Common Core

            Every student learns differently from others. Some students may not even be up to the same level as average students because of learning disabilities. My mom is a teacher’s aide in a special education classroom. The students in this class have harder times paying attention and even staying on the task that they are given. So with this they will not be able to learn the same as a student in the regular education class. When it comes to the common core testing students will have a hard time with the test because they necessarily will not know how it is to do the work. This testing is not going to be fair towards any student. Even after having looked at one of the tests in my class I think to myself how do I do this? This whole thing of no child left behind is crazy because the students are just going to have to have the basic knowledge for these tests. As well as it is not fair to the students when they have to sit at the tests and look at it knowing that they have no idea how to do it. I know when I was sitting looking at one of the tests that they had for fourth graders I had no idea how to do it because it was very difficult. One day after the tests my mom had come home and was telling me about one of the questions that were for fifth grade students. I was amazed by the question and she had written down what the question was and just thought to myself this is crazy.  Now I have been in the classroom that my mom helps and I have seen how the students are and it makes me sad because I know that those students would not be able to know at all how to do it. Regular education students would have possibly a better idea of possibly doing the problem, but may of still had a problem trying to do it.

Visual Learning VS. Kinesthetic Learning

       Everyone learns differently some learn better some ways better than others. When it comes to math it would be better and easier to do it if it was to become more Kinesthetic. For me I learn better this way because its uses hands on. If there was to be ways that when it comes to problems for them to have some kind of an object that could help to see how the problem is done and have a better understanding. For some it can be harder to be able to learn from what a teacher is saying and going over in front of the class. When this is going on in a math class it is going to be much easier for a student to start to daydream and no longer be paying any attention to what is being said and then they will not know what to do for the homework or even a test. There have been many times that I was sitting in a math class in high school and I had completely zoned out because all the teacher was doing was talking and lecturing in the class. I had an understanding of how to do the work but it was still too boring. The class was algebra and I do not know how you can make that class more interesting by bring things that are hands on into it but it can still make it much better and possibly get the students to become more involved into learning the subject and not falling asleep as it is being taught.

As I have been sitting through my math class and we have been going over ways of teaching the students how to do fractions and integers. There are hands on ways to make it easier for the elementary students to learn. With the methods for fractions it did make it easier for me to be able to understand fractions better than before. Even the method of red and black chips for integers is an interesting way to teach integers. When I was at that age level I do not really remember learning that method to do integers. I keep having the feeling that all of my teachers I had when it came to math liked to just stand in front of the class, talk, and go over handouts that they would give us and never really go very far into it and make sure we had an understanding of how to do it.

Is Everyday Math to Hard or We Cannot do the Work Without a Calculator?

            Now a day with everyone having smart phones it has gotten too easy for us to just take out the phone and do simple math problems on the phone. This does not help when someone is given a simple problem and is told to do it in their head. It automatically becomes I do not know how to do this it is too hard for me. There have been times that I have done this and it makes me sad because I was able to do the math in my head and I no longer can because I let myself become lazy and just took out my phone to do the work. I have gotten better lately though when it came to doing math in my head because of the math class that I am in.

            In one of my jobs all of us could not count back money we have to use the register to tell us what the change is going to be. This is sad because as I stated before we are too involved with all of the technology to do any math on our own and need to have technology tell us the answer to everything. I have gotten better with trying to count money back but I always feel that I am not right and end up using a calculator to check myself that I am right. Constantly using calculators does not help us to know that we actually know that we know how to do the problems.

            Even as helpful as scientific calculators are they also pay a role. With these calculators able to make graphs and have the x,y plots, students would not have to do the work for it. It is very easy for students to not do any work and have it all done for then. It is very easy for the students to do the work but it will not be done. With the calculator showing the graph it could be copied over. Even the graph can be made very easily done as well. So the question here is do smart phones make us smart, or not?