. What I am learning to do is negotiating with this new curriculum. How much of it should I use? Is it really important to give them 8 problems to do on a mid-unit check, when 4 will do to see if they are getting it? How important is it to answer a question like this: explain how estimating a quotient helps you to place the first digit of the quotient in a division problem?  I try to do a practice session getting them to articulate the idea. It is like pulling teeth. The kids want me to write it so they can copy it. I don't do that. They cannot do it on their own. Does this sound like fun? Not much.

As I'm learning the curriculum, unfortunately, there is collateral damage. I give one of the tests, the kids freak out, generally. It is too dense, too many problems, too confusing. I teach the lessons, they are not kid-friendly, so I have to translate. I have to do a lot of reteaching. I don't even assign the story problems any more because they are too confusing. We do them together, step by step, deconstructing them. But does that sound like fun? Not much. 

How do you make math fun? Is that even possible? Are we resigned to tell them, math is work, and it doesn't have to be fun? It got better when I implemented GLAD strategies. One of the GLAD strategies is learning through chants and songs. So, I have written some songs for math. I had done this in the past, but I feel even more desperate to do it now. I enjoy writing them as opposed to looking up resources that others have written. It fulfills a creative urge in me. My students enjoy it too, and I think it has been helpful. 

I believe that something will be more pleasurable if there is a sense of accomplishment. I want my classroom to be about making individual progress rather than being focused on a standard. That seems so radical, but I think that is one way I'm going to get students to feel and be successful. I, as the teacher, need to know the standard as well as the steps to get there. I need to inculcate in my students the right to feel successful as they progress. If they are not progressing, I need to figure out why. But, phooey the standard as a goal, as the end all and be all. Students are the end all and be all.