Edison’s Dictionary of math learning words - meet four more!

Howw and Whyy. Know and Homework.

Hey, Edison,
Welcome to Edison’s math school!

Four Learning words today (#8, 9, 10 and 11): Howw, Whyy, Know, Homework.

First seven learning words are here.

Today’s article summed up in three lines:

Want your marks to jump? Understand more?
Remember more? Want to not get psyched out by Challenging Questions?
Get to know Howw and Whyy!

Two students Howw and Whyy, meet at a math party.

Hi I’m Howw,

1.       I’m all about knowing how to do the question. Just tell me how to do the question, period.

2.       And only tell me one way. I am not interested in anything else, just the how!

3.       Tell me how add fractions. How do I do this multiply fractions question? How do I graph? How do I find the transformations of this question? How do I find the rate? How do I solve this? How do I …

4.        I want to know the quickest way of doing the question. That’s it.

Whyy: Howw aren’t you interested in knowing other things about the question?
Howw: No!

Hey I’m Whyy,

1.       And I’m all about understanding the how. When I understand how it makes sense and I remember longer.

2.       I want to make sense of the ‘how’, like with fractions for example:
Why do I need a common denominator when adding fractions?
Why don’t I need a common denominator when multiplying fractions?
When dividing fractions why do I change the sign to multiply, and flip the second fraction? Why …?

3.       To understand how, and Howw, I know I have to know what the Word and Symbol mean, know the Picture (the visual), what an easier question is, and lastly like Howw, how to do the question. These 5 are famously knows as The Fantastical 5 5️⃣ (though I guess could have been called the Famous Five, but that was already taken).

4.       And yeah, I’m slower than Howw (I’m the turtle 🐢and Howw’s the rabbit 🐇). But that’s because Howw only has to know 1 thing (How to do the question), I need to know 5 things (Word, Symbol, Pic ... Sometimes life isn’t fair … but if you sleep in your bed you have to make it (that’s my version of, if you make your bed you have to lie in it). I know hokey but if you put a ‘c’ in hokey you get Canada’s favourite sport … 🤣. Too funny.

HOMEWORK

Howw: I do the homework at home, because ‘homework’ means ‘work at home’. I do it because the teacher assigns it. So, I do math work at home … just want to get it done and over with. Then I can say, “I DID MY HOMEWORK’. If there is no ‘homework’ assigned, then of course I don’t do any math at home … because there was no ‘work at home’ assigned 😊. Those are my favourite days 😊😊.

Whyy: I use to call it homework but don’t anymore. Now I call it reinforcing – that’s Step #4 of The Learning 5. When my teacher assigns that work, they’re whispering to me, Whyy … reinforce what I taught, and I do it. Reinforcing has me strengthen what I know 😌.

Whyy: But I first need to understand what my teacher has taught - know the fundamentals, TF5. Second, I start doing the reinforcement – otherwise I have nothing to strengthen. Some of my other Why friends call it practice (they got the name because they have to practice music) and others call it reps (they’re the ones into exercise - short for repetitions). If there is no ‘homework’ assigned by the teacher I still do reinforcing … why wouldn’t I. There’s always something to reinforce or practice or do reps on.

I KNOW IT. I KNOW THIS

Howw: When I say, I know this’ that means, I know 1 thing - how to do the question.

Whyy: When I say, “I know this”, that means, I know 5 things about the question, which means I understand it. So, nix the, I know this, I understand this ✔👍👏🏽 … and I’m getting STRONGER 💪💪!

I DON’T KNOW THIS. THIS IS A HARD QUESTION. I’M STUMPED. I …

Howw: When I don’t know how to do a question, I give up.

Whyy: Why?

Howw” … because I don’t know how to do the question. Duh!

Whyy: So that’s like being up the creek without a paddle ⛵.

Howw: I guess so … though you realize that’s a sailboat and not a boat?
Howw: Whyy don’t you give up when you don’t know?

Whyy: No.

Howw: What? Why Whyy? What do you do? How do you not give up Whyy?

Whyy: I just think about the other parts of The Fantastical 5 and start writing … one always helps me to figure it out. It’s like I have a back-up plan in case I’m up the creek without a paddle (I have extra paddles) - you know crack glass in case of emergency 🧯. Don’t you always have a backup plan … just in case?

Howw: …

Whyy: Howw are you okay?

Howw: Feeling a little hot under the collar 🥵.

Final thoughts?

Howw: Feeling a little zebraish🦓.

Howw: Like it’s raining only on me 💧🌧.

Whyy: Howw, would you like an umbrella ☂?

Whyy: Knowing everything about a question, helps me to remember and figure out challenging questions. And has me know 2-ways to do every math question.

Whyy: Howw you should try it.

Howw: Okay! Okay! Okay! I hear you Whyy!

Whyy: Howw … now you know understand how I work.

Today’s article summed up in three lines:

Want your marks to jump? Understand more?
Remember more? Want to not get psyched out by Challenging Questions?
Get to know Howw and Whyy! Be a Whyy!

Edison 👨🏽‍🏫
Edison’s Math School 🏫
… making math easier❗