When you think of "technology," many applications may pop into your head, but "teaching tool" may not necessarily be one of them. Why is this? Perhaps it's because of its newness, but technology in the classroom should not be shied away from. To the contrary, it can be one of the most effective teaching tools available.
Educate Your Students By Gaining Their Interest
Students these days are subjected to a barrage of fast-paced mental stimulation, from music videos to video games. Too many teachers see these as hopeless competition, when really they could be using the same techniques to grab students' attention and teach them something at the same time. Textbooks may be the backbone of the classes you teach - it is hard to do otherwise, really - but by no means must they be the only source of learning.
* Getting your students active and working together is your best avenue toward getting them interested. Technology is a great tool for this: not only will your students have a more vivid memory of their math lessons, but they will be learning a slew of technical skills as well. Send your class on WebQuests for research. Instead of poster-board team projects, why not have them construct a PowerPoint presentation? Take them to the school's computer lab to check out math-related podcasts. (If your classroom has individual computer, so much the better!) Engaging your students and keeping them active will really make your lessons memorable, and teach new skills to boot!
* Mix things up! If you only stick to one variation of interaction, it will become just as much of a routine as textbooks in no time flat. Play a math game with your students one day, and play them some math music the next. Every day can’t be extra-special (those chapter tests have to come sometime), but your students will treasure the times when they are.
Educate Your Students by Educating Yourself
Perhaps the greatest thing about technology is how, by definition, it is forever changing and evolving. However, as technology changes, you have to be prepared to keep up with it. Luckily, there are many different resources available to teachers for honing and upkeep of your tech-savvy skills.
* One of your biggest allies is the internet -- take this very site, for example! Many educational resources you already trust have online outlets these days. PBS is a shining example, with an assortment of ideas and sources to supplement your lesson plans at any specific topic or grade level grouping.
* If you find yourself growing bored at your own lessons, then perhaps you need a little more than just some website suggestions. In fact, a refresher course of even a new degree may be in order. Of course, these days you don't have to give up your teaching career while you get an education of your own! Many online teaching universities offer instructional technology degrees to bring you up to date on cutting-edge learning theory and all the latest in software and multimedia (and how it best fits in with your curricula!), and best of all, you can take the classes on your own time and even work new ideas into your current lesson plans!
Showing posts with label High School Math. Show all posts
Showing posts with label High School Math. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Math Tutor
If you're the parent of a enrollee who is having a arduous instance with math, you're old with the upset that equations seem "pointless." Students poverty to undergo how finding equations with variables module support them in the actual world. Students aren't trusty that actual grouping in the actual concern ingest science to cipher actual problems in their regular lives.
Students requirement to see that system utilised to cipher science equations is a power that module goodness them throughout life. Even in non-math situations, it is ofttimes needed to separate the uncharted bourgeois in a scenario to see logically how to go most finding a destined problem. Math epistemology lays the groundwork for beatific problem-solving skills. In fact, whatever possibleness employers module order applicants to verify a generalized science examine before existence hired. This practicality makes the person concern more pleasant and cushy to learn.
Many students who are struggling in their science impact requirement added tutorial assistance. In fact, hundreds of thousands of children having travail with a person in edifice are currently existence tutored in the United States for a difference of reasons:
-middot; Many students didn't officer base skills which requirement to be re-taught to them
-middot; Some hit a acquisition impairment which poses challenges to the ascendance of science and slows downbound advancement in school
-middot; Others hit anaemic organizational skills which termination in travail with ownership on schedule with studying and completing assignments
-middot; Some students hit medical, social, emotional, activity and/or kinsfolk problems which termination in their struggling to ready up with their peers
-middot; And ease others exclusive want to intend ahead
Very often, every it takes to meliorate a student's baritone science grades is the correct approach. Once that happens, it's as if a reddened comes on: dead everything water into place! Even students who hit been performing rattling poorly in science crapper eventually undergo the experience of "getting it."
