Hey guys, welcome to the blog, I have found a few articles on the current state of math education in the world. Some of them are very college based or United States based, but I think they get their point across. Please choose one to read and comment on this blog posting with a minimum of a 50 word response. You will not be graded on your opinion, but you will be graded on how closely you read the article and how well formulated your opinion is. Please let me know which article you've chosen and include your name, there is a sample below.
Is Algebra Necessary? New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Mathematics. Trust Me. It's Important in Your Life. ABC Science:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/01/23/3674843.htm
Do The Math Right. Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/do-the-math-right-ainissa-ramirez
Thanks. See you tomorrow,
Mr. Schiff
Is Algebra Necessary? New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Mathematics. Trust Me. It's Important in Your Life. ABC Science:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2013/01/23/3674843.htm
Do The Math Right. Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/do-the-math-right-ainissa-ramirez
Thanks. See you tomorrow,
Mr. Schiff
I read the article: Do the Math Right and I completely agree with the article. Math classes are designed to be too difficult for students these days and many people, like myself feel frustrated and easily defeated by math classes. I often wonder why it is important to learn a lot of the material. When they said that a lot of money was being spent for students not to even learn math, I found this incredibly true and thought provoking. How depressing! But it is my goal to enjoy the school year and try harder in a math class which is much more project based and very hands on. I want to ask a lot of questions and really grow more comfortable this year with math. -Danny Boy Schiff
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI selected the article: do the math right. This article helped me understanding why so many students actually struggle in math for no reason. Teachers are trying to do math classes more fun and interesting for students. I think thats great because in my old school math was really boring.. Teachers do everything to support students and to help the ones who are weaker than others. I learned a lot new stuff i didn't know from this article and I am looking forward to my math class this year.
ReplyDelete- Isabella Aders
I read the article "Is Algebra Necessary?" and at first I really thought that it will try and convince me on how algebra is so great, but turns out that algebra is really an obstacle for many people. I myself do not struggle so much with algebra and thought that is a necessary subject, but looking at the statistics made me realize that students (at least in the U.S.) have to drop out of schools, universities etc. because they cannot pass their exams since every exam has some algebra in it. I really liked the point the author makes that math in general is very important and will serve you well in life, but not many people would use algebra unless their jobs require it, but that's not relevant because people who struggle with algebra probably wouldn't apply for jobs like that. To solve the problem of students around the world failing their exams because of algebra schools should make algebra courses not mandatory, so that students struggling with it can have an easier time. That still means that math is important and should be kept mandatory because reading the other articles helped me realize that math is truly needed and would help you big deal in life.
ReplyDeleteI read your article, Mr. Schiff: I agree math is very important in the life of every person. Every day a person uses mathematical operations wherever he was.
ReplyDeleteI think math is very interesting lesson
but to be truthful to me it can only with difficulty. I hope together with you I'm going to love math)
i choose the article Do the math right as i found it the most interesting for me to read.
ReplyDeleteI got to learn a lot from this article as it was telling us how you need math in your life. it thought me that without maths you cant get anywhere in life to be a very successful person because math is your life :) teachers struggle alot to teach and motivate children as they dont care or give notice while the teachers are trying to make class the funnest class to be in . it is not an easy topic. it also tought me that math isnt what you just learnt in class but its what you have to revise and learn extra to keep your mind going in all the time becuase as you said math isnt a reading subject its a subject that needs time and practice to archive your result ;)
Adam Ashur grade 9
I read the article Mathematics. Trust Me. It's Important in Your Life. I actually liked this article and, as well as the writer, i disagree with Jodi's opinion.
ReplyDeleteI bet that most of us don't know how the internet works, even if we use it practically everyday. I honestly cannot imagine my life without the internet, and if there was no maths, there would be no internet.
Jodi said 'Calculus. Trust me. You will never use it', and I kinda agree with that, because not everybody uses calculus in their lives, although there are other people that use it in order to make stuff that we use everyday.
-Alessia Negri
Mr. Schiff I totally agree with the article! Some people might feel that they dont use algebra in real live but they do.they use it every day and is a really big problem because a lot of people fail because of algebra i think algebra is realy importent in our life this is my openion about the article
ReplyDeleteI read the article: Is algebra necessary?
ReplyDeleteIn my opinions this article wasn't so much about agreeing or disagreeing but more to show how big the struggle with algebra is and that impacts a lot more people than you'd think. For example in Nevada 45% of the students fail algebra. This is obviously just way too much and has to be decreased drastically. An Idea I'd have to decrease this is to make a "algebra only" class either in a free period or after school. It would be a mixture between a tutoring class and a regular math class. The learning schedule would be much more flexible according to the students needs. However it would still be taught like a regular math class. I think this could be a great opportunity for a lot of struggling students to improve their grades.
