Fractions

So as I just finished up working on some fraction problems I thought to myself I wonder if I am the only one who does NOT like fractions. I have a sister who loves them, in fact when she was taking a math class her favorite sections were the ones with fractions! I have always just struggled with remembering what to do. 

For me I am a very visual learner, I am sure i have said that on this blog a million times! :) But it's true, some people just need to see a picture, and it will all come to them. When I was younger, no matter what the situation was my mom would say, "Lets draw a picture". I hated those words when I was younger, even to this day I go, "UGHHHH" when she says that. But that must be where I get my visual mind form! 

When I'm struggling with a topic my first place to go besides the book for examples is for sure youtube! It's like having a teacher in front of you teaching an example of exactly what to do. When I was in math in high school I was a pro I felt like. If my teacher would do a problem on the board and talk through the problem of why she's doing it that way I could take a test on in that day. To me when someone goes over exactly how to do the problem it makes such a difference in comprehending it! 

The video below is all I would have needed if I was struggling with a similar problem:

Formulas, Formulas, Formulas!

After this weeks homework I feel like my brain is just FULL of all these different formulas! From area, to volume, to surface area. I found my self forgetting what formula is for which equation, which really made me struggle while working on my test.

I thought a great alternative to help my future students remember their formulas is FLASH CARDS. I have always been such a lover for flash cards, because all through out high school it really helped me nail down what I needed to memorize. Which is why I think that it would be perfect for formulas. Not only because it will help them remember, but because when you know a formula for math it puts you one step further in solving the problem. 

For flash cards as a class activity I would most defiantly have them made before hand. I would have a formula written on one side and what that formula is used for on the back. Now to make it a fun activity I would make it into a game. We all know the classic game, "Around the World". Well I would take a spin off of that game. All the students will be sitting at their desks, the first student would stand up and compete with the student next to them, whoever answers the question first and correctly gets to move on the next classmate. If you answer wrong or not quick enough you must sit down. The first student to get ALL the way around the classroom (world) wins! 

I think this activity would be great because all of the repetition would really help them focus on remembering their formulas for math! I hope this activity can help some of you! I also am going to attach a website I found helpful with all the formulas. Great because they are all in the same spot! http://math2.org/math/geometry/es-areasvols.htm

PEMDAS

Hello Bloggers! Today seems like the perfect day to write a blog post, I am just finishing up many big projects with school, doing homework, and of course watching the Twins vs Miami! :) I have been working on chapter five in our books and the chapter is about Understanding Integer Operations and Properties. I don't know about any of you, but I always was really good at solving the long problems that you had to go in a certain order.

I believe that I was good at it for one reason only. PEMDAS. For you who don't know this analogy I am going to try and explain it to you! In elementary when we learned order of operations we learned, "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally." P=parentheses. E=Exponents. M=Multiplication. D=Division. A=Addition. S=Subtraction. This phrase teaches kids to remember the order of operations with a saying, which is great for the memory! I use it even to this day, in our last assignment I said in my head, please excuse my dear aunt sally. It is funny that it still is in my head after all these years.

For instance, if you had the following problem: 2-(4+3)-6/2= ?
                                                                            2-7-3= -8

*You would start by adding 3+4 because they are in the parentheses, then divide 6 by 2. You are then left with, 2-7-3, which equals -8. Another tricky thing they do in long math problems or even short ones is Absolute Value. The absolute value bars make whats inside positive.

| –3 | = 3     - | –3 | = -3

The reason why one is positive and the other is negative is because on the second problem, there is a - sign outside the bars, which makes whatever comes out negative!

I hope that you can you PEMDAS in your future because it really is a trick that helps you out a lot!  

Sing..Sing..Sing..

So as I was working on my Mind Map, I was looking for helpful videos and I came across this CUTE little video that would be PERFECT for introducing the topic of Compatible numbers. It would be perfect for the young ages of 1st through 3rd grade. Helps them visualize and memorize. 

Enjoy the little sing along! 

Easy as Pi

So I am thinking about how to get kids to remember the difference between Diameter, Radius, Circumference, and remembering the actual amount of what PI equals. I came across this cute little activity that I could put on display in my classroom and help the students remember. 

So as you can see in the pic above, I would have the students each "make their own pie", write on it the Pi symbol and what it actually equals. I then would have then make the long line all the way across and the label it diameter. Draw off a line from the center and label it diameter. Then I would have them make a big circle all the way around and have them label it circumference. This would be an activity that I would do before starting my lesson. This way they could just start to get a VISUAL idea of what they are in for. 

I know that I am a very visual learner so making visual learning an option for my students is very important to me. :) I hope you can use this activity for your students as well! 

Circumference: The distance around something.

Radius: A straight line from the center to the circumference to the circle or sphere.

Diameter: A straight line from passing from side to side through a circle or sphere.

Pi= 3.14

Lattice Multiplication Method

My future students are all going to have different views of learning math or any area we study. Before this class I never even heard of the Lattice Method, which really bums me out because it really is so SIMPLE! I wish that when I was in grade school or even high school they would have taught us this view, instead of teaching us all the original way to multiply. Some people don't like taking the time to write out the box with the diagonals, but if you are a visual learner like me you will really appreciate this video.

In the video they show how to multiply using this method and how to do it with decimals. Now when I was younger I always confused adding and multiplying with the decimals and was never really sure where to put them. In this method it clearly indicates where to put the decimals when multiplying. He even gives a little analogy for when explaining where to place the decimals. He says, "You see where the decimals intersect and then go down the slide". 

I personally am really glad I got the chance to learn this method, and it seems simple to teach. I will absolutely use this method along with many more for multiplication. I want my students to be comfortable with learning and understanding different views of solving.

Helpful hints

I figured that since I was talking about how videos and taking a break help me out so much, that I would post the video that helped me figure out the calculator function for Standard Deviation..So below I posted the video

I also thought I might as well add the "go take a break" photo I took while working on MyMathlab! :)

Have a good rest of the day! Happy Summer!