Today my math grade 11

I really enjoyed showing my learners that, even though their performance was not very good in the June Examinations, they were happy to see that I take care of them. It looks like as educators we need to keep on encouraging these learners that they can make it. Telling them that it is "YES WE CAN."

I think my learners are a bit disadvantaged as they don't have many successful educated people within their families. It is really hard to explain and encourage young minds. Teachers are doing a great job out there.

Reading and understanding in Mathematics

After having analysed all grade 11 maths results for the June 2009 papers, it became evident that, learners are not equipped with enough skills to read and comprehend the questions. This is prevalent in the questions where, for an example, the question says no use of a calcucator, but you find numbers/solutions that clear come from calculator.

Some of the students could not relate sections accordingly as a result they ended up appyling an incorrect formula, e.g. trying to use Quadratic formula to solve a linear equation.

I think, some emphasis on understanding what the question really wants is of paramount importance, hence I have decided to start the paper all over again and explain the concepts relevant in each question. It is a mammoth task, but what can I do with learners already in grade 11, but cannot read with comprehension.


Comments....

Mandela and numbers

First it had been 46664 used for HIV and AIDS awareness, now 67 minutes for the social activity once a year. These are interesting numbers as they arre not just numbers, but mathematically important numbers.

The first one, 46664 is a palindromic, and now 67 is a prime number in the form 2^6 +1. The other obesrvation is that 6 + 7 = 13, which is also a prime. These are interesting observations to me as a mathematician.

I am trying to look at how math and mandela are related.

Comments welcome...

Mathematical Literacy challenges!

There are quite a few teachers who are challenged in understanding the nature of math lit. I therefore believe that it is important to keep training as many teachers as possible for this subject to be succeccful.

I have lectured/tutored the same group three semesters and note that there are gaps in some aspects for certain students. There is hope as they have improved a lot from the date I started with them a year and a half ago.

We have done interesting hand on activities of which I will upload pictures in due course.

Our math is going down!

It looks like our learners are going down when it comes to math skills. I have noticed this in the June 2009 results in my school and compared it with some of the teachers I met. The learners of today are taken care of through a number ways, but still are not making it to their full potential. I think we need a national and international compaign with regard to math educatuion. There must be initiatives all over to see to it that students are taking math seriously.

Math is an invaluable skill. We need to take this challenge very seriously as math is one subject that instills discipline in education and learning in general.

Comments welcome!