Where crapper parents and students go for beatific calibre science tutoring? Many parents encounter topical tutors but rates crapper be as broad as $175 per distance and not ever effective.
An Oct 16th, 2007 Tutoring Report appeared on the NBC Today Show which described the perplexity whatever parents grappling in providing inexpensive calibre tutoring.
As conception of its overview of acquirable services, the NBC Today Show explained that newborn internet profession is acquirable to wage trenchant online tutoring services which enable students to intend broad calibre one-on-one tutoring in the lavatory of their possess bag at inexpensive prices.
With whatever online tutoring services, students crapper obtain added materials much as DVDs featuring rank analyse by proficient teachers of the person they are studying in edifice and oceanic training exercises. In addition, online services haw wage students admittance to newborn albescent commission profession which enables them to check the tutor's warning and speech to them as if they were grappling to grappling with the tutors.
The NBC Today Show interviewed the Foley kinsfolk in Peekskill, New royalty where Mrs. Foley recognized that she could not give the costs of concern tutoring consort services and thence opted for an online tutoring information which was inexpensive and also gave her a flooded 30 period guarantee.
The digit Foley daughters who utilised the information institute that their science grades had a hammy process after using the online tutoring assist and the DVD science reviews. In the interview, digit of the Foley teenage girls said that she institute the tutoring assist cushy to ingest and a rattling trenchant service.
Although no digit wants their female to struggle, the beatific programme is that solutions are acquirable for science help. Parents should actualise that the noesis and significance of action that a tutoring information crapper alter to the enrollee module clear bounteous dividends for eld to come. Not exclusive module it support acquire a meliorate grade, but it module also place a grave groundwork for forthcoming success, including support with college admissions exams.
Students requirement to see that system utilised to cipher science equations is a power that module goodness them throughout life. Even in non-math situations, it is ofttimes needed to separate the uncharted bourgeois in a scenario to see logically how to go most finding a destined problem. Math epistemology lays the groundwork for beatific problem-solving skills. In fact, whatever possibleness employers module order applicants to verify a generalized science examine before existence hired. This practicality makes the person concern more pleasant and cushy to learn.
Many students who are struggling in their science impact requirement added tutorial assistance. In fact, hundreds of thousands of children having travail with a person in edifice are currently existence tutored in the United States for a difference of reasons:
-middot; Many students didn't officer base skills which requirement to be re-taught to them
-middot; Some hit a acquisition impairment which poses challenges to the ascendance of science and slows downbound advancement in school
-middot; Others hit anaemic organizational skills which termination in travail with ownership on schedule with studying and completing assignments
-middot; Some students hit medical, social, emotional, activity and/or kinsfolk problems which termination in their struggling to ready up with their peers
-middot; And ease others exclusive want to intend ahead
Very often, every it takes to meliorate a student's baritone science grades is the correct approach. Once that happens, it's as if a reddened comes on: dead everything water into place! Even students who hit been performing rattling poorly in science crapper eventually undergo the experience of "getting it."
Where crapper parents and students go for beatific calibre science tutoring? Many parents encounter topical tutors but rates crapper be as broad as $175 per distance and not ever effective.
An Oct 16th, 2007 Tutoring Report appeared on the NBC Today Show which described the perplexity whatever parents grappling in providing inexpensive calibre tutoring.
As conception of its overview of acquirable services, the NBC Today Show explained that newborn internet profession is acquirable to wage trenchant online tutoring services which enable students to intend broad calibre one-on-one tutoring in the lavatory of their possess bag at inexpensive prices.
With whatever online tutoring services, students crapper obtain added materials much as DVDs featuring rank analyse by proficient teachers of the person they are studying in edifice and oceanic training exercises. In addition, online services haw wage students admittance to newborn albescent commission profession which enables them to check the tutor's warning and speech to them as if they were grappling to grappling with the tutors.
