This week we had a fun little math now activity. It was a timed set of problems of simple add or subtract problems that you had to complete in one minute. Interestingly it gave me a bit of anxiety. I peeked at the questions and knew it was something I could breeze through in well under a minute but I kept saving that exercise for later. And maybe even a little later.

This got me thinking about how my future students will react to a timed task. What kind of things can I do to help ease their anxiety?

What causes math anxiety in the first place? From my own experience and from what I read, there are a few main reasons for math anxiety. The pressure of being timed to take a test or finish a set of problems in a set amount of time. Fear of embarrassment, prior negative math experiences and the teacher's enthusiasm ( or lack thereof) can all contribute to that feeling of tension, unease, and anxiousness that students can feel.

Initially, what we have the most control over is enthusiasm. There's a big difference between a teacher who is engaged and one who is letting their dislike of math show. Teaching math with the same excitement as reading or music can help shift the tone of math.

 Ideas for reducing math anxiety are similar to those for reducing anxiety in school

Yoga breaths and deep pressure stretches-To help calm, focus and center the student

Manipulatives like fidgets, velcro or thinking putty- Helps with concentration

Gum for chewing during tests- Helps with concentration and is a fun treat

Trying a different approach- We know that people learn differently. Anxiety could be due to not comprehending a topic taught in a way that doesn't nurture their learning style

Allow for practice time-Giving students time to practice and cognitively process a topic will allow them to feel more secure

Math joke of the week:

Q: Why did the boy eat his math homework? 
A: Because the teacher told him it was a piece of cake. 

While gathering my thoughts and notes to write my reaction paper to the NCTM standards and Common Core vision I was reminded of percentages. For me, it's embarrassingly difficult to figure out on the fly what a good tip is. I have to sit and stare at the receipt for a good minute or two before the correct number pops into my head. Then I go through it again just to make sure I'm leaving a good tip rather than a lousy one. My kids, however, can come up with the amount in seconds. So this week I worked on sharpening those skills. I can't say I'm a wiz at it yet, but my hesitation is less dramatic and I'm more sure of my answer. One method I found helpful was rounding to the nearest 'easy' number to estimate, as we talked about in class. It doesn't get the perfectly correct number but if I'm rounding up, then at least I know the server won't feel that I left too small of a tip.

Percentages are like fractions. 3% is 3/100 or 3 hundredths. Easy enough. But what about when you need to figure out 17% of  250 strawberries because you are making an exceptionally precise jam? I learned that you can assume that 250 is 100% because it is all of the strawberries. X will be the number of strawberries we need for this amazing jam.

X=17% 250=100

If we turn this into fractions it would be  250/x=100/17%. Things from here got a little rusty so I researched how to make this work and found this explanation:

250/x=100/17(250/x)*x=(100/17)*x       - we multiply both sides of the equation by x250=5.88235294118*x       - we divide both sides of the equation by (5.88235294118) to get x250/5.88235294118=x 42.5=x x=42.5

17% of 250=42.5

I'm going to have to play with this a bit more. But I'm happy to know that we need 42 and a half strawberries to make a batch of jam. Now, how much sugar and lemon juice do we need......?

Math joke of the week:

Q: Why don't you do arithmetic in the jungle? 
A: Because if you add 4+4 you get ate! 

This week I decided to research and practice multiplication. It was one of the subjects in math that challenged me most when I was young. My sons are both very good at math and were delighted to beat me doing timed worksheets. My skills are definitely rusty and their understanding of the concept of multiplication is far better than mine. Future goals...be quicker at multiplication so that I can win a math race! Speaking of goals, another was to find effective ways to teach students and what strategies I could try using when they started to become frustrated.

Many sources indicated to start small and build concepts first rather than focusing on doing multiplication tables in order.

One interesting way of teaching multiplication is by using arrays to visualize. Below is an example that gives students a way to use paint to make learning about multiplication more fun.


https://missgiraffesclass.blogspot.com/

Math Joke of the week:

Q: Teacher: Why are you doing your multiplication on the floor?
A: Student: You told me not to use tables.