As a kid I was exposed to math in the usual ways such as learning to count, learning to keep score in board games, learning fractions through pizza diagrams, and the other usual ways. But, my absolute favorite memory about math happened when I was in fifth grade. I was recognized for being "gifted" in math along with about five other students. We were put into a group and allowed to "work at our own pace" in the back of the classroom while the rest of the class did their math with the teacher. I remember feeling so overwhelmed because I didn't really understand some of the concepts. One night I was struggling through my homework and then it struck me that because my dad was an accountant, he probably could help me figure out my challenging assignment! I took my book into his bedroom and together we figured out the tough problems, and I was able to complete my assignment. This is my favorite memory of math as a child because I was able to make connections between school and family. I was able to bond with my dad while doing math!
I'm quite certain that my dad had a lot to do with the career field I picked. I have always felt a close bond with him through math. (Even though I have far surpassed the amount of math he ever took in school) I grew to love math because of my childhood experiences with it. I know that family background has a lot to do with how students feel about a subject. If a student grows up being told by their parents that math is a waste of time, then they will probably never apply themselves in their math class because to them, it is all just a waste of time anyway. I have a friend who grew up listening to his mom tell him how his family "couldn't do math." He never really even tried in high school because he knew there was no point because his family "couldn't do math." After he graduated, he moved away from home and is currently an engineering major at Utah State. That major takes quite a bit of math! He talks about resentment that his mom never gave him the confidence he needed to apply himself in high school.
On the other hand, my parents always expected really good grades from me. If I didn't bring home a good grade they told me they were really disappointed in me because they knew I could do better. But as teachers, we don't necessarily want students to do well because their parents want them to. We want students to do well because they are genuinely interested in our subject. We want them to thirst for knowledge and strive to do their best because it's what they want. Well, for pre-teens and teenagers, this will probably not happen very often. So, we as teachers must try to do the next best thing. We must try to connect math to the students' backgrounds. We must somehow make math meaningful for Linda by showing her that when she bakes with her mom, she is using multiplications of fractions to double the cookie recipe. We must show Juan that when he is shooting hoops with his buddy that they are applying trigonometry to shoot the ball. We must find out what math experiences the student already has background in, even if they didn't even know that math was involved, and show them how math applied then and how math still applies to their lives.
The state and national standards are broad enough that there is plenty of room to make connections with students' home-life to math. The hardest part is finding out these experiences. One way I think I might find out some of their background information is by doing a get to know you questionnaire at the beginning of the year. It's a friendly way to find out more information about students' backgrounds and interests. A question could be phrased, "What experiences do you have with math at home?" or "What activities do you enjoy outside of school? Can you see any connection math may have to these activities?" Then, you can take these experiences, and weave them into your lessons. A story problem could be based on one student's answer to one of these questions. That student will be able to really connect to that question, and chances are, because high schools usually have groups of students that are similar in socioeconomic standing, race, gender, interests, etc., other students will connect with that same problem too!
Another way to find out more about students' backgrounds is to become friendly with the parents. Make sure that the parents know that math is important and that anyone can learn math. Ask them to encourage their child to really apply his or herself. Ask the parents to fill out the same questionnaire (only about their child, not themselves) as a beginning of the year homework assignment. Sometimes parents can see math connections in children's home-life that the children cannot. Some parents are more than willing to help while others want to do absolutely nothing. But, it is worth a try because parents can have a huge influence on children, especially in the pre-teen years.
Once you have the needed background information, it is very easy to connect it to math because math is seriously related to everything! Pretty much any interest or family background a student has can be connected to math in one way or another. I plan to do a lot of application problems in my classroom; application problems that are actually relevant to my students' lives outside of the classroom. Connecting to their home experiences is a great way to do this!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Math can be Cool!
One fellow student in our SCED class told me that she might have thought math was more interesting and important if her teachers had told her why math was important and how math applied to her life. As a math major, I guess I had overlooked that because I think everyone should just understand how important math is! So here is a blog where I am writing to my future students to introduce them to how cool and useful math can be...enjoy!
