There is so many ways in which people go about adding or multiplying and dividing, it truly depends on the person and their own thought process. I work in a sub shop so I deal a lot with change, especially at the end of the night when we are closing and I have to count till. At the end of the night we need 400 in the register for tomorrow and what is left over is put into the safe. What I do when I am counting till is I first take all the 20's, 10's, 5's, and 1's. Okay so to show how i go about counting and adding up the 20's lets say there is 18 20's, well I know that 5 20's = $100, so we have 15 20's which means 300 then a left over 3 because 18-15= 3, them I think well 2x3 is 6 I just have to add one zero for 20, making that 60. The total amount of 20's is $360. Another example would be counting the 110's and adding the total without a calculator. Let's say I counted 15 10's that would mean we have $150 because with 10s is is the same number that we just have to add one 0 because ten 10s go into 100 making it a lot like a 1 insinuations like these where we just have to add the zero to the total.
That is my own personal way of addition, however there is so many ways that students go about their own math and I believe that it is very important that we show students there is not just "one-way" there is multiple ways, and that the word, "wrong" should never be used in the classroom, revision would be most appropriate. If we use the word revision students do see that as necessarily wrong, however close to the answer but not quite there this is a lot less of demoralizing the student and having them believe that they are not good at math, everyone is good at math in one way shape or form; but because of the word wrong we as learners instantly think that well I'm not good at math. In my own teaching I will strive my best to not use the word wrong because I want students to know that what they are saying is meaningful, and if it needs revision that is the beautiful thing about our brains is that when we do revise our way of thinking we are open to see many more and some that may even work better for us!
Monday, December 8, 2014
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Family Math Night: Catapult Math
Family math night was overall a huge success from what I heard in class, and from the faces and talk of the parents. With our catapult math, I loved the game because, it was fun, and math was involved but students were excited to figure out the math in order to discover their score and how well they did with the catapult.
Towards the end of the night, one boy came up to the play the game, and kept getting past the hundred or landing on the hundred which was very hard to do and he was only one of 2 that reached the hundred. He was so excited and you could tell that he felt very accomplished, he was so excited to do the math to find out what his total score was. The boy kept coming back, and his father then asked if he could have one of our catapults for him to play this game at home, because it is one that can easily be replicated. Knowing that someone loved this game so much that they wanted to continue is what makes me to have this apart of classroom in the future.
Overall when kids came through to add the totals there were many methods in which some students went about. The first option was to split the addition vertically as so: 14
+ 13
_____
To solve this problem students would add 4 and 3 together to get 7, they would then bring that down then add the two 1's together and receive 27 as the total.
Another step that students would take would be to divide it up horizontally step by step:
20 The student would first add 20 and 30 together then take that 50 plus 30 to receive 80.
+ 30
+ 30
_____
I think if we were to play the game again Andrea and I would have chosen a play with a little more space away from the bookshelf's because at time the teddy bears would go underneath, and if there was a rush the area where we were in was very cluttered. Lastly we would have had to catapults set up on where Andrea ran one, and one where I did to reduce the line size.
Overall, I really loved Family Math Night, and it reminded me why I want to become a teacher in the first place.
Towards the end of the night, one boy came up to the play the game, and kept getting past the hundred or landing on the hundred which was very hard to do and he was only one of 2 that reached the hundred. He was so excited and you could tell that he felt very accomplished, he was so excited to do the math to find out what his total score was. The boy kept coming back, and his father then asked if he could have one of our catapults for him to play this game at home, because it is one that can easily be replicated. Knowing that someone loved this game so much that they wanted to continue is what makes me to have this apart of classroom in the future.
Overall when kids came through to add the totals there were many methods in which some students went about. The first option was to split the addition vertically as so: 14
+ 13
_____
To solve this problem students would add 4 and 3 together to get 7, they would then bring that down then add the two 1's together and receive 27 as the total.
Another step that students would take would be to divide it up horizontally step by step:
20 The student would first add 20 and 30 together then take that 50 plus 30 to receive 80.
+ 30
+ 30
_____
I think if we were to play the game again Andrea and I would have chosen a play with a little more space away from the bookshelf's because at time the teddy bears would go underneath, and if there was a rush the area where we were in was very cluttered. Lastly we would have had to catapults set up on where Andrea ran one, and one where I did to reduce the line size.
Overall, I really loved Family Math Night, and it reminded me why I want to become a teacher in the first place.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Statistics, and why Children love it.
For the past few weeks we have talked about statistics a lot and how it can be incorporated into our classroom. I know I had a lot of fun creating the graphs and boards because it was something I was interested in collecting data about, and know what the statistics for the question or object may be.
With children we need to make sure that the assignments that they receive are fun or something that they can be interested in and feel as if they have a part in the decision when it comes to assignments such as projects. Here are few pictures of projects students created in K-4, and it shows that when they are working on something they are interested in knowing and working on, they will really get involved with that project.
With children we need to make sure that the assignments that they receive are fun or something that they can be interested in and feel as if they have a part in the decision when it comes to assignments such as projects. Here are few pictures of projects students created in K-4, and it shows that when they are working on something they are interested in knowing and working on, they will really get involved with that project.
