Math Made Fun!

Right off the bat, the article I found said "Making kids love math is a challenge."

Isn't that motivating?

NOT.

            Math is a difficult subject, one that can cause a lot of stress and frustration to both the child attempting to learn it and to you, the teacher, tutor or parent of this child, who is attempting to make this learning process easier. This article states that, "Math is a skill that takes a lot of brain power to master, and this can be experienced by kids as hard work.  A University of Chicago and Western University 2012 study even shows that for some people, doing math is similar  to experiencing physical pain. Also, parents tend to tell their kids that “math is hard”, as they relive their own experience as kids struggling with formulas, exponents and equations.  Consequently, kids pick up this attitude and live their lives believing that math is a horrible monster that they have to face in their academic lives."

 

Isn't that reassuring!

Again, NOT.

            In order to help these kids understand math you must first begin with your own attitude. It is necessary for you to have a positive attitude when helping kids with math. Every child may be different, but more times than not, children will become discouraged and try to give up when "the going gets too tough."Teaching kids that it is acceptable to give up on math is a huge problem. In today's world it is necessary to have a good understanding of math. For example, "we use math to figure out personal finances, construction projects, as well as doing everyday chores such as cooking and shopping.  Engineering, high technology, finance and other in-demand careers require above average math skills.  Even non-math careers require that employees have sharp analytic and reasoning skills – skills that are acquired when brains are trained in math."

        "Since kids are more receptive to learning when it is associated more with play than with work, it is a good idea for parents to expose kids to math in fun ways." This presents a challenge to educators: How do you make math fun?  In this article there were some tips presented to help kids "grow to associate math with fun, pleasure and parental love and attention...The secret to successful math education is to make it so much fun that children don't even realize they are learning something that will help them later in life."

Some of these tips include:

·         Make the children consider math not as work but as a game that can be played like computer games, sports or fun board games.  Use digital games, apps and numerous websites as resources for making math a game.  There are numerous activity books that make math fun, as well as websites where you can download fun, early learning printables.

·         Find out what games or activities your students enjoy, and integrate math into it.  For example, if they love to bake or cook you can have them measure ingredients in wholes or in parts, or count and estimate objects such as number of chocolate chips. One way to integrate subtraction problem, for example, is to ask them, “We need to put five eggs, we already placed two eggs, how many more eggs do we need?”

·         Point out to your students that we are surrounded by real math problems in the form of money, measurement, time and others.  This includes checking and comparing prices at the grocery store, driving down the street counting mailboxes, reading recipes, calculating coupons, or even measuring food or drink at the dinner table.

Source: http://www.raisesmartkid.com/all-ages/1-articles/53-how-to-make-math-fun

Sink or Swim

When Not Knowing Math Can Cost you $15,000


Admit it, you watched this video and you picked 16, too. Initially, I did!


            Math can trip you up in all sorts of ways and it can be very sneaky, which is very apparent in this video. However, it is one of the most useful tools you can use in your life. Math is a skill, much like the ability to swim, that a lot of us take for granted. Math is a lot like learning to swim: some of us grew up with it, eventually learned it on our own and continued to develop our abilities.

            There are some of us, however, that have not been as fortunate. Some people grew up with little knowledge of math. Because math became a "mysterious unknown" to them, they learned to fear it. Think of it this way, math can be as scary of an experience as falling head first into a pool with little ability to swim.

            This is what it all comes down to: Will you sink or will you swim? This means that in a situation where you jump head first into math, will you let it get the best of you or will you persevere and learn to get better? In the case of the man in the video, he allowed himself to go with the flow and let others answer for him, but if he hadn't been so afraid of math and took his time to truly weigh his options, he could have possibly been $15,000 dollars richer!


            Let's reevaluate the problem given. It was:

"Which of these square numbers also happens to be the product of two smaller square numbers?"

            The correct answer was 25. As she explains at the end, the reason this was the correct answer was because four squared plus three squared, (aka sixteen plus nine) is equal to 25. It meets the criteria because it contains two smaller squared numbers, but you can get tripped up on the wording easily and believe that 16 is your best shot at that fortune.

 
            Math is difficult; it is not easy, it can be overwhelming at times, but it is one of the few things you will actually use in your everyday lives. Sure, you may not need to know what numbers are made up of  other square numbers on a regular basis, but having this knowledge doesn't hurt! It may even help you when you least expect it! So don't let math intimidate you and do not let it get the best of you! Remember, when the going gets tough, just keep swimming!

