Believe It Or Not Math is Linked to Foreign Language

People might think, how is foreign language and math related. Besides the obvious part of being able to say math terms in another language studies show that there are other academic benefits of learning a foreign language. By learning another language at an early age it enhances the student's mental development resulting in an advanced development of their academic skills, specifically their aptitude in math. The following website talks about how math is effected by learning a foreign language.

http://www.utm.edu/departments/french/flsat.html

The following websites are also listed in the site containing more benefits of learning a second language.

http://www.yearoflanguages.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3651

http://www.learnalanguage.org/oflta/Benefits.htm

http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-3/brain.htm

Math Freeware: Full Downloads

Learning math is like building a house. There has to be a solid foundation and from there we continue to build. As we build throughout the years the house is getting bigger, higher, and harder to build. Math is the same way. As the years go on the topics are getting bigger and the levels are getting harder. At my school we have 9 periods that are about 40 minutes each. Some of the topics I teach are within one period. Not all students are expected to master that topic in one period. Some students need a great deal of practice and repetition. Today students have learned to love the computer and Internet, which is a very vital piece of technology. The Internet has an unbelievable amount of math freeware available at their fingertips. Math freeware is just free software that the kids can download and use to help them within minutes. The following site has various forms of freeware from using different calculators to algebra to geometry and so on. Some of these packages of freeware not only assist with math confusion, but provide strategies to use and practice problems that are applicable to real life situations. Please try to use any of the packages and let me know what you think about them. Good luck and enjoy!



http://www.fulldownloads.org/categories-home-education-mathematics.htm

Math Can Be Fun

As with every subject there are some fun topics and there are some not so fun topics. Once a topic is learned using games to practice it make it fun and reinforces the material. It keeps the kids interest in the subject and they can use the games to help them review for quizzes and test. The following site has a plethora of math games and activities that are awesome. Some of them show real world applications, which allows the kids to see where the topic can be used outside of the classroom. Please take advantage of this cool site!

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/web/2000/heal/siteslist.htm

Writing in Math?

Today math is not just doing the problems and getting the answer anymore. The students are required to explain or justify their answer. They have to make sure they are showing all of the appropriate steps in order to receive full credit. Most of them can do the problem, but when they have to explain it confusion arises. I tell my students to pretend as if they are explaining how to do the problem to a person who doesn't know how to do it at all. They have to be as clear and specific as possible. Some problems simply ask the kids to explain a situation that has been provided for them. For example, the eighth grade New York State Assessment from this year had a real life problem. They had a graph of a line steadily increasing that dealt with gallons and minutes. It showed that as the minutes went by the gallons increased. The kids had to write a situation that represented the graph. They could write whatever situation they wanted to, but it had to deal with as minutes increased the gallons increased. Many of the students used filling a car with gas, but some had trouble because the line did not start at zero. So they had to first say that the car had some gas in it before they got to the gas station. However, because they were focused just on the minutes passing by and the gas increasing as they filled the car they only received partial credit. The following website has some good guidelines on writing solutions. Hope it helps!

http://mathforum.org/elempow/writing.html

Math To The Rescue

When in doubt think about math. Think about it, many of the medications, cures, and methods that keep advancing towards finding medications and cures for diseases are created by research and experimentation. All of the research is mathematically related. It is done by collecting data, analyzing data, interpreting data, and evaluating data in order to successfully perform experiments. The experiments require measuring and converting certain amounts of substances to combine in order to create the medication or cure. As we all know there are some diseases that still don't have a cure, but thankfully there are many researchers, scientists and mathematicians out there who are continually working toward a cure. I found this very motivating and interesting link (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/now/20080605/bethany-hedt-using-math-to-improve-disease-monitoring.html) about a woman, Bethany Hedt, who used math to establish methods that have helped to improve efficient surveillance and disease monitoring , specifically for HIV/AIDS in areas that have limited resources.
My students in seventh grade collected, analyzed, and interpreted data at the beginning of the year when they were working on bar graphs, line graphs, circle graphs, and histograms. I know her research was much more extensive and extremely difficult, but it's amazing that this highly qualified woman used the same mathematical procedures as these twelve year old kids. So I hope that kids are starting to see that math can be used in so many different ways and in so many different contexts. Math everyday helps doctors find ways!

What does math have to do with sports?

Math is everywhere! Some students may joke and say the only math they know that's involved with sports are the scores because the games are based on how many points are accumulated. However, all teams keep track of their rank, which is a ratio. For example, the lacrosse team is 2 in 0 right now, which means they won 2 games and have lost none. In baseball the players are always talking about their batting average. I played volleyball in middle school, high school, and college and there was always someone keeping track of the stats. They would mark down the number of serves, bumps, sets, spikes, and shanks each person had. Those statistics allowed the coach and players to visually see what the teams strengths and weakness were, as well as the individual players. We were then able to pin-point exactly what we needed to work on, which as a result improved our playing. So let's not forget that math is not just involved in the score of the game!! The following link contains the various sports that are offered at my school - Westlake Middle School.

http://wms.mtplcsd.org/www/mtplcsd_wms/site/hosting/ltr_re_Interscholastic_Athletic_Programs_to_Parents-Guardians_7.2.07.pdf

State Assessments - AHHHHH!

I think that many teachers, no matter what subject they teach get nervous for their students come time for the state assessment. Questions run through their minds such as , "Did I teach the subject well enough" or "I hope I prepared them as well as I could." I can go on and on. Some teachers may wonder what are some of the most logical and best ways to prepare their students for these grueling state assessments. The provided website for all of the New York State Assessments is wonderful. It has all of the past state assessments in every subject and in every grade level. As for the math assessments, they are provided with answer keys and explanations. This site is not only useful for teachers to prepare their students, but for parents to help prepare the kids as well. A great deal of my parents are always asking where they can find extra practice for their kids. I tell them about this website and they're ecstatic. What makes them really happy is that there is an answer key with explanations, which is a valuable asset since some of the math is new and they may have a hard time helping their kids with it. Therefore, the explanation is not only helpful for the kids, but their parents as well.
The focus of this blog is where math is used everyday. In this past year's New York State Assessment for the seventh grade there was a question about temperature that dealt with using integers. There was another question about a bucket with a 5-gallon capacity, which dealt with conversions. On the eighth grade test there was a question about consumer math. So even the state tests address where math is used in the real world. This first website listed below is the home page and the second website is specifically the math state assessments from 2006-2009

http://www.nysed.gov/
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/osa/elintmath.html

If you have any questions or comments about the site or my post please let me know. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts.