Comments on: Teaching Algebra, or Banging Your Head With a Whiteboard

By: Most Popular Posts and Favorites | educationrealist

Most Popular Posts and Favorites | educationrealist — Mon, 06 May 2013 01:27:08 +0000

[...] Teaching Algebra, or Banging Your Head With a Whiteboard [...]

By: Ron Jones

Ron Jones — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 01:20:26 +0000

Show slope dude from you tube over and over until they beg you not to show it again. Rise up run out is another I show over and over until the students start saying ok now I understand! I introduce, insert in the middle, and finish with good youtube songs for most topics and it works!!!! Repetition in disguise.

By: Algebra 1 Growth in Geometry and Algebra II « educationrealist

Algebra 1 Growth in Geometry and Algebra II « educationrealist — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:21:00 +0000

[...] are clubbing orphan seals and making baby Jesus cry when you forget the middle term” while banging myself on the head with a whiteboard. And some of them just forgot [...]

By: 2012 in review « educationrealist

2012 in review « educationrealist — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 02:36:59 +0000

[...] These were all very slow months, primarily because I didn’t take on hot topics and talked mostly about teaching. No big posts, but I’m very happy with the method outlined in Teaching Trig, and thought this post on induction and its crappiness was good. My History of Elizabethan Theater I, II, and III are worth a read, too. I only wrote 4 posts in May, because I was focusing on a piece I wrote under my own name, but this piece is a lot of fun: Teaching Algebra, or Banging Your Head With a Whiteboard. [...]

By: 100 Posts « educationrealist

100 Posts « educationrealist — Sat, 27 Oct 2012 21:30:59 +0000

[...] pieces that are regularly linked to or used as references by teachers: Modeling Linear Equations, Teaching Algebra, or Banging Your Head with a Whiteboard, and Teaching [...]

By: educationrealist

educationrealist — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 17:03:30 +0000

They ignore it for all. I’m convinced they do it to make me crazy. It’s not just the squares, it’s everything. And I teach the generic rectangle method; I have been known to just draw the rectangle on the board and look ferociously at the students at the beginning of a test.

Glad you liked the methods! You may want to read up on the modeling work I did; it’s been very effective at helping kids retain linear equation concepts. Even if they get the slope direction wrong. (sob)

By: Jean Mitchell

Jean Mitchell — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:47:03 +0000

I’m coming late to the conversation, but I enjoyed your rant, and plan to crib some of your ideas for my students (I teach math methods in a teacher ed program.)

I have a speculation about why the kids do x^2 + 9 for (x + 3)^2. Assuming they don’t leave out the middle term when they see something like (x + 4)(x + 7), which you didn’t discuss. If that’s the case–I bet they are doing the above because they only see one binomial, with an exponent. I’d try making them write out both binomials when they see a binomial squared, before doing anything else, and then multiply just like they do with any binomial times a binomial, no shortcuts, no doing it in your head. With some kids, out of sight is out of mind, if I don’t see it it isn’t there, so the idea is to make it visible first.

Of course, if they ignore middle terms for all binomials, this won’t work.

By: educationrealist

educationrealist — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 05:43:25 +0000

Just a typo on my part. I’ll fix. When I’m in rant mode, things happen.

By: Aditya Liviandi

Aditya Liviandi — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 05:06:07 +0000

Last week I gave my kids a geometry test and one of the questions was: A right triangle has sides of [square root of x] and (x-3). You are going to use these terms in the Pythagorean theorem to solve for x (along with the hypotenuse, which I’ll give you in the next question). After you square both sides and combine like terms, what will you end up with?

BOTH CLASSES. Every single kid (except the top 6 students, who took a different test) took x2 + 7x + 9, meaning that they squared (x + 3) and got x2 + 9. WHY? WHY? WHY?

********************************************************************************************

I’m super confused by the above.

The sides are (x-3) and sqrt(x)? how did (x+3) appear in the next paragraph? what about the x^2 + 7x + 9? Where is that from?

By: What I Learned: Year 2 « educationrealist

What I Learned: Year 2 « educationrealist — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 18:25:00 +0000

[...] earlier posts that expand on these issues: Teaching Algebra I and Teaching Algebra, or Banging Your Head with a Whiteboard Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like [...]