Math Homework

ditto my last math class 1988 algebra II... I stopped helping after the kids passed 5th grade and thats before commons core id be on the short bus licking glass if i had to figure out todays math teachings.

 

Much of Academia think of themselves as "Elitist", and they know best. And they do teach for the standardized tests because that is how the schools are evaluated. It gets much worse at the college level where most of the faculty has never worked in the real world in a productive job in society.

 

College algebra 1 for me. Teacher passed me out of pity. I know 101% I failed.

 

You’re absolutely correct. The last time we were in Japan was in April of this year and we visited their version of a Pre-K of 3 year olds and all of them spoke English. Plus, the attended school 6 days a week. They never seemed to be bothered by it at all.

With the exception of the continent of Africa, most of the other major regions around the world that I have traveled, have all mandated English language as a part of their regular school curriculum! That’s what a 12 year old kid from Russia was able hack major U.S., networks from his little town in “Timbuktu” Russia and he has never set foot outside of his little town . It’s scary!!!

 

mind went to the gutter not going to lie, but I know what you mean. I wish the teachers who taught my kid did the same.

Yes...my kid uses it a lot

I'm fine with teaching multiple methods. Hell when I was learning algebra in high school I couldn't get it, but yet in 7th and 8th grade I could do it just fine. Come to find out it was the way it was being taught in high school that I didn't get. I had a friend who grew up next door to me that was a math teacher in my hs and she tutored me They way I understood and I passed with no issues.

not sure I'm ok with this.

that last part is hilarious....

 

I totally agree with you. The best time to get them into that competitive learning mode is at their earliest age....3 years old or soon thereafter. I do admit that our kids here in America have way more distractions than other kids abroad. I saw a clip on NBC News the other day with a young girl in Syria, sitting in a pile of rubble where her home once used to be, studying and doing her homework. Whilst my son and his buddies at age 7, all stopped in the middle of a peewee soccer match, to watch a plane fly over with a banner for the local fair coming to town.

 

Yup and my 5yo and 11yo love electronics. I have to hide them to make them do other shit sometimes

 

Yup. Our kids are certainly very impressionable nowadays. They can all learn and compete academically, just as well as, their foreign counterparts, if the powers that be, give them a fighting chance.

 

Yep me too, Welcome to the revolution...been asking this question for years now...

 

You are correct. Mathematics can trace its origins to Mesopotamia and Egypt (Middle East and North Africa). The pyramids didn't get built by sheer happenstance.

 

Even better: @1UPPER

 

I think the only thing I have taught my boys, was the importance of critical thinking and thinking for themselves. If you have exhausted your resources, know where to look or who to ask. I had these questions. Did you research it? What did it tell you to do? What was your answer? What was the outcome? I don't do it to be a dick, I do it because I want them to be able to think things through to the end, for themselves. Then ask for help.

 

My wife is a teacher. She loves teaching and has been doing it for 20+ years but she's been thinking about doing something else.
She's so bogged down administrative stuff that is required. Her typical day now is to leave before 7 get home around 6 then grade papers because her conference period was taken by some mandatory training that day. On the weekend she's back up there on Sunday to prep for the next week.
She is a good woman and compassionate, so she deals with the heartache any of the kids are going through. Then she has to deal with parents that are outraged that little Billy didn't get to go to the bounce house because he didn't turn in his homework. Or my kid got sunburned on the playground because you took his hat away that he was not supposed to be wearing in the halls.
Then there are the toughs one, abuse at home, neglect. It takes a special person to deal with all of that.

 

I teach high school math. We phased in common core math in 3 years and phased it back out the next 3 years. We did Math I, Math II, and Math III, but now we are back to Algebra 1, Geometry, and Algebra 2. In high school, it mostly just re-aligned the standards, but for elementary school the common core stuff seems to be more of an issue.

I don't know much about what the lower grades are doing, but I can tell you the students I receive cannot do a lot of simple math. They have to have a calculator for EVERYTHING, and that to me is the biggest issue. I think a large part of it is that they want to incorporate technology into everything and doing worksheets and rote memorization (which is very necessary in math in my opinion) is looked down upon in the educational world. I still do a lot of practice problems in my algebra courses, because to me, repetition is the only way to grasp some concepts. I do not teach to the test personally. We do some sample test problems as bell ringers, but I still teach the students the standards and what I think they need to know. I'm not that concerned with test scores to be honest. I want them to do well, but I would leave my job before I started teaching them just to pass a single test.

All of my students have iPads, so that can be a major distraction if it is not monitored closely. I've got my class set up where I can see all of their screens on my iPad whenever they are out in class. Add in the fact that my area is riddled with opioid drug issues and finding a student with both parents at home and still together is a rarity and you start to see the issues we deal with every day. Some days can be very challenging to say the least.

 

Thank you for what you do! Keep fighting the good fight!

 

Leaving teaching methods aside for a moment, I think a lot of the woes in our education are systemic and cultural.

1. Most school districts are top heavy on administrators vs. teachers. These administrators also get paid a lot better than teachers. This trend has only accelerated over the last several decades.

