“Natural Disasters” is one of my favourite topics for teaching, and I absolutely love this video – it gets the point across, but in a humorous and memorable way. I always struggle to find it again whenever I want to use it, so I decided it was time to save the link in a safe place and my website seemed like a good choice of safe place.
Teaching algebra the kinaesthetic way…
Teaching Algebra – it’s just like fractions!
I wrote a while ago about teaching basic algebra to children and taking away their fear. But what do you do when it becomes a little more complicated?
When working with a pupil recently we came across this problem:
and the child was unsure how to start. I reminded her of when we had looked at ordering fractions and asked how she did that.
“I can’t do 3/5, 8/10 and 12/15,” she said “because they are all different, so I have to make them the same. I know 10÷2 is 5 so I can do 8÷2 and turn 8/10 into 4/5, and I know that 15÷3 is 5, so I can 12÷3 and turn 12/15 into 4/5. Then I put them into order – 3/5, 4/5, 4/5 – and then I turn them back so 3/5 is the smallest and 8/10 and 12/15 are the same.”
I praised her for remembering so well and then told her this problem was just the same. It looked hard because k, m and n were all different, but maybe she could make them the same.
As soon as she started to think of the problem in that way she was able to see that m could be changed into 3n and k could be changed into 2n, so the problem was 2n + 3n + n = 1500 or 6n = 1500. Once she had worked out that this meant that n must be 250 she had no problem at all in converting 2n back to k and 3n back to m, giving the solution k=500, m=750 and n=250.
Algebra – it’s not too hard. It’s just like ordering fractions!
If you live in north Birmingham and would like to book my services as a private maths tutor, please get in touch.
K is also for… Killers
By “killers” I mean phrases that kill your writing.
NEVER start your story with “One bright, sunny day”, because about half your class will have started in the same way and your teacher will think, “Oh no! Not another one!” Instead of “One bright, sunny day I went to the park with my friend Ali.” try, “Last Saturday was so sunny it was too hot for football, so Ali and I sat in the shade of the tallest tree in the park and chatted.”
NEVER start your story with “One dark and gloomy night”, because the other half of your class will have done that. Instead, how about, “Not even a glimmer of moonlight broke through the clouds”.
It doesn’t matter how exciting your story has been – if you end it with, “It was all a dream!” your teacher will be bored. After a couple of pages of being chased by vampires, instead of writing:
“Wake up! It’s time for breakfast,” said mom. Thank goodness – it had all been a dream.
How about
“Wake up! It’s time for breakfast,” said mom, smiling to reveal blood-stained fangs.
Dare to be different and your writing will benefit.
Related posts: J is also for… L is also for….
Z is for…
Z is for…Zzzzzzz. You need several hours sleep each night to be able to concentrate properly at school. The time you should go to bed will depend on how old you are and whether it’s a school night or a weekend, but if you are in primary school and going to bed at 11pm every night you are not getting enough sleep.
Talk to your parents or carers, and your teacher, and agree a bedtime that will give you enough sleep to be able to work properly at school. Your family will probably make exceptions for special occasions, but other than that make sure you stick to it.
I hope this A-Z of learning has been useful. I hope that you have seen lots of improvement in your work at school, and I hope your teachers have noticed too.