Let's Get Personal

               Since math is one of those subjects that many people express disinterest in, sometimes math teachers need to liven up their class by making the lesson more fun or hands on. By doing so, teachers make their students more engaged in class and they will usually leave with a better understanding of the lesson than they normally would have gotten in a normal class.

                Throughout my years of schooling I have realized that one of the most successful forms of “hands on teaching” is when a teacher becomes more personal with a class. For example, I had a math teacher in high school who was also the Varsity Baseball coach. In my class, the majority of the class was on his team and knew him on a more personal level because he was their coach. They had already bonded with him through their sport, which allowed for them to have the same “teamwork” aspect in the classroom. What I mean is that he would sometimes relate his lessons to things that these boys would better understand, such as baseball terms. Some of the baseball players struggled in class and this helped hold their attention and helped them understand the material more.

                Another helpful aspect of being personal with your class is to tell your class stories. Even if you know they are leading you on a tangent just to waste time, the story you are about to tell will hold their attention and can even relate to the topic. I had a high school biology teacher who always went on tangents in class. She would tell us strange stories about her family, her husband, her pets, and so on! I would always go home and complain that the class was a waste of time because I was getting nothing out of it. However, when I sat down at the final I found myself remembering answers from the stories she told. (“Oh yeah, I remember the definition of osmosis! It was the day she told us that story about how she made dinner and it went horribly wrong!”) To this day I do not know if she intentionally teaches this way or is just actually very scatter brained, but whatever the reason behind it, it helped me pass my biology class with flying colors!

                People may think it is silly for a teacher to have “story time,” especially when it wastes time in class, but what they don’t realize is that this oddly useful tool may determine whether or not a student passes or fails a class. All teachers should take this into account. It may seem strange and maybe even foolish, but relating to your students, relating to the material you are teaching and just getting personal with your students to a certain degree can help them in the long run and maybe even turn their most dreaded class into their favorite one!

 

Happy Teaching!

Math Teachers: Cut Them Some Slack!

    As a student you sit there day after day hating this class. You groan and complain as soon as your teacher finishes attendance and begins a lesson. You find yourself counting down the minutes until the class is over and thinking of anything but the subject presented in front of you.

Sound familiar? Yeah, this was my middle school and high school experiences with math classes. I know for a fact that many students share the same feelings.

What students don’t realize is that math teachers do not have it easy, and this behavior does not make their job any easier. As a teacher, you are required to do just that Teach. However, the job of a math teacher is far more difficult than teaching other subjects, in my opinion.

 

A math teacher carries a lot of responsibility:

·         They must be able to get their class engaged into the topic or discussion in class, which most times is already labeled “BORING” by their students.

·         They must adapt their teaching style to meet the needs of many different types of learners. (For example, some students are visual learners, while others are not.)

·         They must be able to carefully explain their topics so that the students will somewhat understand the strange figures, letters, and numbers on the board in front of them.

·         They must pace themselves because going too fast in class will leave everyone frustrated and confused, but going too slow in class will cause the class to lose attentiveness.

·         It is necessary that they will be able to answer any question thrown their way. (A teacher who can’t answer questions and just teaches out of a book is no good!)

·         Math teachers must remain enthusiastic about their subject because the students feed off of this.

·         Among other things!

Math teachers are given a year or semester (depending on the class); to convince their students that math is not something to fear and can actually be interesting or easier to understand than they had anticipated.

Math teachers, being persistent beings, spend their days (and even years!)dedicated to teaching students about math and its concepts. I give math teachers a lot of credit because they did not pick the easiest profession to enter.

So remember, next time you are about to groan at the start of yet another lesson in your math class, that your teacher is a hero! They’re dedicating their life to teaching people just like you and I all about math and how it works. They are interpreting a foreign language right before your eyes and are even showing you things about the world around you that you never knew! So do not hesitate to thank your math teachers, they are very brave souls.

What Makes a Good Teacher?

                The million dollar question that teachers and prospective teachers are dying to answer is "What makes a good math teacher?" Unfortunately, I believe that there is no one, perfect answer to this question.

                Over the course of my years of schooling I have come in contact with many different teaching styles. However, my favorite math teacher I had both my junior and senior years of high school. At that point in my mathematical career I was already taking pretty challenging math courses--some that others wouldn't dare to even attempt the class. I am not going to say that any of those classes were not challenging; I had the greatest challenge of my life when in my senior year of high school I decided to take up two math classes at the same time in order to get extra credits. You can only imagine that by October of that year I was cursing myself for the foolish decision I had made.

