Linda “Gail” Grindrod, a Fairmount Elementary School teacher, knows how to exchange Francs into Guilders from living in Europe.

“I was a foreign money teller for American Express when I lived in Germany. I dealt with 10’s, 100’s and 1,000’s,” she said.

Now, she’s teaching and using her teller skills to help third graders memorize complicated subjects such as algebra in Gordon County.

Dealing with place value and fractions, Grindrod devised an original method she thought of for third-graders that uses ones,twos and fives —numbers children can count on their fingers.

Her success is sealed by the testimonies from students and parents. A group of fourth grade students honored her formula by naming it the Grindrod Method.

The formula she devised enables her to meet the needs of at risk students and interact with her class through technology.

“I’m a really wacky teacher and I’ll turn the SMART board black and do things in yellow. Before Glee came out on TV, I would break into song and dance. I love doing that with the kids,” she said. “It grabs their attention and I’ll even dress up as a pilot and will fly to different countries.”

“This year, we were all detectives and I used tapes from the 60s to inspire them,” she said.

Grindrod started incorporating the method she thought of as a learning strategy, though it did meet some hurdles initially.

“There’s never been a complaint about it, but parents have come up and asked about it and asked if their child had to do it,” she recalled.

She explains that the method allows students to find the right answer and understand the technique without feeling frustrated and angry.

But that’s not the only concept she uses in the classroom.

Grindrod’s techniques

Grindrod focuses on a variety of learning techniques that involve the sense of sound, touch, taste and sight.

She said that memorizing the multiplication tables could be easy, when students learn through repetition.

In class, her students will repeat what she says, such as 2 x 3, by snapping with their right and then left fingers.

Grindrod sets the tempo and pace of the recitation; so it can register in the student’s mind, and the class will pause in unison, then answer “six” at the same time. After a while, the students know the multiples through the rhythm and beat.

Mottos or sayings about math facts are also repeated over and over to prevent mistakes during subtraction.

“Bigger bottom better borrow,” she said. “I will say this everytime I go up to the board. They hear this a lot.”

A continuous mistake that she encounters, read something like this:

35 – 27 = ?

Grindrod said students will make a common mistake of subtracting 7 from 5 and will come up with the wrong answer.

“Bigger bottom better borrow. I drill this in their head. have heard it so much by then they know what to do to solve it correctly,” she added.

Candy is dandy. Grindrod brings in a big bag of Skittles to serve as a visual representation of the commutative, associative and distributive property of math.

The colors are used as a visual representation of the multiplication properties, she said.

Connecting to the Internet via the classroom is another key to her success.

“I use a lot of BBC programs and have used over 100 games,” she said.

Among her favorites, include an interactive cannon launch game that is loud and exciting and a game with a cartoon monster that eats guts.

Seeing numbers as a result

But learning isn’t all fun and games.

“I don’t think people realize how hard third grade math is. I have found it to be the hardest. Third-graders have gone from having someone read them the CRCT questions to doing it on their own, learning decimals, multiplication and expanded notation,” she said. “There’s a lot to learn.”

Grindrod said she is constantly looking for ways to help students in math who struggled or just don’t get it.

“I enjoy watching my students succeed. If they are doing something wrong, I try and find out where they are making the mistake and go over it with them. I will sit with them and hang out until they get it,” Grindrod said.

As a result of her focus, Grindrod said she had 33 students — among them, 29 were considered at risk — exceeding state standards with a 94 percent pass rate on the CRCT.

“I don’t want them to be perceived as the underdogs. I was so proud of them. It’s not all about the scores. I do enjoy watching their scores go up. I just want them to do their best,” she said.

The Fairmount Elementary School teacher said she is excited about the upcoming school year.

“I’ve always loved helping students get better. Once you have a bad experience in math, it shuts you down,” said Grindrod. “I am happy to see students learning.”

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Mrs. Grindrod’s blackboard

Grindrod has devised a 5, 2, 1 formula, dubbed the Grindrod Method, that can be used over and over in multiplication and division.

What students can learn at any particular grade level depends upon what they have learned before, she said.

“It’s using only five, two and ones. Five, two and one are basic numbers that kids learn to count by. These are the numbers you learn to add on your fingers,” Grindrod said.

Most third grade students will not know what 6 x 8 equals (until they have memorized the times table).

But the Grindrod Method shows kids that they can solve the problem by using what they do know — simple multiplication and basic addition.

So, if a third-grader doesn’t know the multiples of 6 yet, he or she wouldn’t be able to solve this equation.

But the Grindrod Method shows them that they can solve the problem by using what they do know — simple multiplication and basic addition.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: First, a student will solve the equation by drawing what looks like a tic-tac-toe board underneath 6 x 8.

Step 2: Then, only using the numbers 5, 2, and 1 a student must say what numbers add up to 6. The answer is 5 and 1.

Step 3: So, the 5 and 1 are placed underneath the 6 in the first column. It will look like this:

6 x 8

5 x

1 x

Step 4: The “lane” where the 8 is the number that “stays the same” and will be placed in the next column. It will look like this:

6 x 8

5 x 8

1 x 8

Step 5: Multiply the rows that have been created. It will look like this:

6 x 8

5 x 8 = 40

1 x 8 = 8

Step 6: Lastly, finish in the “add lane” by adding the multiplied values to find the answer. It will look like this:

6 x 8

5 x 8 = 40

1 x 8 = +8

____________

48

While this may seem like a long way to solve a problem, Grindrod says it makes math into a fun game that helps engage students’ interest in learning.

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