Fire Your Child's Math Tutor.

Hello Math 2 parents. Thank you for being involved parents and staying abreast of what your child is learning. In an earlier post I mentioned the importance of being efficient with and without technology as it pertains to math. Specifically I mentioned that the technology we are using in class is the TI-84 graphing calculator from Texas Instruments. I wanted to point out that this is not the only technological resource that your child needs to become adept at utilizing. The internet itself is a prime resource for finding free tutoring for the struggling or confused math student. As you may already know you can go to google and search for anything that you want to learn about or find some information on. This may seem obvious but I have to mention it because a lot of students don't realize that they can actually go to google for help with math. A lot of students use search engines to help them with papers they need to write for English, History, Science, etc. but they don't use them to gain insight into the world of mathematics. In my previous post I mentioned 5 major topics/techniques used for solving quadratic equations. Again they are solving quadratics by factoring, completing the square, taking square roots, using the quadratic formula, and graphing. I have taken the liberty of modeling how easy it is to search for these topics on the web on your own. Below are short tutorials on how to solve quadratics using each of the five different techniques. It took me about 30 seconds to find them. They contain about 15 minutes of content and explanantions. To find them I went to a website that may be more helpful to the math world than Google. I went to http://www.youtube.com/ and typed in quadratic equations for my search. Various videos about all of my topics came up and I just chose the ones that I liked the best. Please take a look and then encourage your child to find videos to help them understand the math topics I cover. You never know, they may find a teacher online that has more charisma, good looks, likeability, and better methods of helping one learn than I do. Please click on the videos below:

Solving Quadratics by Factoring

Solving Quadratic Equations by Completing the Square

Solving Quadratic Equations by Graphing

Solving Quadratic Equations Using the Quadratic Formula

Solving Quadratic Equations by Taking Square Roots

Technology in the Classroom

Technology in the Classroom

Greetings Math 2 parents. I hope that my blog is very helpful as I attempt to convey what I am teaching your children and what is going on in my classroom. With that said I will delve right into the specifics. Right now we are nearing the end of our Quadratic Functions unit. At this time your child should know multiple techniques for solving quadratic equations. These techniques include solving by factoring, solving by taking square roots, solving by completing the square, solving by using the quadratic formula and finally solving by graphing. Your child has also been introduced to various ways of solving quadratic equations by graphing. Not only do they know how to solve by using graph paper and creating the graphs of quadratic equations in standard form, vertex form, and intercept form by hand, but they also know how to do all of this when using technology. Yes, we have a classroom set of TI-84 graphing calculators that they have been learning to use on a daily basis. Incorporating technology into learning is growing increasingly more and more important. As you know the world is constantly changing because of technology and it is important for students to know as much as they can about new technology to keep pace with the rest of a very competitive world. That is why I promote being equally efficient and knowledgable when it comes to various math concepts with and without the use of calculators. To get an idea of what these calculators look like and what exactly I am talking about you can got to the Texas Instruments website, http://www.education.ti.com/ , and view a tutorial. At this website you can also buy a calculator for your child (they range from $80 to $140) if you decide that it is worth the price. Other great websites for you and your child to learn more about calculator technology include http://www.tialgebra.com/ and http://www.atomiclearning.com/. Below I have added a link to a quick tutorial. If you don't want to go to the texas instruments website you can just click on this link and it will quickly show you how to graph a basic linear equation: http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/en/movie/16258/play_window?type=Tutorial&sid=1365