Math students who begin their math journey into absolute value usually evaluate expressions with absolute value as “always positive.” That is, until they encounter the absolute value of zero, and then their answers become “always positive or zero.” The formal definition of absolute value is |x| = x if x ≥ 0 or –x if […]
Absolute Value: The Elevated Math Approach Read More »
After I was elected on the school board, a principal introduced me to a middle school math teacher whose students had averaged 98% advanced or proficiency in Algebra 1 over the past three years. “Wow! How did you do that?” I exclaimed. “Is there something special in your teaching technique?” Obviously, this teacher knew her
A KEY TO EFFECTIVE TEACHING: OBSERVATION Read More »
Someone posted this on a Facebook page: MATH TEST 2 + 2 x 2 + 2 x 2 – 2 x 2 = a. 6 b. 16 c. 40 I was shocked to see that so many people got the wrong answer. A student’s success in math is dependent on knowing the Order of Operations.
ORDER OF OPERATIONS: THE ELEVATED MATH APPROACH Read More »
Updated: August 11, 2020 I remember my middle and high school classes when I was stuck in the classroom and daydreamed the time away. My lack of focus on a lesson that was droning on in front of me would cost me dearly when I got home later and had to answer the homework problems.
We MUST Engage Our Math Students Read More »
If you have taught your math students about perimeter and area, if you are ready to present them with an application challenge, and if they are into Pythonesque comedy (Do you know many middle schoolers who are not into the absurd?), consider showing this clip from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. After watching the clip, distribute
Monty Python and the Quadratic Shrubbery Read More »
In the previous blog Use Angry Birds to Teach Math (see below) we shared a plan to introduce students to parabolas. Students can follow Bruner’s CRA teaching method from tossed-beanbags to the parabolas in Angry Birds to graphing-quadratic-equations in Elevated Math. The popularity of our blog post has inspired us to include an excerpt from the Elevated Math lesson.
Use Angry Birds to Teach Math, Pt. 2 Read More »
Though we are pleased by how many good reviews Elevated Math has received this summer, we thought this one was worth mentioning, and not just because the analysis is complimentary of our app. TekGadg, the reviewer, took the time to create two videos. One we pasted above and shows the Elevated Math app and how
Elevated Math Evaluation: A Cool App Review Read More »
In a few months, I am beginning my liberal arts education. According to Merriam-Webster, a liberal arts education consists of “college or university studies (as language, philosophy, literature, abstract science) intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop general intellectual capacities (as reason and judgment) as opposed to professional or vocational skills”. In other
Math Through the Years Read More »
Math always came to me quite easily in grade school and middle school. I just never was able to find a way to actually motivate myself to learn it most of the time. The majority of the teachers I had over the years had us read straight from the textbook and copy down problems at
Math Class: Student Perspective 2 Read More »
