How to Improve Your Math Skills

How to Improve Your Math Skills
By Amit Kothiyaal

Very few people are aware that mathematics is a branch of science; science enhances technology and technology makes life easier. In fact, if you compare our lifestyle to that of the previous generations, we can call ourselves luxurious. You have math to thank for that, because the right ingredients can be destructive when used in wrong amounts.

If that is not enough reason for you to want to improve your math skills, then let's zoom in to your personal life. Nothing in the market is for free. Aside from the basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division you perform in designating your budget, there are discounts to consider and promos to join. How many miles can the gas in your car tank take you? How many yards should the carpet you have to buy be? Did your secretary compute yesterday's expenditures correctly? How can you check? You see, there are plenty of reasons you should invest time in improving your math, because it will give you more confidence in dealing with numbers in daily activities. No, you don't have to throw yourself back in college or in review centers. There are simple and effective ways you can do this without the additional stress or expenses.

An Early Math Challenge

We're not sure where the wacky alarm clock ideas originated from (we bet the Japanese influenced them anyway) but that doesn't really matter as much as the fact that they work. One of these ideas is to require the sleepy-head to answer ten sets of equations in basic mathematics for the alarm to stop ringing. They can get annoying, especially if you are not a morning person, so just concentrate on its benefits. First and foremost, by the time you finish and silence resumes, your brain would be too awake to be seduced back to sleep.

Second, you will become more alert the longer you undergo this morning math surprise, and third, you will master the basics of math without even knowing it. Time pressure and noise will no longer be enough to distract you from coming up with the correct solution.

Download this kind of applications and install them in your mobile phone. Make sure your thread of patience is long enough before you attempt this. Otherwise, your poor phone might end up on the floor, crushed to pieces.

The Advantages of Lending a Hand

The next time your son or daughter asks you to help them with their math homework, say yes and give it your best shot. Learning more about math is never a loss, and in this instance, your interest in numbers may influence your child to do better at school.

Teenagers can offer after-school tutoring for free or for a certain amount of money. Getting paid for assisting others in math education can be an effective motivation to study it further. You wouldn't want to teach others the wrong things, wouldn't you? The people you teach may also add to your current bank of knowledge. Math is like a maze, there can be more ways than one to get to your destination.

A Virtual Learning Experience

Math help need not be boring, and the first two examples are proofs of that. The worldwide web is anything but dull. Online mathematics courses create a suitable playground for modern minds. Lessons are commonly presented in the form of game, puzzles, and trivia, keeping users easily engaged. Similar to the approach of the first examples, your attention is diverted from improving your math skills to interacting with an entirely different and enjoyable game.

During your free time, you can boot up your laptop or bring out your mobile gadgets to access these math applications. Killing time has never been this fruitful.

The Brain is a Powerful Tool

A computer system is patterned after the human brain. If you think the former is impressive, then you should be in awe of the latter. But to maximize your brain's greatness, you have to exercise it. Avoid using calculators when doing your grocery of summing up your monthly bills. Calculate mentally whenever you can, and bring out your gadgets only to check whether you are correct.

This practice makes you less reliant on tools and more confident in your skills. It also saves time, energy, and space in your bag. The next time you see numbers, get excited and start jogging your brain. You will be shocked by the results.

The author loves writing on various subjects like Math, English and Science. He also writes about the advantages of online math courses, and how virtual Math lessons can act as an effective medium to learn the trickiest concepts.

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Developing A Wide Subject Vocabulary-Guidelines for the Teacher

Developing A Wide Subject Vocabulary-Guidelines for the Teacher
By Richard D Boyce

As a teacher, your class will take its lead from you in all that you do. The use of language is the first place this will start. Your example of using the language of the subjects you teach must be at the highest possible level. That doesn't mean to use words whose meanings are not known to the class but rather ones which enhance a child's progress.

Obviously, any new terminology you use in each subject must be explained and used in ways to consolidate the new work to be learnt. Below are some ways you could enhance the students' understanding of the use of language.

• Colourful language. This does add interest or excitement to what you say or teach. No one says that when you teach you must use boring language. Use words that add colour and excitement to what you teach. Make it a goal of yours to look for ways to add colourful language particularly to the more difficult topics that you teach.
• Use the language of the subject discipline often. Teach the class the origin and meaning of each new term that you introduce.
• Create a spelling list of terms as you teach each topic. Some texts provide the lists for you.
• Have a quiz of these terms often. Have little spelling bees/contests.
• Have what I might call a definition test/quiz where the students write a definition of a subject term in simple language to explain its meaning to a person who has never seen the word before.
• In your own speaking, learn to say the same ideas in as many ways as possible to give constant examples to your class about how to use our language in a variety of ways.
• Insist that your students use the terms of the subject discipline in their answers to questions they write and in the questions or answers they ask or give.

