Wait..Your telling me there's more than one way to add and subtract?!? MATH 1510

   

  This unit I found to be very beneficial. It focused mostly on all the different ways there are to add, subtract, and estimate. I really enjoyed this unit because I believe there are always multiple ways to teach something new and it is up to the individual to find out what method works best for him/her. After this unit I was able to see what methods worked best for me.

  One new method of adding that I had never heard of before was lattice adding. It is complicated to explain, so you can play the video below to find out more about it. I think lattice multiplication will be a method I teach to my students.

  Estimation was also a huge part of our homework this chapter and it is definitely something that has been left in the dark. More and more kids today I'm finding, are having a hard time when it comes to making a close guess or estimation of something. I especially notice it when it comes to measuring. Estimating to help add and subtract however is mostly what we focused on and it definitely helped to save time when solving problems. I found front end estimating to be the easiest and below is a link that helped me figure out how to do it.
http://www.mathatube.com/adding-frontend-estima-of-sum.html

Probability is Everywhere - MATH 1512

  

  This week in Math 1512, we studied probability. After doing the homework I could see that probability is used in a lot of different real life situations. Take for instance the probability of the amount of different houses you can build on one piece of land, or all the different possible pizza combinations you can make using x-amount of ingredients. Knowing that probability is practically used in every individuals life at some point, made it much easier to study.

  I found this chapter to be the most difficult so far. It took a lot of time to solve each problem. Also, you had to make sure you read the problem very carefully, so that you knew what the question was asking for. For example: Were you asked to find the the odds against getting something or the odds for getting it?

Below there are two links posted. The first link I used was to help me solve this weeks homework problems. Sometimes it is easier to find a link that clearly shows an example problem without many words, but rather more pictures.  Also, it sometimes helps to see a couple different views on a particular concept. The second link is a link that I found that has a bunch of games that help younger students to understand probability better.

http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol6/intro_probability.html
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math-prob.html

Scary Math...NO MORE!!! Math 1510

                               
  Hello everyone and thanks so much for viewing my blog. My blog will be about my 2 month journey taking Math for Elementary Teachers 1. I will be posting my thoughts and opinions about the class week to week. So far I have had my eyes glued to the computer screen, trying to learn as many new ways as I can at teaching math to elementary students. Math to me was always a struggle in school, so I think I am invested in trying to get the most information I can out of this class. Believe it or not there is hope that math can be fun and learned by everyone!

  After getting the hang of where assignments are and what I am supposed to be working on, I have finally been able to focus on the course material. This week we were assigned to read an article titled “Understanding Place Value.” The article was very interesting as it discussed three kids experiences who worked with two different ancient number systems. The reason they worked with the ancient number systems, was to learn the importance of place value. Currently there are high numbers of students struggling with place value in elementary schools all over.  By having students learn a new number system, they are all starting on the same page regardless of their math abilities.

  As teachers this article impacts our day to day lessons, as we should be prepared to teach students multiple ways at learning math concepts. Some ways of getting an answer are easier to some people than others, so letting them use the method to solve the problem should be accepted. I think as teachers we also need to assume that there will always be students in our class that don’t have a background knowledge in what we’re teaching. Sometimes it is best to refresh with the basics. 
"Place Value" article
http://www.nctm.org/eresources/article_summary.asp?from=B&uri=TCM2011-05-558a 
Article in support of teaching more than one way to solve a problem
http://www.academicleadership.org/article/Effective_Ways_to_Teach_Mathematics 

Hello fellow math bloggers everywhere!!! Math 1512

    Hello and thanks for taking the time to visit my page and read my blog. I will be adding a new blog every week with the current information I’m learning. I think this class will be a great help at giving me ideas on how to teach math to elementary students. Part of math in my opinion is knowing it, but another part is the delivery. Giving kids the stigma that what their learning is hard, will only affect there mood and have them develop a negative attitude towards new material.

   This week in class we were assigned to watch a video as part of our homework. The video does a great job about different ways of Analyzing data. As a student I loved graphs because they could tell you what you wanted to know in seconds. Having information clearly labeled and presented is crucial, especially when dealing with statistics.

   One graph that the video talked about that was new to me was the “Dot Plot” graph. I liked this graph because it is easy to make, its fast, and it’s efficient. The video showed how to make one using the letter grades that each student in a class earned. I definitely will suggest that students in my class use graphs to keep track of information.
Video of "Dot plot graph"
 http://www.mathxl.com/Student/MediaPopup.aspx?type=assignedmedia&assignmentId=26942613&loc=1&flush=yes&record=0&OnOpenerViewed=doMedia_onViewed&autoh=yes&centerwin=yes
You tube video on "Dot plot graphing" using a TI84
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdUJxrqpdUA