Academic Musings & Tech for Learning

Last week I had the pleasure and honor to conduct a guest math lesson at the Arturo Schomberg Bronx facility of Satellite Academy High School. [You can also read more about the Satellite Academies here. Shawn Welcome is the Principal.] The lesson I created is called “Dining Out” and this idea can work well particularly well with older students in a consumer math, personal finance, and/or basic algebra review class. The primary activity involves ordering dinner from a menu and getting as close to $50, without going over, including sales tax & gratuities.

Some envision a curriculum around the topic of EveryDay Math. With my personal experience and background in finance (I worked on Wall Street for a number of years, as a Mortgage Office after that and for a financial planning firm), I really know a lot about this and it is one of those things I really like teaching. Too often our students graduate high school knowing nothing about credit cards, bank accounts or budgeting. There are all kinds of financial decisions we make – from picking a cell phone plan to furnishing an apartment – and a class like this can give students a real jump on dealing successfully with these situations.

At The Young Women’s Leadership School in East Harlem, NY I taught a similar class, and I really enjoyed the students and their engagement with the subject matter. There were equations, too, of course, but it all fit into Math in Every Day life. The school has a computer lab & mobile laptop carts that can be used, too. Students can learn to use a spreadsheet program, research investments, and tap into an online Mathematical Skills plan to practice and create their portfolios. Dan Stein, college professor and consultant, has developed a spreadsheet that students can use to track their progress and link directly to AAAMath.com for topic reviews and practice.

I published the lesson on the web using google pages and used a calculator widget from Lab Pixies. Widgets are great… and this one cames in handy! Lab Pixies has something new call “moodgets”…. I’m sure you’ll be seeing this one on myspace … and it could be great to use with little kids when learning about expressions and feelings..

For more teaching ideas, lesson plans and articles, see my Portfolio page at LynneMBailey.com.