                My teacher, who taught both of my math classes that year, saw that I was feeling overwhelmed and offered for me to come and sit in on some of his other classes during my free periods. I could now hear the same lecture twice a day and have a better understanding of what I was learning in my classes. I began to become more comfortable--and most importantly confident with my math abilities. Through the help of my teacher I was able to successfully pass both of my classes and even go on to receive A's in both of these courses.

                There is no correct outline for teachers to follow in order to be a good teacher, how to teach or even help their students, but I do believe that one of the most successful ways a teacher can help their students is by reacting how my teacher did. My teacher realized the sense of panic and uneasiness I was feeling towards challenging myself and my math abilities through taking Pre-calculus and college statistics at the same time. As a prospective teacher myself, I hope to gain the ability to recognize the same panic I felt as a student in them and be able to help them much like how my teacher helped me.

                As I said before, I do not believe that there is truly one way to be a good teacher; I believe that there are many ways to be a successful teacher. I believe that if a teacher takes the time to not solely just teach their students, but if they take a moment to realize the struggles their students may be having and address those issues, they will help their students in so many ways. By addressing the struggles of your students you will not only help them in your course, but their other courses as well. If you help them become comfortable with math they will begin to think, "If Mr. Smith showed me how to be a really great math student and now I'm not afraid of it anymore, then I can conquer any problems I have with any class I take!" By addressing your students' struggles, you are setting them up for success in the future!

Mathophobia!

               Mathophobia: commonly referred to today as "Math Anxiety," is a prominent fear amongst people today. If you were to search "Mathophobia" online you would come across Wikipedia's definition, which states: "Math anxiety is a phenomenon that is often considered when examining students’ problems in mathematics.

                Does this leave you wondering if you are experiencing this phobia as well? Symptoms may include extreme nervousness or anxiety during your math class or exam, discomfort around numbers and problems, feelings of extreme pressure or  the desire to run away screaming because of the challenging work in front of you. In very serious cases patients may experience a horrific desire to skip their math classes. (Please note that if you are experiencing this symptom, DO NOT ACT UPON IT!)

                Luckily, there is a cure! Yes, you no longer have to live your life in fear of math and it's intimidating nature! Here's what you need to do:

                Firstly, you need to accept that this very challenging and scary subject is not something unstoppable. It is not the "Supervillan" of your favorite Marvel movie, it is just a subject that many people struggle with.

                Next, you need to do one of the scariest things you will ever do: Open that textbook and give it a good look in the eye! Tell it, "You don't intimidate me!" (Eventually, you will believe what you are actually saying)

                You should also confide in someone about the issues you are experiencing and seek help from people such as Math teachers, that one mathematically gifted kid in your class, a friend, a sibling, a parent, or ANYONE who can assist you in math. Whenever you begin to feel anxious or need some guidance, let them be your "Go to person."

                Next, do exactly what you have threatened, DO NOT LET MATH INTIMIDATE YOU! Remember, the limit may not always exist in math, but there is definitely no existing limit to your abilities in math as long as you keep trying and dedicating yourself to expand your mathematical knowledge. If math ever begins to seem like the Green Goblin to your Spiderman, just remember that the good guys always win in the end, especially after they put a lot of effort into their fight. Math is not the enemy here; your condition is. If you seek the help you need, buckle down and focus, and do not give up, you will be able to survive any curve math throws at you! (Yes, even Cosine, Tangent or Sine curves will be no match for you!)

                I myself struggle with anxiety when it comes to math at times. Some tests I am fully prepared for and there is not a single ounce of fear in me, but there are occasionally some tests that don't go quite as smoothly. Sometimes I have a difficult time understanding lessons or complete concepts in math and I dread the day that a pop quiz or a test will appear in front of me to taunt me about my struggling. However, I have learned that anytime I experience discomfort with a specific lesson that I should seek a peer or even my teacher to ask them to maybe re-explain the lesson or even show me shortcuts or tricks to remembering and understanding what is occurring.

                As an aspiring teacher, I hope to one day instill confidence in my students to show them that every single one of them is more than capable of overcoming any discomfort or fear of math. I hope to show each and every one of them that if they can set their mind to it, they will be able to survive whatever math throws at them.

                So remember, don't judge a math book by its cover and give it a chance!