I chose the article: Mathematics. Trust Me. It's Important in Your Life. I learnt from this article that math is fundamental and it is the centre of al technology and mechanics without math we wouldn't be able to surf Facebook and connect to the internet. This shows that whatever we use of mechanical involves using the maths of the inventor. Even now when i am typing this tiny report i am using math. This shows me that there is a much higher level of math than we can imagine.
ReplyDelete-Christopher Stanford
The article that I decided to read was “Mathematics. Trust Me. It’s important in Your Life”. As soon as I began to read it, I realized how eye-opening it was. Originally, I thought the same thing as Jodi, the woman who inspired the article. I believed that complex math such as calculus, trigonometry, and very advanced areas of algebra were useless unless you decided to pursue that field. Although, this article has made me think otherwise. Once the writer started to mention huge corporations such as Google and Amazon, I was eager to read more since I know these companies (and others) are leading and enhancing daily life in today’s world. Even when the writer started to talk about how math affects meteorology, I was interested and wondering if the advances in mathematics has helped save areas from big storms and weather-related natural disasters. In conclusion, I'm glad I read this article since it has changed my view of mathematics in general. -Leslie Davis
ReplyDeleteI read the article: “Is Alegbra Necessary? ”, the data showen in the start of the article made me interested, because I think it is believable. Although it grabbed my attention, it deceived me a little because it refered to other maths and my first thought of it was that it would only have Algebra. In my personal opinion the article was written well, because it expresses the opinion of teenagers (in the start). As a reader, I enjoying hearing datas and references from other websites or people, it turns more believable. My favorite part is when it mentions that many colleges seek for upper level of math, even though the student can have very good scores in other subjects. Reading, you discover that many jobs ask for a high math level, and I agree that math is important in the world, since we use it daily. Colleges should look to other academic classes, and accept people in their subject, not only for the math courses. I can relate to MIT data, since previous graduates from my old school weren´t accepted for not having High Level Math (IB). I agree with the article since it explains that math shouldn´t be the focus,yes other classes that the student is involved and good at. I am excited to see and learn the differences from the previous math I have been learning in my last school and here. -Luana Pallaro
ReplyDeletei read the article: Do the Math . . . Right
ReplyDeleteI kind of agree with the writer but I also think that it is the system that doesn't only work but are students that think might not be helpful, But here comes the fun schools should try to involve students to learn math and to make them start to like the subject, also many students have plans for their future but might not understand the importance of math in life.
I read the article " Is Algebra Necessary?" and I agree completely agree with what it says. Math classes force people and young students to think and process everything quickly, but if you miss one thing then you wont understand the next or the next and so on. They are the reason why so many students in the US are not able to finish the high school, they decrease your "pool of brain" as the article says. Many people including my self struggle with this subject and i agree with the author when he says that common math is worth learning and will help you through your life but if you don't have a job or something that requires algebra then you wont use it. Schools should make algebra an elective and if your good at it and really interested you apply but other people like me now will have a better chance to do better in school and pass high school with no problems.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article "Mathematics. Trust me. It's important in your life" I realized that for every single thing we do we use algorithm. Algorithm is a procedure that works out calculations step by step. This article made me understand that math isn't only that boring subject you have in school, but it is a regularly used element. I never realized that math was there behind every single thing. Thanks to this article I understood how important math is in life.
ReplyDelete-Marla Fritz
I read the article: Do math right!
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I 100% agree with the writer. It taught me that, math is an essential part of your everyday life in the present and future. In order to excel in whatever your interest may be you need to have some sense of mathematic ability. It also taught me in so many places math is being taught incorrectly. The reasoning behind that is because it is just how the teachers were taught in the past and from there it was just passed down, as if there was no other way. Therefore in kindergarten and the years to follow, the students have created a hatred for math that follows them to college. This causes them to not want to try and prevents them from doing what they want to do in years to come. In conclusion in some way, shape, or form math needs to be introduced to kids from the start as something fun and interesting. So they can go on and do what they have a passion for without math standing in the way. -Emma
I read the article "Do The Math . . . Right" and it also refers to algebra. As algebra fails many students every year why doesn't the world make it optional whether or not you want algebra class.
DeleteThe "human element" has been taken away from math and now-a-days you have more students sleeping than studying(in class). This can change, "make maths easier" that's something you don't hear every day. The concept in this speech is not make maths easier but rather make maths exciting.TASIS knows how to do that by giving us Mr. Schiff ;) but there isnt many of him.
