And the award for most votes but fewest wins goes to Al Gor-ithm

Yikes, AlGor-Ithm?  I need some time off!  This week we covered the mighty algorithm, for both addition/subtraction and multiplication/division.  These are pretty straightforward concepts.  There were also exercises in estimation and mental computation.  I had a really great math teacher in ninth grade named Mr. Riha.  He always amazed the class by doing large computations faster then we could type them in our calculators, now I know his secrets!  He actually shared those secrets with the class and they come in very handy.  It's amazing to me how many people can't multiple 65 X 17 in their head, take a minute, that's right 1105!  The way I was taught to multiply large numbers was to do the easy part (65X10) then add that to the harder part (7X65).  With practice it becomes pretty easy.

Anyways, back to the mighty algorithm.  The word algorithm makes me a little nauseous.  The same way I feel anytime someone thinks they're talking over my head.  It's a fancy word for formula, or procedure, or how things are done.  I could say the algorithm for changing oil is Oil pan - drain plug - oil filter - used oil + drain plug + oil filter + 5 quarts of oil.  It's just a set of procedures for completing a task.  I understand the need for the term algorithm, but to me it conjures up images of pocket protectors and taped glasses, and I think it's used by math-o-files to intimidate people.  It's really an ego boost, just like someone who sells computers uses the term "front side bus" when speaking to a lay person, or a car salesmen says something like "continuously variable transmission" instead of "the tranny doesn't have to shift."

Ok, enough ranting about big words, my favorite part this week was the base-ten blocks model and the lattice multiplication.  The base ten blocks are basically using series of squares and rectangles to represent different numbers, so a square represents 100, because there are 100 smaller squares within it.  A rectangle with 10 little blocks in a row represents 10 and a single block is 1.  Here's a video that will make more sense out of what I just wrote

I really think this makes numerical positions seem a lot easier to understand, because there's a physical representation of the number, rather then just a symbol (the number itself).  The lattice multiplication is really cool, the image below is what it looks like.

To me this is more useful as a way for students to check their work, personally I would get a little confused trying to solve all my problems like this, but this week was also the first time I've seen it.  It's possible this could become as second nature as any other multiplication technique.