Even in my other classes we are focusing on making sure we give the students a choice in what they get to work on. Such as in english they can have their writing journal to grab ideas on what to write about on a paper; and not just something that the teacher assigns in a prompt that they could really care less about.
Students need to have something that interests them in order to have the motivation to want to succeed in a project and I think that even with troubled students a project like this we would really see a great sense of involvement.
Sunday, September 28, 2014
Triangle and Quadrilateral Math: Memorizing vs. Learning
With what we have been discussing in class as of late, there is a few things that has stood out to me that has not in the past, and also there is information that I have learned in the past that is now being resurfaced.
When we first began to start talking about these shapes it took me a few tries to really remember which was whiter, whether that be if acute was the bigger angle of the smaller angle, information like that. What I think we do need to stress with the students is remembering these small facts, not being able to recall all that made me feel as if maybe I didn't not pay attention 100% in class or the teacher did not quite use the right assessments to test or knowledge. I think at times we, and I included do this very often, I focus so much on memorizing the information that I do not actually learn it. I believe this is because my teacher at most times would have us right underneath each shape what type it was; however I believe something that is more interactive and has students working together is where actual learning takes place and with practice.
My idea is that playing the quadrilateral memory game like we did in class, is a great interactive way to assess students in a different way then just labeling each different shape! With math I think that how we go about teaching it and assessing it needs to be changed to get rid of the "stigma" that I was discussing in my last post.
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
Hollywood Hating Math.
In class we watched an interesting video (link below), on all these clips where math is discussed in a negative light in movies. After watching this it really explains why so many people, me included, cringe when we hear the word math or anything to do with it. THIS SHOULD NOT BE HAPPENING! With todays technology and the rapid growth we are going through, math and science has become every schools main focus it seems, however so many people are discouraged by it. This also connects to the fact that students tend to like what their parents tend to approve of, if their parents do not like math, then they already have a negative attitude towards math. With movies and tv shows always putting a bad light on math how are we supposed to expect students to see the fun that is in math? For me Pinterest is always the answer, and I began to look up new ways to bring out the fun in math; books. Children at this age need to have new ways to explore math other then just problems, and I believe math based books are a great way to start, and bring in a new way of learning math! I plan to use this in the future, and I hope it makes a difference in my classroom, and students are more excited to see what math has to offer!
Math in Children's Literature (pinterest):
http://love2learn2day.blogspot.com/p/math-book-lists-tba.html
Hollywood Hates Math:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uYBoWH3nFk
Sunday, August 31, 2014
My First Post :)
Hello all,
So this is my first time ever creating a blog, and of course posting, so sorry if this is a little rough! I guess I might as well start with an introduction! I am Makayla and I am attending Grand Valley State University, where I am studying Elementary education with a group social studies and plan to minor in Spanish! This blog is actually for a math class that I am taking right now, but I plan to use this blog to show my journey from being a student to finally having a class of my very own! I am definitely one with the "travel bug"my dream is to teach abroad and I plan on making sure that happens at least for a few years! :)
Now I'm trying of think of what else to share, possibly how I knew I wanted to become a teacher? Well the desire was always there I just never really realized it till my Junior year in high school. I am definitely a people person, I love being around people! I cheered all through high school and through that I began coaching; I absolutely loved working with the girls, and I have been coaching 3rd grade for 4 years now! Then I joined a new class in the school called, TEAMS, this class was designed to have students come in a mentor the students that are in alternative ed, and students who are retaking classes on line. That class is when I realized that I belong in education. I loved watching the students have that ah-ha moment when they finally made the connection on something they were working on and watching students grow not just academically but as a person is a great feeling. Now I am here and I can not wait to get my degree and help shape the next generation. :)
I hope this was not to awful. I can't wait for you to follow me on my journey!
-Makayla
So this is my first time ever creating a blog, and of course posting, so sorry if this is a little rough! I guess I might as well start with an introduction! I am Makayla and I am attending Grand Valley State University, where I am studying Elementary education with a group social studies and plan to minor in Spanish! This blog is actually for a math class that I am taking right now, but I plan to use this blog to show my journey from being a student to finally having a class of my very own! I am definitely one with the "travel bug"my dream is to teach abroad and I plan on making sure that happens at least for a few years! :)
Now I'm trying of think of what else to share, possibly how I knew I wanted to become a teacher? Well the desire was always there I just never really realized it till my Junior year in high school. I am definitely a people person, I love being around people! I cheered all through high school and through that I began coaching; I absolutely loved working with the girls, and I have been coaching 3rd grade for 4 years now! Then I joined a new class in the school called, TEAMS, this class was designed to have students come in a mentor the students that are in alternative ed, and students who are retaking classes on line. That class is when I realized that I belong in education. I loved watching the students have that ah-ha moment when they finally made the connection on something they were working on and watching students grow not just academically but as a person is a great feeling. Now I am here and I can not wait to get my degree and help shape the next generation. :)
I hope this was not to awful. I can't wait for you to follow me on my journey!
-Makayla
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