Did you ever wonder why you have to take that Geometry class? Do you find solving an equation boring? Why do you even have to take math? What's the point? How does it apply to your life? I hope to answer all of these questions and more in my blog, so stay tuned....
First and foremost, I promise you that you will use math in your future career. Now I'm not so naive as to believe that everyone wants to grow up to be a mathematician, but math is everywhere! Of course there are the obvious careers such as accountant, statistician, or chemist, but what about one of the hottest careers these days: Engineering?
This field is chalked full of math. Engineers must figure the optimal design for a building. To do this, they must use a technique called modeling where they use functions to represent what they are building. They then must figure how to optimize their building with regards to safety, time, cost, appearance, etc. This takes all sorts of math from algebra to geometry to trigonometry!
Okay, so let's pick a career that you think will be completely safe from being invaded by math, say a rock star. Music is full of math from the beats per measure in a tempo to the relationship of the note and its tone.
Say you want to be a doctor; yes, there is math in that field too. Doctors must be able to determine if a person has a healthy weight by calculating their Body Mass Index (BMI). This is basically just a formula using height and weight. Also, doctors must be able to prescribe medicine. The amount prescribed must be determined by several variables including the size, age, and sex of the patient.
Finally, say you want to go into a career with computers. Computer scientists have to take nearly as many mathematics courses as math majors do! Computers are encrypted through cryptography which is a process involving prime numbers. Computers use binary numbers instead of the standard base ten that we are used to.
Now, I could go on and on with my list of careers that use math. So, the moral of the story is that math is really important for any career field!
Still not convinced? I bet you will be after checking out this YouTube clip:
Now... you should have a great understanding of how math can apply to your life. You should also see many applications of how math can be fun and interesting!
Hey students!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
This field is chalked full of math. Engineers must figure the optimal design for a building. To do this, they must use a technique called modeling where they use functions to represent what they are building. They then must figure how to optimize their building with regards to safety, time, cost, appearance, etc. This takes all sorts of math from algebra to geometry to trigonometry!
Okay, so let's pick a career that you think will be completely safe from being invaded by math, say a rock star. Music is full of math from the beats per measure in a tempo to the relationship of the note and its tone.
Say you want to be a doctor; yes, there is math in that field too. Doctors must be able to determine if a person has a healthy weight by calculating their Body Mass Index (BMI). This is basically just a formula using height and weight. Also, doctors must be able to prescribe medicine. The amount prescribed must be determined by several variables including the size, age, and sex of the patient.
Finally, say you want to go into a career with computers. Computer scientists have to take nearly as many mathematics courses as math majors do! Computers are encrypted through cryptography which is a process involving prime numbers. Computers use binary numbers instead of the standard base ten that we are used to.
Now, I could go on and on with my list of careers that use math. So, the moral of the story is that math is really important for any career field!
Math can be fun?
There are so many cool math concepts that can cleverly be disguised as games or activities. Check out some of these cool sites. Every time I go on a website like one of these, I end up spending at least half an hour exploring! I have also included some study sites that help with the comprehension of math concepts. Try some! Enjoy:
- These websites are sites full of applets. Applets are basically small programs that focus on one specific concept. They are fun programs that can help you understand a math concept better.
- http://www.slu.edu/classes/maymk/AppletsSLUBelowCalc.htmll
- http://www.edinformatics.com/il/il_math.htm
- These are websites that can help you with comprehension of a number of different concepts in several different areas of math.
- This site has interesting math facts and fun math tricks.
- What's so special about your favorite number? Find out here
Convinced yet?
If you are still not convinced that math is cool and relevant to your life, check out this slideshow presentation:
Still not convinced? I bet you will be after checking out this YouTube clip:
Now... you should have a great understanding of how math can apply to your life. You should also see many applications of how math can be fun and interesting!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Blog Number Two: Affective Dimensions of Writing
I don't consider myself a "writer." I have never really been able to enjoy writing because it takes me so long to organize my thoughts and to decide what and how to write. Although I don't enjoy writing, I do express myself through other facets such as scrap-booking.
