Mathematical Musings

It is that crazy time of year, and I would guess that many of you are dealing with math placement decisions for your students. The following link has an interesting article about the effect that math placement has on certain students.

“More challenging middle-school math classes and increased access to advanced courses in predominantly black urban high schools may be the key to closing the racial academic achievement gap, according to a University of Illinois study. "

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420121423.htm

Here are a couple of quotes from the article that really made me think.

Students who take more advanced math courses in middle school lengthen their lead over time, and the positive school-related behaviors developed in those advanced courses lead to even higher achievement.

Being in a classroom where the expectations are higher, the course work is more rigorous, and the climate is more academic has huge effects on student effort.

These finding don’t surprise me because I have seen this happen with my students, but it is great to see research that backs up my instincts. So my questions are, “so what?” and “what now?”

• What implications does this have for our students?
  
• How can we use this information to help students?
  
• How can we duplicate the positive effect of advanced classes for students who are not advanced?
• If we put everyone into "advanced" classes, would they still be "advanced?"
• Should we pick promising students to "place" into advanced classes even if they don't "qualify?"

I would also like to see the researchers' definition of "academic climate. " Obviously, this includes more than high expectations and rigorous coursework. I would think the climate would be the most challenging to change. I also think that we might have many different pictures of what a room with an academic climate looks like and sounds like.

What are your thoughts?

I created a new blog for a class I am taking. I will be posting there for the next few weeks, so feel free to come on over and join the conversation!

After a prolonged absence from the blogging world, I am back.....at least for 8 weeks! I am taking my FINAL master's degree class, and one of this week's assignments is to set up a blog. I will be required to post to it during the course, and I hope that I will be back in the habit by the end of the course. I have so many new ideas that need to be processed...I have some job responsibilities that could be met by blogging...I enjoy it! There is no reason not to jump back into blogging, so here I go!

My children are now 15, 11, and 5. They are eagerly anticipating a driver's license, middle school, and kindergarten!. My husband is STILL on active duty with the Army. He was recently promoted to Lt. Colonel. We are very proud of him. I am in my second year as AMSTI math specialist, and I am loving it. More on that later. Good night for now...I am looking forward to some great conversations on here!

I have been cleaning out my office and working to reduce the clutter in my life. I ran across a piece of paper I saved months ago that has some quotes I want to keep. I couldn't decide where to file them, and then I decided to post them instead of filing them. I believe I can find them here if I need them again! These are from the room of the Reading Coach at Horizon Elementary School in Madison, Alabama.

Meeting Parameters

• Time is our most valuable resource.
• We are all active participants.
• What we plan, we implement.
• We talk about things we can control.
• Anything said here, stays here.
• Turn off anything that rings, dings, or sings.
• Take care of yourself
• Never lose sight of our goal!

"Don't even think about organizing your time if your space isn't under control."

My older son is planning his schedule for next year. He will be a sophomore in high school, and he surprised me today with his plans. I thought he was going to take Engineering Drawing or Engineering Design, and I was prepared to investigate the difference in the opportunities those two classes provide. He had an exploratory technology class this year, and the Technical Drawing portion of the year was his favorite. He has expressed interest in becoming an engineer, an occupation that I have always thought would suit him.

This afternoon he told me that he doesn't want to take Engineering this year because he wants to take an extra music class. He is already in the marching band, and he is enjoying it much more than he expected. He wants to take Instrumental Music as well so he can improve his skills on his instrument (percussion). After I asked lots of questions, he told me he would like to stay involved in music in college, and then he said that he is considering a career in music! I don't know how I feel about this.

I think my main concern is that he keep his options open for later. He can take private music lessons after school and continue with the engineering classes. I would be okay with him being a music major if he pursued a career that would provide a steady income (like band director), but I don't want him to be a starving artist! However, he is only 14 years old, and I am sure that he will changed his mind about what he wants to do for a living many times in the next few years. His father is 42, and he still hasn't made up his mind!

On the other hand, I think it is really cool that my child is interested in music! I took piano lessons for 10 years, including one year in college. My college teachers kept forgetting that I was not a music major, and I stopped taking lessons because I had reached a level that wasn't relaxing and fun. I also excelled in band in middle school and high school, and I love to sing. It is gratifying to see my child inheriting my strengths instead of my weaknesses for a change!

Are you searching for last-minute ideas for Valentine's Day? Here are some suggestions!


Lessons using Conversation Hearts

• Fractions
• Ratios, graphing
• Pie chart, other ideas
• Bar graphs (detailed lesson plan with handouts)
• Coordinate graphing (Battleship)
• Graphing, making predictions
• More graphing (detailed lesson plan)
• Estimating area

M&M Cookies

• Count the number of M&M's in a cookie. Extend to find mean, median, and mode.
  

Misc.

• Word problems
• More word problems
• Logic puzzle

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

I am reading a great book for a class I am taking. The book is Visual Literacy: Learn to See, See to Learn, by Lynell Burmark. I highly recommend it to anyone (including teachers) who is giving presentations. The book contains many practical suggestions about visually enhancing presentations to make them more effective.

What I was reading tonight concerned charts, graphs, and diagrams. She gives some ideas for incorporating graphs and charts into the content areas. These would be great ideas for interdisciplinary lessons!

Literature
When teaching Macbeth, divide the class into groups and ask each group to decide the percentage of blame for killing Duncan. Create a pie graph and make an oral presentation to the class defending the graph.

History
Graph the factors that might account for South's success in the early part of the Civil War despite having only 30% of all troops.

Math
Students can take a photograph and overlay it with a transparent grid. Transfer to grid paper, copying square by square. Enlarge the drawing to cover a larger surface.

Labels: graphing, history, interdisciplinary, literature, similarity