OH MY: Sit Your Fraction Axis Down! Math Cursing for Mathlicious Teachers

[Ryan Goble]

Sit Your Fraction Axis Down! Math Cursing for Mathlicious Teachers

By Kim Thomas, 2016 Illinois Teacher of the Year

When you walk into my classroom, it’s like math is giving you a big hug. When someone asks me what subject I teach, I reply Mathlicious! because if I say math, most people want to rotate 10² + 80 degrees and run, much like my students when they first walk into my classroom.

I teach middle school students in Peoria, Illinois at the Peoria County Alternative School. My students are expelled or administratively placed, and like many, my kids are kids who have made mistakes. Their mistakes just got them placed in my school, and I try to prove that to them through a Mathlicious philosophy. As they walk in our room with negative parabolas on their face, I tell them, “Just give me 1/60 of an hour to rotate those negative parabolas into positive ones!” In our classroom, the only negative allowed is a negative integer.

FULL ARTICLE HERE.