There's a small phrase I've always heard from my dad "Everything you do is maths" I also heard this today in Mrs. Bendel's class.
In the next section of the article, it states that there is no motivation, If some people think all it needs is motivation then that's really simple, the truth is, motivation is not all that is asked of all of us, we also need alot of energy and we need teachers by our side. Maths can be a lot more motivating simply by adding energy to what happens in class and how everything goes around.
In the next part of the section it says that schools spend 2 billion dollars, it seems little but think of it as this 2,000,000,000.00 and this is only for college, not adding High School, Middle School and Elementary. Many people fail to achieve the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in fact 60% of all those who try.
Not everybody is a genius in math but all those who fail to achieve the math section either get in or it's game over and it is one of the least recommended achievements.
Thank you :)
-DODI/RAID/RYAN/LIBYA
I read the article:Do the math right. I completely agree with everything they mentioned in the article. Teachers should have a new method of teaching because the traditional method isn't helping many people. If math class was more active and entertaining teachers would have the students complete attention and people would get better grades. Math is a tough subject and it does crush some peoples dreams and that is why with a new system I think it would be better for everyone.- Camila Verdes
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI chose the article "Is Algebra Necessary?" and i found out that its not an opinion based article, it was more of a article which gives you facts. These facts show that there are so many students failing algebra, that so many students get dropped out. An example is that in Oklahoma 33 % of the students, failed to pass the year of 2012/13. As Shirley Bagwell said "to expect all students to master algebra will cause more students to drop out" - Shirley Bagwell,
ReplyDeletewith this quote she means that to want all the students to master algebra the school will lose more students. It would be better to make algebra a class you can choose for those people who want to become a bussines manager, a chemist etc.
I read the article: Mathematics. Trust me, it is important in your life. Currently math is not a popular subject and I'm obviously the weak in math because I cannot calculate out an equation immediately. This article basically told many offers that math had sent into modern life (technology, architecture, etc). It supports a positive message and It showed a mathematical theory and supported a positive message, accurately brings a strong curiosity to the students and gave a interesting sense of mathematics. Especially the topic 'Algorithms are Amazing', really gives me a big impression thus I realized that math is a matter of cardinal significant. I think I will brings a new point of view in math section and give a expect at my math classes in the term of this school section.-Yiling Wei(Mika)
ReplyDeleteI read the article Do the math right.I agree with this article.Students now struggle with math and algebra a lot.For no reason.I think that the teachers are doing best they can to make students more interested in class.I really think math is very important and should not be only a class for students to pass or fail.I think every high school should take ıt because ıt is useful everywhere in our lives.I learned more about math and algebra.
ReplyDelete-Ecem
I have read all the articles. And the most interesting to me was "Do The Math Right" And I totally agree with the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was impossible to believe that during a day we do simple calculations that help us in math. I hope to have a great year in your class, and I hope that you will help me to love math.
-Gully
I decided the article about "Do the Math Right " I agree with the article because i also think that most of the students have lost interest in algebra and a challenge U.S. teachers to return that interest to students again.Every year, millions of students are struggling in algebra class because they are not interesting in this subject and i think its quiet important problem for a teachers.
ReplyDeleteKristina
I read the article: "Mathematics. Trust me. It's important in your life". I'm not totally agreed with this article because you only need it for Facebook,Twitter, Google and other social blogs but there are millions of other jobs that you can use Algorithms and math in general in other jobs too but you really need mathematics for your life I'm really looking to make math one of my best things in my life.
ReplyDeleteRron Ll
I read “ Do The Math Right “
ReplyDeleteThis article tell us math is important . Math is our nature . I really agree wıth this article and ıts auther because math related to everythıng and everywhere . The article tells about U.S. teachers have different ways to teach student and ıt is a good example for us. After we read this article we are more interesting in math and ı am expectıng the math classes. - begüm
I read the article: "Mathematics. Trust Me.It's important to your life" I totally agree with it because i think there are a lot of people dont think they use much math in their daily lifes.But actually they do!After reading this article, I've got a new point of view to mathematics.I hope it will help me to reach higher level in math.
ReplyDeleteI read: "Mathematics. Trust me. It's important in your life" When I first started the article I thought I would disagree with it completely but as i read on i realized how much we are able to do with math and algorithms. Without these tools we wouldn't be able to use google or our smart phones and that thought alone makes me cringe. This article showed me that we need math way more credit for how easy it makes our lives.