2. A degree in education is required to teach (this varies from state to state but generally holds true). This may sound like it makes perfect sense until you do some digging and realize that education majors as a group average score in the bottom 1/3 of SAT tests (even lower in math).

https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-the-average-sat-score-for-every-college-major-2014-10

My intention is not to disparage teachers with this comment. There are great educators out there like @AlexWV and many others, but seeing the overwhelming decline in student aptitude (pretty much at a national crisis level), we should be willing to think outside the box and bring in non-education majors to teach, especially in STEM related subjects. I'll use my dad as an example. He is a mechanical engineer and one of the greatest teachers I've ever known (in life issues and in my studies). He's reaching retirement age and has repeatedly stated his desire to bring his 50+ years of experience and knowledge to teach math and science to young people. He did some digging and the school systems in Indiana wouldn't even consider him because he doesn't have an education degree. How f'd up is that?

3. I'm going to keep this last one vague as to avoid the mods coming down on me like the wrath of the gods... PC culture and the equal outcomes mindset (vs. equal opportunities) is not a recipe for exceptionalism.

 

@JRTundra I don't know if I'm a great teacher or not, but I will say I don't fit the test score data. I was one of the top scorers in any standardized testing. I didn't take the SAT...I took the ACT, but I got a full ride to college and scores that would have gotten me into any school I wanted. That being said, being a good teacher is more about caring about the kids and being passionate about your subject matter than anything in my opinion.

I would agree with most of what you said above. Most of our issues I think are cultural/home issues. I have kids that have to worry more about where their next meal will come from than school. These kids worry about what state their parents will be in at home. The parents don't care about school, so there is nothing to make the kids work when they are here.

As far as the teaching with no teaching degree, I'm not sure how I feel about that. There should be some manner to get these people certified to teach possibly short of a bachelor's degree in education, but they shouldn't just be able to walk in and teach. There are things we are taught in education classes that people need to know before stepping into a classroom. And it would be pretty messed up if people without education degrees were taking jobs from people with them, but I don't think that would be an issue, at least not in my state. We have a major teacher shortage and nobody is trying to get our jobs. Heck, we had to strike last year, just to keep our benefits and get and embarrassingly small pay increase.

 

Thanks, Chris! Means a lot.

 

I am thankful we don't have children for this very reason. Bless all you parents out there. I am learning from this thread, great info.

 

Yup!

My mom retired early because of all the bs. Bless you wife and all the teachers in what they have to deal with.

I don't want my kid to be one of those that has no clue and has to use a calculator for everything

I agree....even though I only meet them for a short few minutes in June

 

Thanks, Bree!

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome!

 

Pfff I sucked at math before and I suck at helping my teenage daughter now. My teachers used to get so mad at me because I didn’t know how to show my work. A lot of times I could come up with the answer but couldn’t show you how I got there. Common core just makes it worse for me. Some of it I get. But a lot of it goes right over my head and makes me frustrated. As before, I can come up with the answer but have difficulties showing you how I got there.

What made me hate school was I had a few bad teachers and a couple of them told me I was stupid! I was only in the fifth and sixth grade (same teacher) and that set the precedence for the rest of my school career. I think I’m slightly dyslexic with some learning disabilities that were never diagnosed. I never graduated high school. But about six years ago I went and got my GED. And wouldn’t you know it I passed in the top 90 percentile! Luckily they were using old math. I think I got 77%. And then writing is my second worst. I have horrible sentence structure and essay writing skills LOL.

 

I laugh when my daughter acts like it’s hard to research what she’s looking for. I told her back in my day we had this bookcase that was just for encyclopedias to do any reports with. It took me hours just to figure out how to use them. They are all alphabetized but how the hell do I figure out how to search for something if I don’t know the name of it?
You have the magic of Google! Almost every question you have his answered online somewhere.

I had to get on her about her Data Usage at school. Because I know they are on Instagram and Snapchat. She told me that some of her classes require her to use her phone! I find it hard to believe but now I think it’s true.

 

Thank you sir! You don’t know how good it felt to know that I was not a complete failure. I studied and studied hard to make sure I would pass that test. It brought tears to my eyes when I got the results. It also made me more confident, I pursued bigger things in my life. I never thought it would have that affect, but it sure did. I had the same job for 16 years so it never really mattered if I had it or not. When I got it I was able to feel confident filling out job applications for what I really wanted to do. And doors started opening quicker than I could jump through them. I always lied on my job apps and never got the job. Sounds small but I always wanted a job with the city (I’m too old to be a firefighter) and I had applied many times. The last time I applied I passed all three rounds of interviews and tests. From about 70 people down to me. Then they offered me the job! Now I’m hoping our supervisor position opens up and I’m gonna go for it.

 

You will find that most east Asian and European countries in general have really good education systems, but what really makes them good is that it is generational.
the USA was ranked 3rd in the world in education in the 1950's, we are now ranked 28th.....there was a study done in 2011 with a cross section of a 1000 Americans from 18-64, the results of the test showed that the most literate people were educated in this country during the late 50's and erly 60's.

 

@Thee_Oddball That’s some very interesting data. I think that the key note in the data, is the participants in the study, were Americans (whether by birth or naturalization). This leads me to the question of “Were the most literate participants in this study originally from the United States, or, did they have any foreign influences?” The reason for my said question, is that with reference to the Script Spelling Bee participants, many of the American kids that did well or actually won the contest, who were born here in the United States, but, were first generation Americans. Their parents and other family members were expatriates from other countries in Europe and Asia, or some other countries with higher educational standards.

I am not inferring that us Americans do not have the aptitude to compete on the international stage academically, but, it’s the overall educational system here in America that limits our ability to do so. If we don’t travel overseas or become exposed to the differences in educational standards internationally, then, we may not even be aware of the fact that we are lagging behind. Thus, being ranked 28th globally in education.