Many modern syllabuses contain a requirement that communication as a skill in the subject must be assessed as part of the total assessment program. This implies that the student must use the terminology of the subject in their answers to all assessment tasks to show understanding of the language of the subject being tested.

The student needs a good base in the language of the subject to know what is required in each assessment task before they can begin to answer the question and answer in such a way as to show understanding of the subject.

During the last 16 years of his teaching career, our author, as Head of Mathematics, had to implement within his school's assessment program a new marking criteria in the assessment of Mathematics. That criterion was testing a student's communication skills in Mathematics. This meant he had to provide teacher inservice and make changes to the work programs to teach the students how to communicate in Mathematics. Go to http://www.realteachingsolutions.com for more information on this and other assessment issues.

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Quizzes To Develop Communication Skills

Quizzes To Develop Communication Skills
By Richard D Boyce

All subjects we teach have their own language and terminology. These help communicate meaning to what children learn and help them communicate what they have learnt more effectively. Consequently, we, as teachers, need to teach and test the language/terminology of our subject areas. The quiz in its various forms is a way to enhance that learning in a time efficient and fun way.

Mathematics has always been an area where the quiz has been used to great effect. Below are examples of how it can be used in Mathematics as an example for other teaching areas.

1. Subject Language/Terminology Quiz

Here the teacher simply gives students a series of terms. The students write out in their own words an explanation of each term.

e.g.: concurrent parallel congruent collinear skew (Maths) constellation galaxy planet satellite orbit (Science) revolution democracy nationalism parliament cabinet (Hist.)

Students should be encouraged to use other subject terms/words to help explain what the terms mean. Diagrams should be encouraged to enhance explanations.

2. Terms Quiz

This really is the reverse of the Language Quiz above. Here the teacher gives a "definition" and asks the students to give the appropriate term to fit the definition.

e.g.: (i) Lines which meet at the same point are said to be (Concurrent)

- What name do we give to numbers which are non-terminating, non-recurring decimals? (Irrational Numbers)

- What name do we use to describe figures in Geometry which have congruent angles in one to one correspondence but no equal sides? (Similar Figures)

- What names do we give to the ratio of vertical change to horizontal change? (Gradient, Slope, Tangent of an Angle)

- Name the part of Mathematics which studies the relationship of the angles of a right-triangle with the sides of that triangle. (Trigonometry)

3. Spelling Test

Students must be encouraged to use terms correctly in the justification process which has become an important part of modern teaching. This means that the spelling of terms must be seen as important as well.

During my own school years and in my early teaching years, our teachers often broke up words into their parts. They explained what each part meant and how the word got its meaning. We should retain this idea:

I run adjective ending

e.g.: con / curr / ent

Prefix - "with or together"

Therefore "concurrent" literally means, "I run together".

Obviously, these spelling tests should be included when the topic is revisited or after it has been taught.

These tests should not be more than five questions at a time.

Other ways to improve spelling of the terms of the subject include:

1. A list of incorrectly spelt terms and ask student to write out the list correctly.

e.g.: Rewrite the Maths terms, spelling them correctly:

i) equotion (ii) paralel (iii) multiplication

(iv) numarel (v) integer

2. A list of say '5' spelt a number of ways and ask student to select the correct one.

e.g.: Read each list of Maths terms and select the one correctly spelt:

(i) intecept; intercept; intecerpt; intencept

(ii) equation; equtation; equotion; equitation

(iii) linner; linear; linnear; lionear

(iv) function; funition; function; founction

(v) quadatic; quadratic; quodratic; quodrotic

4. Symbols Quiz

This is an excellent way to revise work in Geometry and to ensure symbols in proofs/explanations/working answers are well understood and used correctly.

e. g. Explain what each of the following symbols mean in Geometry:

or In the following Mathematical equations a symbol has been used incorrectly or has been omitted. Cross out the incorrect symbol and replace it with the correct one or add the missing one, e.g.:

(a) 6... 4 + 3 = 100... 5... 7

(b) 6... (4 - 3 ^ 42

or In Chemistry, you could test the chemical symbols.

or In physics, you could test the accuracy of formulae.

or In English, you could test abbreviations.

This article explains one of a series of different types of quizzes that our author has used, to great effect, during his career in high school classrooms. In his early career, he taught several subjects to junior high school classes where he learnt the art of using the quiz as a revision tool and as an introduction to a new topic where he reviewed past knowledge. You will find two eBooks on his website http://www.realteachingsolutions.com explaining his use of different types of quizzes. The titles are, "The Quiz in Middle School Mathematics" and "The Quiz as a Teaching Strategy".

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