Hello G7 Students and Parents,
As I may not have introduced myself to everyone, my name is Mr. Todd Davis (Mr. Davis to students), and I will be the G7 & G8 Math teacher this year. It has been a great week of getting to know your sons & daughters, and everyone in the ABIS community! Hopefully you have had a chance to read my introduction letter, but if not, I’ve created a link to it here just in case. Either way, I hope we will get to meet each other in person soon.
Please be attentive to the ABIS calendar for the unit assignments and feel free to contact me with any questions at t.davis@abisoman.com I hope to post some photos from math class next week! For some details about our first unit, please continue reading below.
Best wishes,
Mr. Davis
The first unit of study in math this year will be to take a unique look at problem solving strategies. Some of the strategies we will cover include: Drawing Diagrams; Systematic Lists; Eliminating Possibilities; Matrix Logic; Looking for Patterns and more.
So, what is Problem Solving? Problem solving has been defined as what to do when you don’t know what to do. In previous math classes, students have often had specific examples to follow on most exercises. An exercise essentially asks you to repeat back a method you have learned on a similar example. A “real life” problem is usually much more difficult, because you usually don’t have a preconceived notion as to how to solve it. With the problems we will start the year with, there won’t be a “recipe” to follow. And students won’t have seen a similar example in class. To solve the problems, students will have to use their creative abilities and become true inquirers by employing a broad range of heuristic strategies like the ones listed above.
I’m looking forward to the challenge and I hope your sons / daughters are too!