I found the activities that were assigned for this week interesting, and for the most part, directly applicable to my classroom.
The first activity was that of the "Magic Square." This was a three by three cube, using the single digits 1-9 only once, in which all the rows, columns, and diagonals added up to fifteen. It took about five minutes to figure out the combination, but it was really more mentally stimulating than it was laborious. The next activity was to create an interactive spreadsheet for a recipe. With limited experience of spreadsheets, I must admit that I was skeptical at first, but really enjoyed the work once I got into the formulas. As a math teacher, I appreciated the ability to create a product formula that made my calculations of ingredients much more efficient. I'm still not confident enough in my cooking abilities to give this recipe a chance however. Next, through the aid of NetTrekker, I was able to find a lesson involving spreadsheets that was quite applicable to my Consumer Math class. As we are working on sales tax and unit pricing, I believe this lesson will not only incorporate such content, but also illustrate how the use of formulas (sum, product, if) can make our calculations much swifter. Finally, in the reading I found a very interesting software program that I'm looking into at the present. Chapter 7 discussed a "Problem of the Week." This particular math problem was quite the thinker, and had me working on it for a couple of minutes. I feel it would be a great way to begin the class period.
Overall, I believe all the activities from this week were math oriented in some way. It is always nice to get new ideas into the classroom!
I feel the same way Jared. I have taught consumer math in the past, and I think a lot of the spreadsheet activities out there would benefit a consumer math class. The hard thing for me right now is that I don't teach math this year. However, I did find something that could work for the life science class I teach. It's a spreadsheet where the students put in calorie/fat data etc. from fast food places they may go and they use the spreadsheet to compare what they eat at all of the different restaurants. Anyway, I enjoyed the magic squares too, but I think it might be too complicated for a lot of my learning disabled students. Did you find any spreadsheet activity that you feel you will use soon and isn't too difficult to use? Just curious.
ReplyDeleteJared, it sounds like you found some great ideas for your classroom. I loved having "Problems of the Week" that really made the students' think. When I taught middle school math I used "Fantastic Five", for my daily starters. They asked the students to solve five math problem when they entered the classroom (5minutes max.) and there would be a quiz on the problems at the end of the week (one problem from each day that week). They gave a wide variety of math fact - some facts the students knew right away and others that were a challenge. Some of my best mini lessons sparked form these starters. You might want to look into these, or at least see if they make them for High school level.
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