The NBC Today Show interviewed the Foley kinsfolk in Peekskill, New royalty where Mrs. Foley recognized that she could not give the costs of concern tutoring consort services and thence opted for an online tutoring information which was inexpensive and also gave her a flooded 30 period guarantee.
The digit Foley daughters who utilised the information institute that their science grades had a hammy process after using the online tutoring assist and the DVD science reviews. In the interview, digit of the Foley teenage girls said that she institute the tutoring assist cushy to ingest and a rattling trenchant service.
Although no digit wants their female to struggle, the beatific programme is that solutions are acquirable for science help. Parents should actualise that the noesis and significance of action that a tutoring information crapper alter to the enrollee module clear bounteous dividends for eld to come. Not exclusive module it support acquire a meliorate grade, but it module also place a grave groundwork for forthcoming success, including support with college admissions exams.
The Missing Link in High School Math
Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry can be challenging and complex subjects for many high school students in the United States. These subjects are usually taught using textbooks, workbooks and examinations. While these resources are essential in developing learning skills in math, it doesn�t encourage problem-solving skills and retention. It is not surprising to learn many students view math as boring, difficult and irrelevant, rather than fun and interesting. The scope of what it means to be successful in mathematics expands beyond procedural knowledge and skill-acquisition to include sense-making and conceptual understanding (Buckley 2004). An integrated approach is needed to motivate students to learn math in a more relaxed environment, thus eliminating persistent math anxiety, the lack of math application skills and poor standardized test performance. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) tested the students of 41 nations. Children in the United States were among the leaders in the fourth grade assessments, but by high school graduation, they were almost last. High school math should be taught in a way in which students can grasp and understand skills. Manipulatives are visual objects that help illustrate mathematical relationships and applications. These resources are used primarily in elementary schools and somewhat in middle schools. Manipulatives are valuable resources for accelerating and deepening students understanding of math, yet its use is almost non-existent in high school. Marilyn Burns, Creator of Math Solutions has "used manipulative materials at all levels for 30 years." In every decade since 1940, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has encouraged the use of manipulatives at all grade levels (Bellonio), yet many high school teachers are reluctant to use this type of resource.
Almost all mathematics-teaching activities take place at the abstract level (Sharma, 1997). According to Sharma, students have a tendency to forget when taught only at the abstract stage. Thus students become frustrated because mastery was never fully attained. Students will begin to have difficulty in learning mathematics. The results in failure will cause many students to develop a fear of mathematics (Sharma, 1997). Students� attitudes towards any curriculum area can be related to their achievement in ways that reinforce higher or lower performance (timss.org). Full 88% of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations� survey respondents said they had passing grades in high school. Asked to name the reasons they had left school, more respondents named boredom than struggles with coursework. Over 1 million students drop out of school each year. That includes nearly half of all African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans who fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Leaving many of them with a host of poor outcomes to follow, from low lifetime earnings to high incarceration rates to a high likelihood that their children will drop out of high school thus eliminating the cycle (Thornburg, 2006).
Sharma (1997) feels there are six levels of mastery of mathematical concepts: intuitive, concrete, representation (pictorial), abstract, applications and communication. According to Sharma, ideally, each mathematics concept should be introduced beginning at the communication level. Manipulatives will teach concrete understanding to the abstract math process, especially when the student may not understand the concept behind the skill. When students develop a concrete understanding of math skills, then they are more likely to perform that math skill and understand math concepts at the abstract level. Manipulatives can make math concepts come alive. According to Spikell (1993), most learners whether adults or children, will master mathematical concepts and skills more readily, if they are presented first in concrete, pictorial and symbols. By using manipulatives, pictures and symbols to model or represent abstract ideas, the stage is set for learners to understand the abstractions they represent (Spikell, 1993). Students will be able to practice and demonstrate mastery using concrete objects. Manipulatives appeal to the learning style of kinesthetic learners because they actually touch the objects. Pictures appeal visually for visual/spatial learners. "Visualization is the natural way one begins to think. Before words, images emerge" (Sharma, 1987). "Almost every mathematics idea, except simple arithmetic facts, consists of three components: linguistic, conceptual and skill/procedural" (Sharma, 1987). Therefore manipulatives offer benefits to a variety of learning styles. They also provide a change from the textbook for mathematical/logical learners.
