Bon Crowder – Page 16

Chuck E. Cheese & Math

This is a feature article by “K8” Crowder. She is the Daughter of Bon, the publisher of MathFour.com.

MawMaw & Pawpaw take my cousins and me to Chuck E. Cheese every month. We have a great time running around, playing games and riding rides. There’s not any math lessons there, per se. But Taica (my mom) always manages to get some math in there somewhere.

Every so often Chuck E. Cheese himself will come out and do a dance with a bunch of kids. Sometimes I go dance too, and sometimes I just hang back and watch.

Mawmaw says that other people “paid for” Chuck E. Cheese to come out and play. This means I shouldn’t muscle my way in and dance too. I’m not sure what that means. But it seems important to her.

Grownups “pay for” things.

Grownups get stuff from other people if they give them stuff. Taica says that’s what Mawmaw means when she says other people paid for Chuck E. Cheese.

Someone else gave Chuck E. Cheese something so he would dance with their kids. Not with me.

I got a Chuck E. Cheese t-shirt today – just like my cousin’s. Taica gave the man a bunch of pieces of paper and he gave me the shirt. Taica pointed out to me the sign on the shirts. She said it was math.

This was it:

See those numbers on the yellow sign at the bottom? They represent what one grownup has to give another grownup in order for me (or another kid) to score that shirt.

Taica said that she gave 1000 tickets for the shirt. And then she said, “That means that each ticket is the same as one penny.”

Tickets are the same as pennies? Really?

I’ve seen pennies. I like to put them in my mouth. And they do not look like tickets.

She rambled on about 9 dollars and 99 cents being mostly 10 dollars. And then if you divide 10 dollars by 1000 tickets, you get one penny per ticket.

I know that dividing means sharing your cookies with your friend. In particular, sharing so that nobody gets mad because the other kid got more. And since dividing is math, cookies are math.

I’m good with that.

But I’m not sure how sharing cookies has anything to do with tickets, pennies and shirts.

But in the end, I got my Chuck E. Cheese t-shirt.

But I still don’t believe a ticket is the same as a penny!

What do you think about this tickets and pennies thing? Do you like to give people stuff to get other stuff? Do you use tickets, pennies or something else?

Write about it below in the comments.

K8 is a full time kid who can count to 20 and only miss the number 15. Her favorite songs are “A-B-C-D” and “Had a very shiny nose.” Connect with her in the comments or on Twitter at @KateCrowder.

Polynomial Factoring Practice – with YouTube!

The #PowerMath classes and I were taken with the videos done by Westerville South High School in Westerville, Ohio. Especially the polynomial factoring one called “Teach Me How to Factor.”

The students asked that I put together some optional homework for them on the videos. No sense in watching something that fun and not getting to practice it!

Check out the video. Below it, there’s a free downloadable collection of “homework” problems that match each of the polynomial factoring examples in the video.

And right below that, parents and teachers can get the teacher cheat sheet I created to get a whole bunch of fairly easy polynomial factoring examples.

Get the free downloads here:

What do you think about the video? Can you use the worksheet and cheat sheets for teaching polynomial factoring? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Anxiety Safe Learning Environments

Would you like to create a safe math learning environment free from anxiety? What would that look like? Let’s first peek at what it doesn’t look like:

Okay class, what’s the answer to number 12?

I think it’s 75, Mr. Jones.

No, Emma. That’s wrong. Have you been paying attention?

Unintentionally or not, this is often taken as ridicule by Emma and her classmates.

They quickly learn to avoid this verbal punishment and the anxiety it causes.

And the easiest way to avoid it is by not trying.

There is a power-dynamic, a vulnerability, that goes along with any instructor-student relationship. In these situations, students must feel safe to engage. Encouragement and support are ideal. But more importantly, the learning environment must be free of criticism, shame, or overwhelming frustration.

If a student feels that there is threat of criticism, shame and frustration in a math class, it’s curtains. Even if forced to “stay in that chair and listen,” they won’t mentally stick around to learn much of anything.

So how do you get your learning environment safe from anxiety?

Praise the “wrong.”

Being wrong means the student’s trying. Trying means they are engaged. Engagement gives an opportunity to learn.

Without the opportunity, learning can’t happen.

When you praise the incorrect answers, you praise the trying. When you praise the trying, the students are more engaged in math class. They have an opportunity to learn.

So when they’re “wrong” – praise them.

Exercise patience

You may say, “But they didn’t give the right answer!”

Got it.

But before performance, or getting the right answer, a student must take in and process information at a pace where they can retain it. Getting the right answer is only an indicator of understanding and effective learning of math. A confirmation. It’s not the learning itself.

Letting them be wrong and process how they got the wrong answer is part of the process of learning. And sometimes this can be slow.

