What I learned in Math 1510

While doing this class during the summer, I had difficulties.  I had my twins graduate from high school and had to have a graduation party.  We also found out my 12 year old son has a heart murmur but to find out, it is the "good" heart murmur called Still's Heart Murmur.  My son just has a musical heart.  He also had a severe ear infection and we were in the Emergency Room for five hours.

My youngest daughter and I got to be in our local parade to support the school referendum we are trying to get passed in August to build new schools.

With a family like this:

 

You can see how busy it can get.  

One of the best things I got to do with my kids was doing my homework with them.  With the mind maps, I got to interact with my children and ask them how it looked, where I should move things, what I should add.  I love being able to interact my homework with my children.  It may not be to my satisfaction but it is part of their work so I would not change it for the world.  I would also ask my son, who is going into 7th grade, if he remembered doing any of the math I was doing.

One of the best things about doing my homework is being able to experiment on my children and with my children.  

Integers - week 6

"An integer is what is more commonly known as a whole number. It may be positive, negative, or the number zero, but it must be whole."   What is an integer?

Integers are math numbers that need to be taught/learned at a young age so students are able to use it in the future for different maths. 
Examples of Elementary Math Integer problems can be:
3 + 2 = 5
8 - 4 = 4
2 x 3 = 6
10 / 5 = 2

There are videos to watch:

School Tube Integer videos 

Here are some interactive games for students to play!!

Math Integers 

Integers games and tutorials 

Integer games 

Thinking Blocks - week 5

"Thinking Blocks is a suite of learning tools designed to help students solve math word problems accurately and efficiently. Using brightly colored blocks, students model mathematical relationships and identify known and unknown quantities. The model provides students with a powerful image that organizes information and simplifies the problem solving process. By modeling increasingly complex word problems, students develop strong reasoning skills which will facilitate the transition from arithmetic to algebra." Thinking Blocks

Thinking Blocks, to me, is more of an interactive way to solve problems.  You can do them on paper, with blocks or online. My school just started using this the past year or two.  Though the older students struggle, I believe it will be beneficial for the younger students in years to come.

Here are some websites for students do work on math online:

Math Playground

Thinking Blocks

Multiplication - week 4

Multiplication

Learning about Multiplication this week was an eye opener.  I have always thought of myself as a good math student but then when I was working on my homework, I realized how many different ways it could be done.  When I was growing up, Math seemed to be done one way and that was the only way. I do not remember learning the Lattice method, I remember memorizing and doing the problem the way the teacher told us to do it.  What I am excited for is to know there is more than one day to learn and teach Multiplication!

Learn, Teach Multiplication

Lattice Multiplication Method video

Cooperative Learning in Math - week 3

Cooperative learning may look like two students reading back and forth together to work with each other.  This could help with the students who are struggling with words; both students can help each other.  Another way would be two students working on some math problems together so they can talk to each other to figure out the way to come up with an answer and to come up with the answer itself.

Cooperative learning is students working with students.  This helps because students are all about the same age and they usually will work well with each other, group work.  Some of the ways students can do cooperative learning for math is categorizing, co-op, roundtable, and math stations.  Categorizing is working on things in small groups such as dividing objects by even, odd, prime numbers.  Co-op is students working on a specific topic.  This could be working on a worksheet together.  Roundtable is where the students get a worksheet and each student works on one of the lists of problems.  Math stations are where students will rotate to different stations in the room that are geared to math.

Using Cooperative Learning to Teach Math 

Cooperative Learning Techniques for Math 

http://www.mathconcentration.com/profiles/blogs/examples-of-cooperative