There is a tractor named Katy
Who pushes snow with a plow.
She cleaned up her town quite quickly
Without a furrow of brow.
The book that was written about her
Is a classic, there’s no doubt
But there’s also math all through it
A fact I just gotta shout!
This article is a part of the 50 Word Friday series. Learn more about this strange, limited writing style here…
The math education revolution has been growing. Last year Salman Khan and the Gates Foundation brought Khan Academy to everyone in the world with a computer.
Dan Meyer jumped into the ring with his math class makeover. With his Any Questions? and Three Acts, he’s fighting the good fight to get kids to learn math.
Social learning math games like Sokikom, iPhone apps like Motion Math and face to face programs like Mathnasium have joined the math education revolution, too. Thousands of tutors are taking part.
Experts all over are helping kids understand that math is important, necessary and valuable to learn.
Kids still resist math homework and avoid participating in math class. Why?
Because everyone knows that math is boring, hard and has nothing to do with real life. Nobody really likes it – unless they’re an engineer or accountant.
Math teachers are mean and professors write math books just to mess people up.
Everyone knows this.
Grownups.
Yup – you and me.
When you hear people talk about math or math education, what do they say? Anything positive?
The best I’ve ever heard was, “Actually, I kinda like math.”
Which means, “I know it’s not cool, and I’m sorry for saying it, but I like math.”
No! Of course you wouldn’t. At least not on a regular basis.
If everyone you knew and respected avoided something – you would too. If all your friends jumped off a cliff – so would you.
We’re human. That’s what we do. We stick together.
By the very design of our society, Khan Academy, Sokikom, teachers, tutors and everything designed to help kids learn math are failures. The math eduction revolution is bust.
We want kids to learn math because it’s important. Math is necessary and valuable to learn.
But since nobody really likes math, or even does math, kids aren’t buying it.
And I can’t blame them.
At this point it’s easy to throw in the towel. Give up. Quit. Decide that the world is going to end up like that movie Idiocracy.
But we’re so close to the solution.
The solution involves something that’s very cheap – and research based!
Ready for it?
The missing piece of the math education revolution is that we need to teach parents positive influence skills to encourage math.
We have seen this happen with reading – remember the Reading is Fundamental campaign of the 80s? It’s still going strong along with other programs like the “Read 3” program from HEB. Parents are encouraged, even pushed, by teachers to read to their children every day.
These efforts have changed the culture in our world so that reading is viewed as something “everybody does.” Parents now have positive influence skills in encouraging reading.
And those skills have extended across our entire culture!
Parents can develop the same skills for encouraging math. And when we do, everything will change.
Just like it did with reading.
When parents start talking about math in a positive way, all of society will.
The math education revolution will succeed!
If you’re a parent, learn how to use some positive math talk. Join a program like That’s Math, read articles on Math for Grownups or any other math blog that strikes your fancy.
If you’re a math teacher, blogger, tutor or developer of math products – make something teaching parents how to talk positively about math. We’re developing That’s Math, but there needs to be more of these.
Feature image by woodleywonderworks on Flickr.com, CC BY.
I’ve been stumbling over baby Jesuses for a few weeks now. I realized that with three working nativity sets in the house it was time to do a little math with Jesus.
All of them.
Animals, people, buildings – count them for each nativity set and count them up total.
My three nativity sets have varying numbers of characters and structures. It’s curious how some sets include more animals that visitors – and some sets don’t have any animals.
Take the opportunity to show how counting and arithmetic are kinda the same thing.
I know many people avoid fractions. I wish I could have avoided it with Math with Jesus. Daughter gave us the opportunity to talk about fractions by breaking the angel (or the “butterfly” as she calls it). Good thing we have Gorilla Tape.
Where can you find math in your Christmas things?
Count 10 Read 10 is a family numeracy and literacy initiative. Read more about it on the Count 10 Read 10 page and watch this video explaining all about it:
Tell all your followers about Count 10 Read 10! on Twitter
Last night was taco night and my job was to grate the cheese.
I didn’t get too far in before I noticed some math.
For some reason I always start grating on a corner. Then I rotate the block so I’m grating on another corner. After doing this a few times I noticed the angles I was creating:
And what exactly are the shapes, anyway? What is the shape of the grating holes of the grater? And what is the resulting shape of the cheese sliver?