ReplyDelete-Mady
I read the article : «Do the Math...Right» and I agree with it. In my opinion, this article perfectlly explains why students struggle in math and why it is sometimes boring. I didn't always understand math in my old school and sometimes felt confused, so I think it is a good idea to stop teaching «if all students are future mathematicians» and make it fun and interesting. It will be great if teachers change the outdated mindset and stop to «spoil» our generation. I got to know a lot of new information that I didn't know before reading this article and I think that math is really important in our lives. -Yanina
ReplyDeleteI chose the first article "Is Algebra necessary?".
ReplyDeleteWhen I finished to read this article my first opinion was that being good in algebra is very important in all the schools of the world. But I'm not so sure that everyone must learn Math like their most important subject because Math doesn't need for everything, my opinion is that Math needs to open your mind and to have more awareness of my actions because mathematicals are very precise and not so ordinary. Everyone must be free to decide his school subjects with a little percentage, like Mathematics.
Maria Vittoria.
I read the article "Do The Math Right". I absolutely agree with the article.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I never really liked math, but I always knew that it's a very important part of your life. I didn't really understand why though.
By reading this article, I understood that you actually need it in your life. If you want to be a successful person, you HAVE to learn math. Without knowing math, you can't pass the exams, so you can't go to college or get the job you want. We face math everywhere.
So many students struggle in math, but the main reason to their struggling is - they don't pay enough attention or just don't care about math. Sometimes, teachers struggle even more than students. because it's really hard to motivate a person, who doesn't want to learn.
Teachers just have to make math more interesting and fun, so the students who struggle in math get involved and pay more attention. Therefore students will be interested in math. Nobody wants to listen to a boring teacher, that only reads from the papers. -Lila
I chose an article: "Mathematics. Trust Me. It's important in Your Life".
ReplyDeleteFirst when I started reading it, I agreed with Jodi, the woman who said that you will never use calculus. But when I read it, I changed my opinion. We use math every day and we don't realize it. We use it not only in math class. But also after school when we go on Facebook or search something in Google. It's all math. Without math we wouldn't have internet or technology. Math is Really important in your life.
-Jenny Kravchuk.
I read "is algebra necessary?" In my opinion its not because algebra is not used in our daily lives like other types of math are. In my opinion algebra shouldn't be a high school subject but a collage subject. Algebra should be a subject people take if the career they are studying is demanding it. For example engineers, architects, or some science related careers need algebra so they should be able to take it in collage. On the other hand people that want to be a history teacher, or a hair dresser or a producer or what ever else that doesn't include the use of algebra shouldn't be obligated to take it, so why make those students struggle during high school with the subject when they would never use it during their daily life? -dany
ReplyDeleteI read the article: Mathematics. Trust Me. It's Important in Your Life. ABC Science, I completely agree with everything it says, calculus is a very important thing in our lives and that without it, life would be very different to what it is now, but calculus is probably not used by everyone everyday. If you wanted to become a computer scientist it would probably be a good idea to study calculus but if you wanted to work as a journalist it probably wouldn't be very relevant. It is important to everyone but it is probably not entirely relevant to everyones job or life. I hope to be able to study calculus in my schooling career.
ReplyDelete-hugo
i read:Mathematics. Trust me. It's important in your life. And i now have a much bigger understanding for the use of math in everyday life.i had no idea that math had such a big impact on my everyday life.If you look around you you will see that every single thing is related or made with some sort of math: Any electronic was made with programming, your pencil was made by a programmed pencil make! Life would be completely different without math. Never again will i say : when am i even going to use that !
ReplyDeleteDo The Math Right. Edutopia: I agree with most of what was said about learning algebra. I would offer a separate class of calculus, for students that want to do jobs like math teacher, scientist, etc. I agree with the idea of getting students motivated for algebra because it might be a different approach to the problems and discussions about algebra.-Daniel
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article "Is Algebra Necesarry" I realized agree with it in some ways, and do not agree in other ways.
ReplyDeleteI think that Algebra is something important but just for a specific things or jobs. Even though some schools require Algebra I do not think it is something that you can not live without, although everyone should know the basics of algebra. Even though my opinion might seem different I am still looking forward to this year with math.BY ALEKSANDER ZABILSKI NOT DANIEL!!
I read the article Do the Math Right
ReplyDeleteI agree with the writer however it is not only the system that doesn't work but maybe the students are affected by their mates that might fail their exams and might think they can't do it as well.In my opinion to avoid this schools and teachers should involve students to participate in their classes bye making them more fun and inclusive.As a result students that before might have lost their will of learning math could get back on their lost truck.
