1510 Funny Math

     As silly as it sounds, math can be funny, literally and figuratively. This week's video assignments caused a chuckle on my part with an easy way to multiply large numbers. I was hooked, I'm always looking for a way to make short cuts or make life easier. Like the old saying goes, "work smarter, not harder." The first video here shows two rather large numbers that will be multiplied together in "an easy way." Take a look.
     At first, I thought it was going to show me the lattice method of multiplication when they started drawing the boxes, but I soon realized there wasn't enough boxes for all the place values correlated to the numbers shown. When it started to look like a calculator I thought, O.K. Where are they going with this? Well, the fast and easy way to multiply two large numbers together is, use a calculator. Awe, you got me! I'll be sure to use a calculator on big numbers.
     This was an example of how math can be funny literally, but how can it be funny figuratively? As we all have experienced the ups and downs of math, we know our mind can play funny tricks on us or we make mistakes with simple addition. The Abbott and Castello video proved how easy it is for us to interpret math in different ways. Each way should have the same outcome or answer, but sometimes we have to look at the process of how we arrived at the answer to really understand what we are doing wrong or correct. With 28 donuts and seven officers to feed, like in this video, the simple answer for all of us is, four donuts per officer. Not for the baker though, in his mind, there were 13 donuts for seven officers. When he went to prove it, he showed us three different ways in which he came up with the answer. The crazy thing was, they all made sense if you looked at how he arrived at the answer and didn't understand the basics of math.

      That brings me to my main point, each student has their own perceived knowledge on math concepts. They may be right or need some work with it, but this is what makes math funny figuratively. The craziness of our minds and how we think rationally to arrive at answers are sometimes goofy. When we understand the math concepts though, now our rational thinking is the correct way of thinking and we arrive at the correct answer. In the end, teachers need to remember to make math simple for students to understand and it's O.K. to laugh at ourselves, litterally

Statistical Excitement- 1512 post #1

This week, we jump right into analyzing numbers. Yippee! I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to doing statistics. I love getting the answer right, I love the process of doing a problem, I just hate punching in all the numbers into a calculator or rearranging them in ascending order. I don't have patience for tedious work. Which is kind of funny if you think about it, my goal is to become a teacher and that has plenty of tedious work associated with it. Doing tedious work, and doing it well will make me successful as a teacher, I just have to remember how important it is to do. My love/hate relationship has more of a positive correlation towards love compared to hate as I receive a lot of satisfaction out of putting all the pieces of a problem together. 
I remember taking a course in college on statistics and having some fun with it. Though, I always had trouble keeping straight the definitions of the mean and median. These are the nuts and bolts of statistics and I would keep mixing the two of them up. It took me for awhile before I came up with this great reminder for myself, just think of the middle of the road. What do you see in the middle of the road? The median, so your middle value of a set, is the median. This is something I never forgot over the years and it came in handy for this weeks' homework.
What do all these answers mean though? That is where statistics becomes fun. With statistics, you can really make the numbers look more in your favor when the odds may be against you. I always enjoy the campaign season when the news will project who is leading in the polls. There is always a discrepancy between each news outlet and who they figure is leading in the polls. That is why it is always important to look closely at the legend of any graph to ensure you know what data you are receiving.

1510 Week 2 post - Base 10

The bases are loaded and with this weeks reading about 3rd graders learning about pace value, we as teachers are striking out with our at-bat in teaching them this material. Place value, as simple as it sounds, is very confusing to students because they don't understand the value of numbers more than 0-9.  I can see how this is confusing to a student, you are taught at a young age all about your 10 fingers and there isn't much emphasis put on what you do after that. The number 10 is held in high regards and is like this magic number that we never go above. So, with a number like l5, students don't recognize the place value and that there is a tens and ones position. A number as simple as 15 is looked at as a 1 and a 5, not as 10 and 5.
The one thing our Hindu-Arabic number system has going for itself is that is is very quick to use, especially when you want to write out a number. It's just not as easy to understand for new learners. Looking at the Mayan and Egyptian numbering systems, they use symbols to illustrate their numbers. This proves to be very easy for learners to assign symbols with the place value because they aren't all the same like with the Hindu-Arabic, 0-9 numbering system.
Pictures are always more fun to draw than numbers, but with the Egyptian and Mayan number system, you have to draw a lot of pictures or symbols to compose a number like 528. As great of an artist that I think I am, I would still try and short had some of the symbols when trying to solving a math problem in one of these systems. These systems look to be great for learning, but not practical in their use in everyday society.

Hey, Ho, Let's Go! - General Information

Here we go, I'm diving head first into school again and there is no easing into it, I'm going pedal to the metal, full speed ahead. What have I got myself into? It's been 10 years since I last picked-up a book and now I'm looking at 10 credits. How will I do this, especially during the summer? I want to be on the boat soaking up the sun and swimming in the water. The end goal of becoming a teacher is pushing me to accomplish these classes so I can still enjoy my summers.

Last week, I attempted to do my math assignment and all of a sudden I realized I couldn't remember how to divide fractions. What was I doing wrong? I was bound to figure this out on my own because I knew how to do it, I just couldn't remember. I was too stubborn to look it up in the book, or ask someone for help, so I spent over 45 minutes on one problem. Are you kidding me? 45 minutes? This can't go on, I have to figure this out because my time is too valuable (and the sun was getting warmer). So, I broke down and consulted Mr. You Tube. He fixed my problem and within 2 minutes, I was on my way. Lesson learned I guess.

So, here we are. Week 2 and we're looking at doing a blog for math class. How do I keep this interesting enough for people to continually read it? We are talking about math here. This is what I need to figure out, not only for this assignment, but as a teacher too. How do I keep you engaged and wanting to come back for more? The good news is, some of you have to check-out my blog and for you, I will try and put a smile on your face. I'm excited to I accept this challenge.