When I was in elementary school, I though I could be an author. I even started to write several short stories or novels. However, I never had the dedication to get further than the first couple of pages. When I was cleaning out my old school stuff, I found the first couple of pages of a story I was writing in elementary school. I got a really good laugh out of it!
I still do a little bit of recreational writing; I try to keep a journal of the most important events in my life. I really enjoy doing this because I am free to write whatever I want because no one else reads it. I also do the same types of writing that all typical college students do such as facebook statuses and posts, text messaging, and emailing. I also have friends and family who are currently serving missions that I enjoy writing letters to.
In school, I always cringed at the mention of writing assignments. I felt they were so subjective and technical that I never actually found joy in writing them. I especially hated writing essays for my English classes. They always seemed like a big, dark cloud looming over my head until I completed them at midnight the night before they were due. I also really hated writing my opinion about things I didn't really care about and therefore, didn't have an opinion on!
Although I didn't enjoy most of the writing assignments given in high school, there were some with which I connected and really enjoyed. When we read Call of the Wild by Jack London, we had to create a scrapbook with artifacts and letters from Buck's sled dog trainer to a relative giving an overview of the main events of the story. This really helped me to connect with the book by using my creative side. Another writing project I enjoyed was making a "Book of my Life" in English. We had several specific topics such as my pets, my family, the best day of my life, the first day of high school, etc. that we had to write a page about and then we had to present the book in a creative format along with pictures. Again, I was able to connect with my creative side and it was something that was actually relevant to me.
When I am a math teacher, I don't really see myself giving a ton of writing assignments. However, I do think it is important for students to connect math with as many different areas of their life as possible, so I do see myself giving them a few. I definitely want to make any sort of written assignment to be something that is relevant to their lives. I don't want them to come to hate both math and writing by making them write about something they think is incredibly boring! On occasion, I would like to have the students write reflections at the end of lessons telling me what they understood well and what they were still unclear about. They would also write what parts of the lesson they enjoyed and what they did not like. This would help the students express their own feelings through writing and also give me feedback for how I can be a better teacher. I also think that I would like to have students write their own story problems when it is relevant to the lesson. Then, they will get practice writing and using their math skills, but it will also help them relate math to the activities and subjects that interest them. I basically just don't want to give my students big writing assignments that they will stress over and come to hate. I also want to make sure that I assign writings that are applicable to the students lives; things that they will be able to have an opinion about and have fun writing.
Here is the sample of my writing from elementary school that I found....enjoy! Personally, my favorite part is the cliche about the birds of sorrow! ha!
Although I didn't enjoy most of the writing assignments given in high school, there were some with which I connected and really enjoyed. When we read Call of the Wild by Jack London, we had to create a scrapbook with artifacts and letters from Buck's sled dog trainer to a relative giving an overview of the main events of the story. This really helped me to connect with the book by using my creative side. Another writing project I enjoyed was making a "Book of my Life" in English. We had several specific topics such as my pets, my family, the best day of my life, the first day of high school, etc. that we had to write a page about and then we had to present the book in a creative format along with pictures. Again, I was able to connect with my creative side and it was something that was actually relevant to me.
When I am a math teacher, I don't really see myself giving a ton of writing assignments. However, I do think it is important for students to connect math with as many different areas of their life as possible, so I do see myself giving them a few. I definitely want to make any sort of written assignment to be something that is relevant to their lives. I don't want them to come to hate both math and writing by making them write about something they think is incredibly boring! On occasion, I would like to have the students write reflections at the end of lessons telling me what they understood well and what they were still unclear about. They would also write what parts of the lesson they enjoyed and what they did not like. This would help the students express their own feelings through writing and also give me feedback for how I can be a better teacher. I also think that I would like to have students write their own story problems when it is relevant to the lesson. Then, they will get practice writing and using their math skills, but it will also help them relate math to the activities and subjects that interest them. I basically just don't want to give my students big writing assignments that they will stress over and come to hate. I also want to make sure that I assign writings that are applicable to the students lives; things that they will be able to have an opinion about and have fun writing.
Here is the sample of my writing from elementary school that I found....enjoy! Personally, my favorite part is the cliche about the birds of sorrow! ha!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)