But giving a student time to think about and mull over questions and answers is more effective for learning in the long run, than requiring the right answer.

Yup – you’ve got things to do, kids to teach. So it might leave you feeling frustrated when you allow wrong answers and give them time to ponder it.

So when your patience is running thin, step away. Adults need breaks, too. Take one to avoid a damaging experience.

Learn from the “wrong”

When an incorrect math answer is given, ask them how they got there. Get them thinking about it. There are more learning opportunities in the wrong than the right.

Right answer given. Say: Good job! Let’s move on to the next one.

Incorrect answer given. Say: Excellent. Let’s talk about how you got there…

We can praise the attempt and find something in the incorrect answer to build on and learn from.

Think about the teaching implications of this. How many more folks would be willing to try something if being wrong is okay? How many more kids will you engage if there’s no criticism or humiliation to avoid?

Be ready, don’t force it

Your students might have been trained to avoid verbal punishment by not trying. Remember Mr. Jones from above? Mr. Jones is everywhere. So take it easy when creating this “anxiety safe” environment.

When the more vocal students get wrong answers, praise like crazy, be patient and help them learn from the wrong answers. The rest of the students will follow.

And whatever you do, don’t be Mr. Jones.

Your turn…

How do you create a learning environment safe from anxiety? Have I missed anything? Share your thoughts in the comments.

William Devine is a licensed professional counselor in private practice. He has joined the MathFour.com team as the Director of Research. Connect with him in the comments, on the contact page or via twitter @MathPsych.

Feature image adapted from an image by Marshall Astor – Food Fetishist | Flickr.com | CC BY SA

Magna-Tiles – Must-Have Magnetic Shapes

Daughter got a set of Magna-Tiles geometric shapes from her aunt for Christmas. I distracted her long enough to get some great photos so I could write about this amazing toy.

When teaching math, you pull out any shapes you can from anywhere in the house. And sometimes stuff you can buy trumps all the other stuff. Not often – the home holds tons of great geometric manipulatives – but sometimes.

Magna-Tiles are better than anything in the house!

The magna-tiles are clear, so they’re pretty and you can shine light through them.

Also they’re magnetic – so they stick together and stick on the fridge. Great storage for fast usage!

And then – here’s the best part – they’re geometric shapes! Two sizes of squares, three sizes and shapes of triangles.

You’d think that being geometrical was the first requirement. But really – clear, pretty and magnetic go a long way!

Get these fabulous shapes at Valtech! Co. on Amazon.com, or at your local teacher/homeschool supply store.

Do you have some? Do you want some? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Introducing K8 – Our Newest Writer!

Kate Crowder is the newest writer on MathFour.com. You already know her as “Daughter” – my kiddo referred to in many articles here.

My name is Kate Crowder and I’m two years old. I know this because my mother (whom I call Taica, and you call Bon) tells me everyday.

I repeat it and she smiles and says, “YAY!” So I’m good with saying it over and over again.

She also tells me that two is the positive square root of four.

I’m positive that she’s nuts, but again, she smiles when I try to repeat it, so I keep doing it. Sometimes you just have to keep the grownups happy.

Taica and I do a lot of math. We say words like “associative” and “commutative” and talk about patterns.

I worry about her counting though – “math” does have four letters – so I make sure to practice counting with her a lot.

I’m the new writer!

I’m excited about joining the writing team here at Math Is Not a Four Letter Word.

Taica and Uncle Wil write and do videos here all the time, so I thought I could help out. Their mission is to make sure that all my friends are cool with math like I am.

And I really am – you should hear me say “Yay math!”

Everyone should know they’re good at math. That’s the first step in the process. If you know you do math anyway and you know you’re good at it by default, then you’ll be able to handle the stuff they throw at you in school.

Most grownups don’t know that they already do math, though.

And that’s where I come in.

Taica shows me all the time where math is in our world. Whenever I eat a Vlasic Oval pickle slice, she tells me it’s an ellipse. Even grating cheese is a math discussion.

I’ll be writing about the fun parts of my life with a mathematician mom. And you can see how my dad and I do math things too – sometimes for learning and sometimes to impress my mom, Taica.

And maybe I can get you to see some math in your own life. And that will help you be more positive so that your kids will be as excited about math as I am.

Yay math!

Kate Crowder is a full time kid who can count to 20 and only miss the number 15. K8 has joined the MathFour.com team as a regular writer. Connect with her in the comments or on the contact page.

Numbers Instead of Variables

Ever tried to teach someone how to remember this math rule:

$x^2 \times x^3 = x^5$

Or tried to remember it yourself? Do the letters trip you up? Or your students?

How about this one:

$(x^2)^3 = x^6$

I did a video on this some time ago. It has more Xs than an adult movie theatre. Here’s a still from the video:

In general, it’s a good way to remember the rule.