-Umberto Lima
I read an article called «Do the Math . . . Right». A agree with the most things that were written there. Also, I think that math is the most important subject because it make your brain work. It is very important to motivate students and teacher by some bonuses to learn math because the nation that doesn’t know math has no future.-Nikolay Morozov
ReplyDeleteI read the article "Do the Math Right". I think the writer is telling us a really important message because MATH is a necessary part of life for example when people buy objects it just simply required math. The meaning of teaching and learning math is not that we, as mathematicians have to understand the super hard "Differential and integral calculus" that we would never have used in life. Learning math simply needs most of the students to understand and be willing to learn. If the math in school teaches us just to hard for most of the students then is just a stupid and useless thing to do because if they don't understand they won't listen. In the end they just give up, so by doing that is not just a waste of money, is a waste of time and energy. Juliano chang
ReplyDeleteI read the article "do math right." The writer has very good explanations to why we should be taught math in the right way. Students now might not have much curiosity so i completely agree with the author when he says that we should fix our math education at home, not just in class. Watching shows such as numbers is a way to do that but I think it would be cool to ask yourself whether something has a connection to math or not and then figure it out.
ReplyDelete-Fiona Perdomo
I read the article : “ mathematics. Trust me.It’s important in your life”
ReplyDeleteThis Is a very interestng and captivating article ,which talks about maths and about how she affect daily lives. The article also talks about algorithms and what they are used for, and it talks about how maths helped to save the lives of many people in Australia because thanks to all the mathematics which is behind Google Maps it was possible to see where the fires were burning during the crisis of apocalyptic proportions. I liked very much this article and I learned a lot of new things that I didn’t knew before. I have learned what an algorithhms is and that is thanks to algorithms that we can access to information on internet. By reading the article I discovered that in Australia there was a crisis of apocalyptic proportions and that thanks to more powerful computers and through mathematic people could understand the system that produced the weather patterns and that through chemical and ecological processes that control our weather, the meteorologist could discribe our weather pattern. My parents always told me that Mathematic was the base of humans daily lives therefore I always knew how important math was, but by reading this article I understood that my parents were right because I learned that that maths is not useful only to count money or for jobs that include this subject, but that without maths all the social networks and electronic devices would not exist. -Alessandra Ponzone Minzi
I read the article: Do the Math Right. I agree with this article, because it points out the topic on how we should not get rid of math education but instead the to fix it by improving the way it is taught. Many students have forgotten the importance of math so in order to get students engaged, teachers should add a kind of inspiration to this subject. Many students have also had bad math experiences because too much importance has been given to math, meaning that many people have had their dreams destroyed just because they did not have enough knowledge in math and this made many drop out of different educations. This means that math should be less torturing because not all of the students will become mathematicians in the future, many are aiming for another career. In order to help many students, teachers should make math a fun class and teachers who feel comfortable with the subject should be hired to teach math, only. As mentioned in the article another way to make math more approving for students would be by making math be part of a popular culture by also showing television shows like Numb3rs and institutions like the Museum of Mathematics which might change students view of math. These ways will helps students get more engaged in math in every way.
ReplyDelete-Delina
The articoles is very interesting and i think immediatily that it said is true but i think also if someone hate math, he couldn't study maths, because I'm not sure that everyone must learn Math because, form me doesn't need for everything, my opinion is that Math needs to open your mind. Everyone must be free to decide his school subjects, for deciding to yourself your future.
ReplyDeleteSee you tomorrow,
Beatrice B.
After reading the article from the New York Times. I started to think about why my friends fail math class. I realized that many of them fail math class for many reasons some of them because the teacher makes the class very boring and they don't listen to the teacher , other because they just don't get math, and many of them because they don't understand the teacher. To solve this problem teachers and schools should make their math classes more interesting and more fun. They also should make sure that everyone of their students understand the topic. -Juan Pablo
ReplyDeleteI read the article Do The Math Right. I completely agree with the article. Now days, many students don’t see a purpose in learning math even though math is everywhere. Also, teaching math is really expensive. To help students learn basic math, colleges spend 2 billion dollars. However, many students who went to STEM usually leave because the math is too hard for them. In addition, teachers need to be comfortable with the topics in math so that they could provide fun math for the students. -Sergey
ReplyDeleteI read "Mathematics. Trust me. It's important in your life" and i agree with that article. Math is actually useful and you use it in your life. There are so many things made using math, especially websites. For example facebook finds your friends by using math or google maps use math to find different places.With put math, there would be no such things like twitter or Facebook.You use math way more than you think you do. -Alexander Lebedev.
ReplyDelete