:::waving hello::::
Ya know, I thought you looked cute in that picture, with your overzealous haircut and all. 
Oh, heh, it signs me as just ivy. That's ME, badbadivy, from el supersecret gig-o.
Hi TC, I've been reading your blog for awhile and really enjoy your voice. I can actually help with your mathematical quandry as I taught 3rd grade for 12 years before becoming a SAHM. A partial product alogrithim is just a method of breaking large mutliplication equations into more manageable chunks. ie: 374 X 7 = (300 x 7)+ (70 x 7)+ (4 x 7). It allows the kids to use basic facts to solve more difficult equations. It really works well.
Hope that helps.
Thanks, Eden! I suppose I should have also admitted the worst part of that afternoon, though: when I admitted I hadn't the faintest idea what a partial-product algorithm was, Em went on to teach it to me.
All I can say is, back in MY day (when the dinosaurs roamed, etc. etc...), we didn't talk about algorithms in third grade.
It is a cool tool, though, and essentially what I've always done to do multiplication in my head. I think it was the big, fancy name that threw me.
Commenting by HaloScan
