Linda Mitten invited her 10-year-old granddaughter, Jennifer Assis, a passionate math-fanatic at Ellsworth Elementary School, to instruct high schoolers in Common Core basic math.

Mitten’s two year old class, Early Childhood Workshop, aims to promote further study of childhood education, and the importance of comprehending the minds of younger children and how their functions differ in a school setting. 

With her second year teaching the class before retirement, Mitten decided to discuss the importance of abiding by the Common Core, and being aware of its frequent shifts throughout the years.

Being high school students, many years have past since elementary computation skills were initially taught. Learning the numerical way of computing data was one of the only things our generation of high school students have been taught, and Mitten expresses that the newer version of the Common Core is much more effective.

With the desire to implement these skills to her student’s knowledge, she brought in her granddaughter, 10 year old Assis. Her granddaughter is one of the top students in her class, and Mitten said she could demonstrate the new ways of learning to the high schoolers successfully.

After preparing for weeks prior, fifth-grader Assis took her knowledge to Mitten’s high school classroom. Assis portrayed her abilities to Mitten’s 6th period class by using her whiteboard, along with some worksheets she created herself to test how well the high schoolers were able to grasp the process.

As a teacher would, Assis walked around Mitten’s classroom and eyeballed the high schoolers’ papers as they completed them. Seeing as they were taught the newer version of computing math skills in a brief lesson, most of Mitten’s students were able to replicate what they were taught, Assis said.

¨She did a really great job reteaching my kids how the common core is taught today,¨ Mitten said.

Her students were very impressed with how easily Jennifer Assis was able to regurgitate information into them.

Mitten said it was interesting to watch how her high schoolers handled the material. It certainly put a twist on the way her students were taught, and watching them try and grasp it was entertaining.

¨Bringing in Jennifer was the best way to show my students how different elementary school is now. The common core has really pushed kids along and Jennifer was the perfect example,” Mitten said.