How much cheese is in the pile after you “fluff” it by grating it? What’s the volume of fluffed cheese compared with stuck-together-in-a-block cheese?
More importantly, is there enough for two grownups and a toddler? (When one of the grownups loves cheese!)
What are your math curiosities in the kitchen?
Part of the Count 10 Read 10 series to help parents connect with kids through math a little each day.
Did you know that the alphabet song, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Baa Baa Black Sheep are all the same tune!?
Well, now there’s another!
Thanks to all the great folks who have public domain images out there that I could use for this.
Specifically
In an attempt to join the Wordless Wednesday crowd, I’m sharing this photo. But as you can see, for MathFour.com, this is only a Somewhat Wordless Wednesday.
Before this photo we were discussing size of shirts – a numeracy concept that is visually displayed through the inability for grownups to fit 4T nightshirts on their bodies. Count 10 Read 10 is part of our family’s afterschooling routine.
Written as part of the Count 10, Read 10 series.
For my 40th birthday, I bought myself this beautiful Lokta paper book from a fabulous little store in the Houston Heights called Write Now!
It has circles on it – one of my “things.” I love circles. But then I saw how the colors were laid out.
“Holy cow! This is a teaching opportunity!” I thought.
And it got even better at the Texas Home School Coalition’s convention this last week. I shared it with former math teacher and now-homeschooler Sharon Brantley and she saw even more goodies in it!
Anything that has more than one aspect/characteristic/color (pretty much everything) can be checked for patterns. Patterns are an essential, perhaps even the most important, building block for mathematical thinking and development.
Here’s what you can see in this book cover:
What Sharon pointed out to me was that you can draw an L from any dot to another dot of the same color!
Optional: This “L” thing links directly to the slope, by the way. Between any two points of the same color, the slope is either 1/2 or -2. Cool, huh?
Where do you see patterns in your world? Share it (and a link to the picture) in the comments!
Written as part of the Count 10, Read 10 series.
I noticed Daughter attempting to bejewel Husband with a strand of my faux pearls the other day. I watched, enthralled with the math learning taking place.
She held the necklace in her hands – one on each side. Just about equal. So the space available for Husband’s head was almost non-existent. Like this:
If she were to hold the necklace at two points that were closer together, she would create a “dip” in the necklace where his head could fit. Like this:
This made me think of all the nifty things you can show about the relationship of perimeter to area and how you can have the same perimeter but change the area to all sorts of sizes.
If you aren’t wearing a necklace, find some mardi-gras beads. Daughter has many strands, so I’m guessing your house might be littered with them as well. If not, join the club. Go buy some.
Play with them in the bathtub or right before bed. (Make sure they give them up before going to sleep, though – it’s a strangulation hazard!)
Move the necklace around on a flat surface (or on the bed) and let your child experiment with the ways the area changes. Ask questions like:
Don’t forget, activities like this should be fun. For your child as well as you. So don’t get too in depth talking the math talk if it feels weird. Go with the flow.
And let me know how that flow goes, would you? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Learning math isn’t just about being taught math. It’s about fun, discovery and experimentation. In the Count 10, Read 10! program, parents get to spend 10 minutes a night playing math with their children.
Like many games you’ll find here, this is a version of Calvinball (from Bill Watterson’s Calving & Hobbes cartoon). You and your children make up the rules as you go along or as you see fit.
This is merely a guideline or starting point.
Objective:
Have fun with numbers, counting and quantities.
Breakable rules:
Leader: Five!
Player 2: Plus three is eight!
Leader: Plus one is nine!
Player 2: Plus two is eleven!
Leader: WINNER!
The round ends when the youngest child reaches their limit of counting or adding. The winner is determined by a rule or random choosing. The older the children, the more “real rules” you’ll need to follow.
Possible winning rules:
The point is to have fun with counting and math. As your children grow, you’ll have to adjust the rules to give them more challenge and to fit the “real game” model. Here are some options for variations:
All games created at MathFour.com are tested or will be tested on Daughter. The rub is that Daughter is almost 2 – we’ll have to wait a while to do this one. So your input is important.
Will it work? Did it work? Try it and let me know how it goes in the comments, please. Also share your own variations.