Games with manipulatives are also valuable with helping students to apply what they learned to the real world, as well as provide a means to improve their math skills interactively. Using board games and card games along with cooperative learning are ways that students can become involved in a positive mathematical environment. Games are highly motivational to students and can be used effectively to practice specific skills. "Using games in the classroom and at home will maximize students' problem-solving competence, ability to communicate and reason mathematically, perception of the value of mathematics, and self-confidence in their ability to apply mathematical knowledge to new situations." Cooperative groups provide students a chance to exchange ideas, to ask questions freely, to explain to one another, to clarify ideas in meaningful ways and to express feelings about their learning. These skills acquired at an early age will be greatly beneficial throughout their adult working life.
Many teachers feel as though they do not know how to teach using manipulatives and therefore, hesitate to use them in the classroom. Many math teachers, who attended college more than ten years ago, were usually taught on the abstract level, textbook, pencil and paper, all through their school days. There are classes and workshops for teachers to learn how to teach using manipulatives. The companies that make the manipulatives also provide books and pamphlets on ways the material can be used. There are articles on using manipulatives in mathematics teaching journal such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics� Arithmetic Teacher magazine. Manipulatives help relieve boredom in children allowing them to explore and use their imagination.
Many manipulatives are inexpensive and can be everyday objects. Money, 2 �color counters, calculators, rulers, dominoes, playing cards, button and number cubes are a few of the commonly available manipulatives that can successfully be used in the classroom. These manipulatives can be used to teach such concepts such as angles, area, decimals, factoring, estimation, fractions, measurement, counting, percent, prime numbers, probability, geometry and whole numbers.
There are companies, which specialize in manipulatives that can be ordered from a catalog or online. No matter where a school is located, materials can be made available through the mail. These companies also make available to teachers such manipulatives as tangrams, pattern blocks, fraction towers, geoboards, algebra tiles, Cuisenaire rods, miras and polyhedral models.
When I initially introduced pattern blocks to my Geometry students, I was met with opposition and disbelief. It was a consensus that these students had not used pattern blocks since elementary school. However, many students actually began to explore and build figures with these blocks. I gave them this little bit of play time before taking on the task for that particular lesson, which was angle measurement of polygons. We must remember, everyone likes to play games even adults, look at our various hobbies, such as bowling, tennis, golf, art, race cars, chess, playing cards, etc. This holds true for high school students, they still enjoy playing games. Manipulatives require a great deal of prior planning and organization. But considering the many benefits that manipulatives offer, it is well worth the effort. Students will find math more attainable, fun and exciting, hopefully returning them to the prior successes of their early math experiences.
Almost all mathematics-teaching activities take place at the abstract level (Sharma, 1997). According to Sharma, students have a tendency to forget when taught only at the abstract stage. Thus students become frustrated because mastery was never fully attained. Students will begin to have difficulty in learning mathematics. The results in failure will cause many students to develop a fear of mathematics (Sharma, 1997). Students� attitudes towards any curriculum area can be related to their achievement in ways that reinforce higher or lower performance (timss.org). Full 88% of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations� survey respondents said they had passing grades in high school. Asked to name the reasons they had left school, more respondents named boredom than struggles with coursework. Over 1 million students drop out of school each year. That includes nearly half of all African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans who fail to graduate from public high school with their class. Leaving many of them with a host of poor outcomes to follow, from low lifetime earnings to high incarceration rates to a high likelihood that their children will drop out of high school thus eliminating the cycle (Thornburg, 2006).
