Shopping Spree!

Math, math everywhere...
I had excellent examples in my Dyad of putting math and science into real world applications. This was a fun and exciting part of my experience. My colleague and I have switched out of this Dyad so we will no longer have the fun and unique science and math experiences we were getting. Instead we are seeking a humanities endorsement so we have found a classroom that is more focused on such. We are both looking forward to that, but I find myself reflecting on how I will miss the good examples of applying math that our first teacher had begun to show us.Of the many fun ways she used math in her class, one of the easiest ones to replicate and bring into another classroom is a shopping spree!

The class was given $500 as their "shopping spree". They had fake money and they were to look through magazines and online stores to find whatever they'd like to spend their money on. They had to record each item they and recalculate their total money left over after each. There were to try and have no money left over. Tax was the most interesting part of this experiment. Students were fascinated with how much this changed their amounts. As they calculated the tax themselves, they became more aware of how much they were actually paying in taxes. There were a few restrictions on their shopping to ensure they got the most out of the experiment, i.e. buying two or three of one item and a minimum of five things etc. The students were able to shop where they wanted, and see how far they could really make $500 go. I think it was great for these little middle schoolers. Amongst the math and planning skills they practiced, they were able to see just how much the materialistic things they want actually cost and how to find alternatives. Very interesting to see how surprised they were to see how much an IPod really is when shopping online...
The students loved the activity, and it was exciting to be a part of as a teacher (or student teacher if you will)! I would love to see how different classroom in different areas partake to this experiment, what things do they look to buy etc. Or I wonder what thoughts and understanding it would bring if they had to use the money to feed their family for a month...hmmmm

Cribbage in June

10/18-10/25/10

This week I took the goal of looking for math in our classrooms. This was easy at first…in my dyad math lessons at 9:15 every day, science using math everyday at 1:00. Alright check! There’s my math in the classroom.

Just kidding! Ok seriously, yes we do math and science every day and for some reason don’t make time for literature every day.  Weird, but we won’t go into that now because this is of course the math journal. I have started recognizing the tips and skills that our professor and our readings have been introducing to us so far this quarter. I tried to keep my mind open to this, and of course what do you know, it was right there waiting for me in the classroom. Mental math skills have become a small fascination for me. In class I noticed students using it in their own individual math work. The teacher was constantly providing chances for them to use and practice different strategies with mental math in both group and individual settings. There was a game the teacher presented where she gave the students four different numbers and they were to use subtraction, addition, multiplication, and/or division in any order to get to the number twenty-four.  These numbers were presented randomly on a fake clock, which caught my attention instantly, given my obsession with time!  My “colleague” and I loved practicing our mental math with this game and so did the students. They were to try and be the first to get to the number then present their process to the class! Fascinating to hear their patterns and thought processes!

Now I’ve mentioned this before for a way to improve our mental math, but I’d like to bring it up again. I keep thinking how helpful card games can be with making your addition quick. Cribbage has become a game that provides me a fun and quick way to strengthen my mental math with addition. I have become a bigger fan of it recently, mostly because my dear friend likes to play this so much. I can’t help but notice how quick his math is compared to mine and I know it’s because he’s been playing cribbage so long! Now I want to be playing it more often to help me catch up to him. There’s one huge problem… I’m in the negative hours for my free time during the week… the 168 hours of the week have been spent long ago…So how is there to be time to practice the things we are curious about and excited to learn!? ….sigh….Man I am so waiting for June!! I need that restful state where I can play cribbage all day and be late for a social event! And not even care that I am late; my hours of sleep won’t even lack because of it! Wahoo… June, please come quickly!

“I’m late! I’m late, for a very important date!”

Thoughts from: 10/04-10/18/10
We began this first week in math class by exploring the Fibonacci sequence. This caught our attention and struck us with wonder. Math is not only useful and necessary in our lives, but it can be beautiful and stunning! So I set out that week looking for math in a more open and curious way. Math in our homes, cities, society etc… Well how to narrow it down. The first thing that came to my mind was time management. Time is a huge factor for me.  I love being punctual and often get irritated when people are not (this is something I’m personally working on ;). The last few months and the months to come time is even more crucial to me than normal. We are so stretched with the time commitment class, homework, and our dyads take from us, that I find myself obsessed with the clock and NOT wasting any time.

 Balancing my time is the largest way I use math in my life. During class another student and I figured out that with the hours of class, expected hours of study, dyad hours and sleep we really aren’t left with much to deal with… We wanted to get specific! So we added up the hours we (cohort 15) have to spend: each hour of class, estimated two hours of study for each credit/hour, dyad hours, and eight hours of sleep each night, commute, and work hours (specific to me, sixteen hours and a two hour a day commute)…all this added up is around 155 hours. There are 168 hours in a week…WOW that’s shocking and said especially since I didn’t include hours that I spend showering or eating…So I guess that puts me well over 168 hours of mandatory commitments that take up all my weekly hours. Ahhhhh…It makes me tired just thinking about it! Thank goodness I don’t have any kiddos that require even more time from me!

So math in my personal life is crucial when it comes to time. Given the lack of extra hours I am truly counting every minute that is wasted or not spend doing something either productive for school or my soul!! (Which is crucial for me to stay sane at this point in my life! Or as Dr. C would say, keep my Lokahi Wheel balanced! It’s all about health! ;) I’m sure this is driving my family and friends crazy, but luckily (somehow) they love me enough to deal with the constant urgency of that I seem to have… Lucky me and a huge THANK YOU to them!!