Last Math Blog...for now : (

Okay, going to do this and get it over with. First of all I have to say that I am thankful I got you as my math teacher (Prof. Shih) I have learned more in these last five weeks then I think I have in the last four years at UNLV. For once, the information was relevant. It was not just a theory or opinion class, it was suggestions and technique styles with PROOF! I didn't just nod my head and agree with you, I watched as kids performed exactly how you told us they would even when we responded with "not the kids in our class."
It makes me sad to think that Clark County is so behind in so many different ways when it comes to education, but keep "fighting." It actually has impacted and changed our understanding of students and how they understand math.

Now, your final is a headache for me. I know it shouldn't be, but I keep expecting you to pop out of my computer screen as I am typing my reasonings and shaking your head like I just walked into a trick question. Grr!

If I had to give myself a grade on my blog I would say A+ for awesome! But, since you want a number score I would say (1.5 or 2). There were many days where I didn't even g rade a math worksheet much less see what math problems my students were working on. Its hard to blog about something you don't see.

--Erin gets one point on her blog. She wants two points on her blog. How many points does Erin need to get two points on her blog?--

Math Blog

So on Wednesday I will be teaching math for the first time. I am a little apprehensive. The kids will be going over subtraction by the hundreds. First I have to give them a drill test where they will be given 1 minute to complete 50 subtraction problems (woot). Then we do drill again with flashcards (insert woot here). Finally we will do six problems together as a class and...a four page worksheet!

Honestly, I have never seen a math lesson done in class and this was basically thrown at me this morning. I am bored just thinking about it. It is not the math problems or worksheets that bug me, its the amount of drill work I get to cram into a 45 minute lesson.

Math Practice

Today I had to help a student who confuses "ones" and "tens" placement in placement value. The teacher gave him three practice worksheets but no direction. So this student came and sat next to me at my table. It wasn't that the worksheets wouldnt help him practice, the problem was he couldn't even understand it to the point of learning from the worksheets. The worksheets were not even good.

Students are not allowed to use tools in the classroom unless the lesson or worksheet calls for it, so for these worksheets the only tool that could be used were his fingers. Fingers aren't normally allowed, but I wanted to make sure he could do the math.

Review for Test

We have a test today in EDEL 433 and I am going to type a review for myself and that will be a blog.
(number of groups) x (the number in each group)= (total number of things)

The total is unknown= Grouping
--Mr. Gonzalwez has 4 bags of marbles. There are 5 marbles in each bag. How many marbles does he have in all?
TU=Grouping

The number of groups unknown=Measurement
-- Mr. Gonzalez has 20 marbles. He puts exactly 5 marbles in each bag. How many bags can Mr. Gonzalez fill?
GU=Measurement

Number in each group unknown=partititve division
--Mr. Gonzalez has 20 marbles. If he has 4 bags and wants to put the same number of marbles in each bag, how many marbles will he put in each bag?
NU=Partitive

--
In class we were able to "play" with different units and centers. One of the unites was measurement. The unit really focused on observation and estimation. Lots of hands on work in this math lesson. It also integrated science in it, which is actually very neat.

Math and Ms.Baskins = grading worksheets!

Well I can honestly say this week has not been anything special. I do not know where my mind is, I forget everything, and I feel like I am not in the moment. But, even with all of this I have been noticing something interesting in my classroom when it comes to math. They all excel when they use extra variables (blocks, fingers, pieces of paper) in the lesson. I know we discussed this in class, but I never noticed it until we did. Unlike Mr. Shih's story where the student looked up to count the dots on the ceiling, my students tap their feet, stare off into space, and quietly murmur numbers to get to the correct answer. Makes me frustrated for them.

I was taught in class that we needed to not count our fingers when we were trying to do math, "how will you remember it if you don't memorize it?" Honestly though, four years later students do every math problem on a calculator anyway so what could it hurt to allow students to continue using their own methods instead of modeling them into what we were taught?

*Keeps an eye out for more math situations.*

Math Woot!

So the last time we were in math, we watched a video where a student was given a start unknown question and unlike the other video this child was able to figure it out, but after many many attempts and trials and errors. The child began by repeating the problem out loud, counting "some" blocks and then using the information/numbers given to figure out the unknown. The struggle was difficult to watch even though the child figured it out after some time.

Later in class, we were shown a worksheet used by a local teacher in Clark County. The worksheet was nothing but part-part-whole problems. How horrific for children!

I wonder how students would feel if they were handed a worksheet with different types of word problems. Would students excel with different formats instead of just one (and the format not being PPW)?

Today I had a student ask me for help on her math homework before class started. The problem was "Billy has seven seeds, the total amount of seeds in front of Billy are seventeen. How many seeds does Sally have?" No joke, that was the question on the homework. I asked the student "where should we begin, how should we solve it?" She told me we needed to draw tally marks to figure it out. She began by drawing seven lines, then below it the total of seventeen marks and then she added them to figure out the total. Yes, I helped her redo it, but the question was horrible!

I am excited to see the answer to our math grid. I remember hating word problems, but I could not pin-point any praticular problem (who can) and seeing this problem and the little girl struggle brought flashbacks.