Madmathteacher EduBlog

I love this rap! It helps you remember how to change a mixed number to an improper fraction.
Download Video: Posted by kcollazo at TeacherTube.com.

I have noticed that many of you are still struggling with some of your multiplication facts, so I’m looking for a few ways to help you. The first step I’d like to offer is this: I found the following School House Rock videos…

“Three is a Magic Number”

“The Four-Legged Zoo”

“I Got Six”

“Lucky Seven Sampson”

“Figure Eight”

Choose a restaurant where you will eat (make one up if you need to). Pick at least 3 things to buy off the menu, and total up the cost of these items. Add 7% sales tax to your total, then find a 15%-20% tip on top of that to find your total cost.

A complete answer will have:

1. Name of restaurant
2. Name of each item you buy
3. Cost of each item you buy
4. How much tax you pay, in dollars and cents (What is 7% of the total of your items?)
5. What percent you tip, and what dollar amount that comes to
6. The final/total cost for your bill

Here’s an interesting web site shared by one of the Edublogs on my RSS feed: http://www.wherecreativitygoestoschool.com/vancouver/left_right/rb_test.htm. If you want to, you could give this self-test a try and post your results here, just for fun. (It could also give me some insight into how to teach you better.)

If you want a post to work on, you can do this one:

Find a fun web site about division and fractions, or something that helps you learn more about computers. Post that link here for others to check out. This (optional) fun assignment comes courtesy of tjac & rsel!

Please post a comment to this blog entry that shares a web link you can use to practice multiplication facts, and explain why you like the site you chose to share.

I copied this post and its comments from the old blog location at Wordpress:

Here’s my (pathetic?) decimal rap:

To add decimals, you draw a line.
To divide, you move it out.
Subtract, you also draw a line.
Multiply, you have to count.

I’m pretty sure you can do better. Your assignment? Make up your own song or rap that tells how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide decimals, and post it here as a comment. Remember my post “Wrapping up decimals” — it has the key ideas that need to be included in your song or rap. If you have a different idea (other than a song or rap) for a creative way you’d like to show your learning about decimal operations, please ask me about it at school or through e-mail, and I’ll be glad to accommodate you!

Well, the first quarter is coming to a close…it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned together. Thinking back on what you learned about in math class during first quarter, answer at least two of the following questions:

1. What was the most interesting thing you learned in first quarter, and why?
2. What was the most difficult thing you learned in first quarter, and why?
3. What did you learn this quarter that you will be able to use in your future? How will you use it?
4. How could math class be made better for the upcoming quarter?

Several students seem to be wanting to make comments and offer feedback, and they’re not quite sure where to post it. I don’t really want it posted under an assignment location, because then it’s harder to keep track of the actual assignment contributions versus the comments. So I’ve been copying these comments over to the post “New blog location” for now, but I thought maybe it’d be good to just have a post here that was specifically for those random comments, feedback, ideas, ways to improve the site, etc. So if you have comments you just want to get out there, please feel free to post them here!