When we teach kids how to drive, we give them a few months in the classroom so they can learn the basics of driving and the rules of the road. Nobody in their right mind puts a teenager behind the wheel and says, while flying down the road, “Now, the brake pedal is the one… Continue Reading →
I was browsing through the book Family Math and found a nifty game called Hurkle. It goes a little something like this: Someone picks a place on the coordinate plane (in secret) for Hurkle to live. Others guess Hurkle’s home by giving coordinates and pointing out those coordinates. When they are wrong, they are given… Continue Reading →
March 17, 2011 Are you teaching math at home? Are you a classroom teacher that wants to do things a little differently? Are you a math teacher who already does things differently and you want to share with others? Then Homeschool Math Chat, #HSMath, is a Twitter Party for you! Bring your questions, bring your… Continue Reading →
Just get rid of it! Continue Reading →
Thanks to Kellie D for this question: “How do I know if a set is closed under the rule of addition, same question for multiplication?” Closure under addition or multiplication is a concept from Abstract Algebra that’s taught in not-so-abstract Algebra classes. It can be intuitive, if taught properly. You first have to start with… Continue Reading →
I remember being allowed in Jr. High to use the calculator to “check my work.” Soon after I learned that the books in High School had the answers in the back! It was like condoned cheating! How could I go wrong with the magic box and the answers given to me straight from the publisher?… Continue Reading →
When Cassy over at Singapore Math Source commented on my post 7 Ways to Wrangle a Word Problem, it made me think. Her question to me was, “Why wouldn’t you just rewrite the problem to focus on the appropriate concept?” She suggested that having students restate the problem in their own words without numbers would have… Continue Reading →
Here are some tips that math students can and will use – not pie-in-the-sky tips made up by an educator that nobody really uses! Continue Reading →
I previously posted about prime factors and about using them in multiplication. Now we’ve got fractions to handle. Before we get in too deep, first let me note the main reason why we do this with arithmetic. In algebra, students will be asked to take a rational expression, factor it and reduce it like this:… Continue Reading →
This post is by request from @corrincross. Exponent rules are hard. Well, they are hard to remember, anyhow. But there’s an easy way that won’t make your brain ooze – and that’s doing a mini-experiment each time you have to deal with them. First remember what an exponent really is. It’s a shortcut for multiplication. Check… Continue Reading →