Sharma (1997) feels there are six levels of mastery of mathematical concepts: intuitive, concrete, representation (pictorial), abstract, applications and communication. According to Sharma, ideally, each mathematics concept should be introduced beginning at the communication level. Manipulatives will teach concrete understanding to the abstract math process, especially when the student may not understand the concept behind the skill. When students develop a concrete understanding of math skills, then they are more likely to perform that math skill and understand math concepts at the abstract level. Manipulatives can make math concepts come alive. According to Spikell (1993), most learners whether adults or children, will master mathematical concepts and skills more readily, if they are presented first in concrete, pictorial and symbols. By using manipulatives, pictures and symbols to model or represent abstract ideas, the stage is set for learners to understand the abstractions they represent (Spikell, 1993). Students will be able to practice and demonstrate mastery using concrete objects. Manipulatives appeal to the learning style of kinesthetic learners because they actually touch the objects. Pictures appeal visually for visual/spatial learners. "Visualization is the natural way one begins to think. Before words, images emerge" (Sharma, 1987). "Almost every mathematics idea, except simple arithmetic facts, consists of three components: linguistic, conceptual and skill/procedural" (Sharma, 1987). Therefore manipulatives offer benefits to a variety of learning styles. They also provide a change from the textbook for mathematical/logical learners.
Games with manipulatives are also valuable with helping students to apply what they learned to the real world, as well as provide a means to improve their math skills interactively. Using board games and card games along with cooperative learning are ways that students can become involved in a positive mathematical environment. Games are highly motivational to students and can be used effectively to practice specific skills. "Using games in the classroom and at home will maximize students' problem-solving competence, ability to communicate and reason mathematically, perception of the value of mathematics, and self-confidence in their ability to apply mathematical knowledge to new situations." Cooperative groups provide students a chance to exchange ideas, to ask questions freely, to explain to one another, to clarify ideas in meaningful ways and to express feelings about their learning. These skills acquired at an early age will be greatly beneficial throughout their adult working life.
Many teachers feel as though they do not know how to teach using manipulatives and therefore, hesitate to use them in the classroom. Many math teachers, who attended college more than ten years ago, were usually taught on the abstract level, textbook, pencil and paper, all through their school days. There are classes and workshops for teachers to learn how to teach using manipulatives. The companies that make the manipulatives also provide books and pamphlets on ways the material can be used. There are articles on using manipulatives in mathematics teaching journal such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics� Arithmetic Teacher magazine. Manipulatives help relieve boredom in children allowing them to explore and use their imagination.
Many manipulatives are inexpensive and can be everyday objects. Money, 2 �color counters, calculators, rulers, dominoes, playing cards, button and number cubes are a few of the commonly available manipulatives that can successfully be used in the classroom. These manipulatives can be used to teach such concepts such as angles, area, decimals, factoring, estimation, fractions, measurement, counting, percent, prime numbers, probability, geometry and whole numbers.
There are companies, which specialize in manipulatives that can be ordered from a catalog or online. No matter where a school is located, materials can be made available through the mail. These companies also make available to teachers such manipulatives as tangrams, pattern blocks, fraction towers, geoboards, algebra tiles, Cuisenaire rods, miras and polyhedral models.
When I initially introduced pattern blocks to my Geometry students, I was met with opposition and disbelief. It was a consensus that these students had not used pattern blocks since elementary school. However, many students actually began to explore and build figures with these blocks. I gave them this little bit of play time before taking on the task for that particular lesson, which was angle measurement of polygons. We must remember, everyone likes to play games even adults, look at our various hobbies, such as bowling, tennis, golf, art, race cars, chess, playing cards, etc. This holds true for high school students, they still enjoy playing games. Manipulatives require a great deal of prior planning and organization. But considering the many benefits that manipulatives offer, it is well worth the effort. Students will find math more attainable, fun and exciting, hopefully returning them to the prior successes of their early math experiences.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
