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It doesn’t add up.

I have a problem.  This doesn’t add up. I feel negative about this. This is less than, not equal to, what I want to see. I was helping my son with some pre-algebra homework, and decided to go to the website his teacher says is a good source for help. I’ve been there before, but the links to the “free” help are hard to find. While searching, I found this page:

No Tears Math

 

Now – here’s the problem. Actually, I have a few:

  1. Look at the “bias.” They advertise if you want to be “happy” and “stop crying” you should use this website.
  2. The pretty girl creates bias as well — the viewer,  girl or boy, sees this girl, who signs her name coyly,  “me,” and she looks happy and friendly, and who doesn’t want friends? And look–she’s holding a sign that says:
  3. ASK YOUR PARENT TO PAY.

As many of you know, in persuasive writing, there is a ‘call to action.’ Well, the call to action is clear on this page, (got to hand it to them on that one!), and it is this: if your parents love you, if they really love you and want you to be happy, and not cry over math anymore, they will fork over their hard-earned cash that, gee, I don’t know, they might need for food or rent, and buy you on-line math help. The more they pay, the more help you will receive, so if they really, really  love you, they will pay more.

Oh, dear.

Well, grab your hankies, dear boys and girls, dry those tears, because I am going to give you FREE help with math: Y+O+U.

Yes. You.

You know more than you think you do–you may just not be aware of all the resources you have. One thing you should know is that the math teachers at our school are awesome, caring people who will do just about anything to help you. For free. There’s homework help after school. There are resources aplenty, and you can use your laptops to search for great, free math help, like:

http://mathforum.org/dr/math/

http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/web/2000/heal/mathsites.htm

http://www.mathnerds.com/mathnerds/ (in Spanish, too!)

I ended up calling some of my math teacher buddies to help out – I was close to figuring it out, but the little extra insight really helped me help my son. Being a Language Arts teacher, I used my own reading strategies to help me dissect and analyze word problems, and that helps a lot, too. I love when a solution really comes together.