But what if variables freak out your students?

I’m the only person I know that teaches a kid to count, “1, 2, 3, x, 5, 6, …” (And I’m saving both for Daughter’s college fund and her psychiatrist.)

Most people aren’t even told about letters in math until they’re well established in doing stuff with numbers.

So why do we use letters to explain stuff?

A tiny detour…

I just geeked out and bought a course on google analytics through App Sumo. Andrew Warner with Mixergy, in the first video, was interviewing Justin Cutroni.

In less than two minutes I had to pause, rewind and listen hard to what Justin said:

Actual data makes a huge difference when you’re teaching.

Wow.

Rewind. Re-listen.

What I heard was, “Hey! Knock it off with the letters already! Use some actual numbers when you’re teaching stuff!”

Hey! Use some numbers!

Theory is great. If you’re into that kind of thing.

But when we’re learning, we need something to hold on to. That’s both “we” as grownups in Justin’s Web Analytics class, and “we” as kids in Miss Kelly’s Algebra class.

We need data. Numbers.

Something that feels good, makes sense and is easy to wrap our brains around.

So what’s up with the letters?

Math books and math courses are written by mathematicians. Folks who are as comfortable with letters as they are with numbers. People who can take theory to new heights of abstractness. And never need a beer doing it.

Everyone else, well, they’re just unfortunate casualties.

But you can change that!

You don’t have to be a mathematician to teach math. In fact the less of a mathematician you are, the more likely you are to succeed in teaching math.

Pull yourself out of “teach like a mathematician” mode and think about what a variable is.

It’s a number. It’s data. Just an average ordinary thing that you can represent on your fingers.

So now, what does this mean:

$x^2 \times x^3$

Maybe this:

$4^2 \times 4^3$

Or this:

$7^2 \times 7^3$

Or even this:

$9^2 \times 9^3$

And after you and your child play around with these and other examples using regular old numbers, your kid will say out loud:

You just gotta add up those number that are flying in the air.

And he’ll be right.

Actual data.

Period.

Whatcha think? Share in the comments.

Frabjous Puzzle Sculpture from the Museum of Mathematics

MOMath, the Museum of Mathematics, sent me their new puzzle Frabjous – a design by George W. Hart.

I had to wait for Daughter to be in bed before digging in – the box states, “Recommended for ages 16+.”

I was pretty sure that a precocious 10 year old could handle it but I was unwilling to risk a 2 year old eating my cool puzzle.

My “solution” to the puzzle…

Oh, my… all the pieces are exactly the same!

No biggie, though – I’m pretty smart. “I can do this!” I thought.

I thought.

After a while, I felt like maybe I was doing it right, and maybe not. Here’s the view from the top when I had 12 of the 30 pieces left to go:

Guess what – the instructions clearly state “check that no parts are touching in the interior.”

Everything in mine is touching!

I’m (maybe) throwing in the towel!

I keep looking at the mostly-built thing. It’s pretty, even in its unfinished state. I’m not one to quit, but I will pause temporarily.

So for now, I have the wad of blue looking at me everyday. Staring. Saying, “Are you smart enough to finish me?”

Sometimes I tell it to hush.

Sometimes I google it.

Windell Oskay, an Evil Mad Scientist, has some great images on his writeup of making your own Frabjous. I’ll likely use these when I get the courage tackle this thing again.

I could just watch the video.

I’m against looking in back-of-the-book answer pages. So I’m certainly not about to let a video tell me how to work a puzzle.

But my cantankerous attitude doesn’t mean that you get deprived. Here’s the video:

You can buy the Frabjous online for $29 plus about $7 shipping within the U.S. Technically, you can save the $36 bucks and build your own. But that might be a real pain. Plus, if you buy it from the Museum of Mathematics, you support them!

What do you think? Do you want one? Have you built one? Share your thoughts and links to pictures in the comments.

The Museum of Mathematics (MOMath) will open in New York City in 2012.

How to Teach Adults Math

Today is my first day of teaching Developmental Math. I picked up two classes in the “late start session” at Lone Star College.(Yup – in Texas. How’d’y’guess?)

And I’m so excited about teaching again!

But how do I do it?

A year ago the answer to that question would have been, “Duh!” Having taught for so many years I’ve gotten the art of explaining math on the chalkboard (and later whiteboard) down to a science. I’m good. Real good.

But this past year, writing on MathFour.com, has changed things. I’ve connected with wonderful moms, dads, teachers of math and teachers of… well… just about everything. My philosophy on teaching math has been shattered.

In the past, I’ve taught content. We’ll do the slope-intercept formula, talk about graphing and test over things like “Section 1.3 to 2.5.”

But I’m not sure if that’s the right thing to teach. In fact, I’m not sure there’s anything to “teach” at all.

