Should First in Math be brought back again for next year students of Baldi Middle School? The math program, First in Math, is heavily used throughout school districts, including the School District of Philadelphia. As the years have gone by, Baldi has dropped other things to keep this program, however with all the hate it gets the question is often asked, why keep this program? With the budget problem as well, in the Philadelphia School District, is it really worth it to keep First in Math in Baldi? To me, I strongly believe it's not worth it, and it should be changed before Baldi make the same mistake next year.
For one reason, I believe that Baldi keeps First in Math, mostly for competition between them and other schools. They believe that if they get a high ranking in the program, it will mean a lot, but truthfully as a student, I see it as a waste of students’ time and the schools
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To me as a middle school student, it doesn’t make sense, because any person who has used the program knows, that the best way to earn points to match Baldi’s and many other schools’ goals is by performing games that uses simple skills students have perfected long ago. For example, students are able to gain more than five thousand stickers doing simple math like adding, answering third and fifth grade questions and also earning more stickers doing games using simple pattern games meant for 1st graders. Some see this as practice of simple skills, but if you mastered a skill such as basic addition, is it really practice, or just useless questions wasting students’ time. For younger students I can see the teachers’ point, but for students of Baldi, First in Math should never be used, because it becomes so useless. Ask yourself this, practice makes perfect, however, does practicing something you're perfect at really help you
Gelernter disagrees with the comment made by a school principal, “Drilling addition and subtraction in an age of calculators is a waste of time” (279). He reveals the bitter truth that American students are not fully prepared for college because they have poorly developed basic skills. In contrast, he comments, “No wonder Japanese kids blow the pants off American kids in math” (280). He provides information from a Japanese educator that in Japan, kids are not allowed to use calculators until high school. Due to this, Japanese kids build a strong foundation of basic math skills, which makes them perform well in mathematics.
This idea is absurd! Our educational grading system is a scale of A, B, C, D, F with mastery being an A, average being an C, and complete failing being an F. What we would be saying to our students under his point is no matter how hard you work and how much effort you give something, if you can’t be perfect you are no better than a failure. How many students would there then be that feel like why even try? This would lead to more drop outs which is another alarming issue.
Forty-two states have adopted Common Core State Standards. These standards were created to focus only on English and Mathematics. In effect of states adopting Common Core Standards, all other subjects taught in school seemed less important. History and Science standards are no longer stressed. Students are limited to being proficient in only two subjects. The Common Core deprives students’ ability to be skilled in multiple areas. These standards do not provide a slight “break” from the challenging fast past teaching of English and Mathematics. In addition to limiting education to English and Mathematics, Jill Bowden explains that the Common Core is affecting kindergarteners by taking “away from materials that encourage playful learning.” (36).
beyond that required level learns that math is in fact, an in nite and expanding eld (pun intended). To
In the essay, “Move over Boys, Make Room in the Crease,” the author, Sarah Maratta, explains the bias against women’s involvement in sports. Maratta states the claim that women should be treated as equal in their aspirations to be involved in sports. Maratta grew up her entire life loving sports; in particular, she was quite fond of hockey. In this essay, we find out that not only does she have a passion for the icy and mostly Canadian sport, but that she has a desire to see women treated fairly in all aspects of the sporting world. While discussing the flaws and ill-treatments of women in the sports industry and society, she conveys a sense of urgency in making sports completely unbiased toward gender and about the true love of the games.
Barr, C., Doyle, M., Clifford, J., De Leo,T., Dubeau, C. (2003). "There is More to Math: A Framework for Learning and Math Instruction” Waterloo Catholic District School Board
Eventually, the problem is not with having Common Core, but the matter is with the way how it is done and applied.
Under their mathematics section on their website they state that “These standards define what students should understand and be able to do in their study of mathematics. But asking a student to understand something also means asking a teacher to assess whether the student has understood it. But what does mathematical understanding look like? One way for teachers to do that is to ask the student to justify, in a way that is appropriate to the student’s mathematical maturity, why a particular mathematical statement is true or where a mathematical rule comes from” (Common Core).They believe that having a uniform way of doing things will eliminate the possibility of mistakes and confusion. It will ensure that teachers across all grade levels are teaching the same processes and that students are getting the correct answers by the correct means. The standards go more into depth of what exact skills should be acquired and at what grade
Prior to integrating literature in mathematics class, the traditional math lesson involved the teacher explaining math examples in the classroom with students taking notes and regurgitating the same procedure on homework problems (Shults, 2008). By using this method, students never had to read the textbook, so long as they paid attention in class. Also, some teachers make exams exactly like their practice / homework problems. If I am challenged very little in my class and am earning good grades, what is my incentive to do anymore than is required?
Wu, Y. (2008). Experimental Study on Effect of Different Mathematical Teaching Methodologies on Students’ Performance. Journal of Mathematics Studies. Vol 1(1) 164-171.
Sherley, B., Clark, M. & Higgins, J. (2008) School readiness: what do teachers expect of children in mathematics on school entry?, in Goos, M., Brown, R. & Makar, K. (eds.) Mathematics education research: navigating: proceedings of the 31st annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australia, Brisbane, Qld: MERGA INC., pp.461-465.
...it comes to providing students with the best education possible to make them successful. Even though mathematics is a hard concept for students of all ages to understand, future educators need to prevent or eliminate the negative thoughts and feelings children have for mathematics. Mathematics is not impossible; it takes time, practice, and patience to be successful in the classroom.
Devlin believes that mathematics has four faces 1) Mathematics is a way to improve thinking as problem solving. 2) Mathematics is a way of knowing. 3) Mathematics is a way to improve creative medium. 4) Mathematics is applications. (Mann, 2005). Because mathematics has very important role in our life, teaching math in basic education is as important as any other subjects. Students should study math to help them how to solve problems and meet the practical needs such as collect, count, and process the data. Mathematics, moreover, is required students to be capable of following and understanding the future. It also helps students to be able to think creativity, logically, and critically (Happy & Listyani, 2011,
Being a person that started off loving mathematics and experiencing different things I can say my beliefs have changed, but are back to where they began. I believe when it is time to teach mathematics this specific subject is going to have students on their toes ready to learn. As stated in my previous autobiography, “mathematics serves as a good subject for people to understand because it is something that follows you after school”, this particular statement serves as true because numbers and operations are real world things that humans