Everyday Math
By Mary Ellen Bafumo

This issue's focus on mathematics coincided with my family's move from Florida to North Carolina. While planning and actually moving, I noted each time that math was needed to make a decision or to accomplish a task. When the move was completed, I was amazed at how deeply integrated and absolutely essential math skills were to everyday life.

Choosing a moving company involved determining the percentage of difference between weight and price estimates. Calculating how many extra boxes would be needed required weight and volume measurements.

Application to life
NCTM standards have had an impact on making math instruction more relevant to the students' lives. Yet even today, far too many struggle with mathematics because they don't see its connection to their lives. For many students, the issue of relevance means the difference between engaging with ideas or resisting them. Once math's practicality is established, much of the opposition to mastering math skills fades.

The key is that teaching math should reflect its application to life from the outset. One of the best ways to accomplish this at any grade level is to use familiar and recognizable materials that leave no doubt about math's practical aspects. Using food labels, cereal boxes and newspaper advertisements can provide a dazzling array of mathematical possibilities that use the four basic operations and in creative and motivating ways.

Building skills
Use ads that interest students (cars, travel, fast food, athletic equipment) to build skills with word problems. For example, if the class was purchasing new soccer balls for every grade, how many would be needed if one was purchased for every 10 students?

Plan a class meal for a holiday or social studies unit and determine the amounts of food needed per person. Find the lowest cost of each item after comparing ads, the cost per person and the total cost of the meal. Use measurement skills in food preparation and calculate preparation time. Teachers who integrate content also make use of these easily available, no- cost instructional materials for science (nutrition, matter, chemicals); the arts (color, shape, pattern); literacy (letters, word recognition, spelling, grammar); social studies (geography, culture) and foreign languages.

Make learning meaningful to students and watch their understanding and achievement increase.

Mary Ellen Bafumo directs principal and teacher development at the Council for Educational Change.

January, 2004, Vol.34, No.4