I have to remember what they’re up against.

This class is the most “remedial” of the classes offered in the math department. But the “gaps” they have in the math may not have anything to do with ability.

I’m going to forego a syllabus – at least at first. Instead, their first assignment will be to read a research paper on math anxiety.

From there, I’m going to let them guide what we do. We’ll likely get to content, but we’re not doing to push it.

We’re going to get ready for whatever is next.

They aren’t done after this class. In fact, this is the first of at least four math classes they’ll have to take. So whatever we do here lays the foundation for how they handle the other classes.

The next math class they take might be inspirational and based on understanding, exploration and learning. Or it might be another content driven, talk-at-you-while-you-take-notes semester full of processes and methods to arrive at a RIGHT answer.

Either way, I hope that by the end of this semester, they will feel empowered to take on their own learning. To demand learning facilitation instead of teaching. And join the teachers that have been leading the math revolution.

Will I get fired?

I hope not. But it’s possible. There’s no telling what’s fixing to happen.

The only thing I know is that I’ll no longer sacrifice students for the sake of the system again.

What are your thoughts? Please share them in the comments.

Feature image by ralph and jenny | Flickr.com | CC BY

What Are Your Thoughts on This Fearful Parents Video?

Wil showed up at the Math Shack this morning talking about a commercial he saw on TV last night. “Wow, this is what parents are up against!” he said shaking his head.

Check it out for yourself:

We’ve been talking about it all morning. Before we post our thoughts, we’d love to have yours.

What’s the intended message?
What’s the real or perceived message?
How does it affect your view on math as a parent?

Share your opinion in the comments and let others know via twitter.

Teach a Man to Fish… Really?

This idea was inspired by something Tom with Leaving Work Behind wrote in an article about success months ago. He wrote:

Principles are timeless – techniques are not. Would you rather I give you a fish, or teach you to catch your own?

Here’s a week in the lives of Tom and me… “fishing”…

Monday

Bon: Hey, whatcha doing?

Tom: I’m fishing.

Why?

Because I’m hungry. You can eat fish.

Bon: I’m hungry too. Will you share your fish?

Tom: Sure!

Tuesday

Bon: I wonder where Tom is. I’m hungry.

Wednesday

Bon: Hey Tom!

Tom: Hi Bon!

Bon: I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten in two days. You weren’t here yesterday.

Tom: Well, I’m fishing now. Watch how I do it and if you ever need to, you can do it yourself.

Bon: Swell!

Thursday

Bon: I wonder where Tom is. I’m hungry. Good thing I watched him yesterday. Now I can catch my own fish.

<pause>
Bon: What’s going on. I’m not catching any fish. And I’m doing it exactly as Tom did! I’m so hungry!

Friday

Bon: What’s up, Tom!

Tom: Hey Bon. How are you?

Bon: I’m SO hungry. I tried to fish yesterday but I couldn’t catch anything. And I was doing it exactly like you did.

Tom: That’s strange. How about this. I’ll let you do the fishing today. Together we’ll see what you’re doing and adjust it so it works for you.

Bon: That sounds great!

Saturday

Bon: Bummer. Tom’s not here. But I was successful catching fish yesterday so I’ll have no problem catching fish now!

Sunday

Bon: Hey Tom!

Tom: How’s it going Bon?

Bon: Excellent! Hey – wanna join me for lunch? I’ve caught enough fish for both of us!

Do you really want to teach someone to fish?

There’s a difference between teaching someone to fish and helping them learn to fish. In the case of Tom’s teaching medium – his website – he can only teach. Likewise, here at MathFour.com, my writings can merely teach.

But when you’re face to face with a student, teaching isn’t nearly as valuable as helping them discover.

Indeed, if you’re going to teach a child who really needs help learning, you might as well just give them the fish.

Do you teach your kids to fish – or help them learn?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Images by Tony the Misfit on Flickr, CC BY.

Author: Bon Crowder

Grownups “pay for” things.

Tickets are the same as pennies? Really?

But I still don’t believe a ticket is the same as a penny!

Related articles

Related articles

Praise the “wrong.”

Exercise patience

Learn from the “wrong”

Be ready, don’t force it

Your turn…

Related articles

Magna-Tiles are better than anything in the house!

Related articles

I’m the new writer!

And that’s where I come in.

Related articles

But what if variables freak out your students?

A tiny detour…

Hey! Use some numbers!

So what’s up with the letters?

But you can change that!

Related articles

My “solution” to the puzzle…

I’m (maybe) throwing in the towel!

I could just watch the video.

Related articles

But how do I do it?

I have to remember what they’re up against.

We’re going to get ready for whatever is next.

Will I get fired?

Related articles

Related articles

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Do you really want to teach someone to fish?

Do you teach your kids to fish – or help them learn?

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