Combinations and Permutations

I hate probability. I hate it with a passion. It was always my least favorite type of math as a student and it's still my least favorite as a teacher. I'm not going to lie and say the thought of skipping this material hasn't crossed my mind. It would have saved myself and all my students a big headache. However, the standards say it's important, so here I am with a headache.

My 7th-grade students and I have spent the last two days working with combinations and permutations. For those of you who don't know what these are, I'll explain. A combination is the number of possible ways objects can be arranged when the order of the arrangement is not important (i.e. choosing 3 people out of a group of 10). A permutation is the number of possible ways objects can be arranged when the order of the arrangement is important (i.e. choosing 3 people for first, second, and third place out of a group of 10). For some reason, my students could just not wrap their minds around these two concepts and this morning was absolute chaos. I had several students almost in tears, students giving up and laying their heads down on their desks, and students yelling to one another across the room because they needed help and I'm only one person. In addition to all this fun, I told several students they were doing the problems incorrectly when they were in fact doing them correctly and I had no clue myself as to why several of the problems were solved they way they were. My mind was obviously not thinking the same thing the book was trying to communicate.

My frustration today was not with my students but at myself. It was upsetting to me that I couldn't figure out a way to make this material easier for my students despite my best efforts. It's disappointing to be the person that kids come to for help and that help did them no good.

The probability of me ever enjoying this chapter? Zero!