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Title: Fantasy Football and Mathematics: A Resource Guide for Teachers and Parents, Grades 5 and Up (Fantasy Sports and Mathematics Series)
ISBN: 0787994448
Author:
Dan Flockhart
Publicate Date: 2007-03-23
Publish: 2007-03-23
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.94
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $12.89
Amazon Merchant Price: $16.47
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| Customer Review: |
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1: I LOVE Fantasy Football & Mathematics!
I teach 5th grade gifted and talented students in an enrichment pull out class. I have 3 groups and I see each group 1 full day per week. We started Fantasy Football at the beginning of the school year. It's now Week 13 and my students are still enthusiastic and engaged. We started off slowly with the integer equation and we're now using the default equation - adding, multiplying, subtracting and reducing fractions with ease.
A neighboring school is also using Fantasy Football & Mathematics, so we started a "friendly" competition. Each week we post our high scores on our web pages and the school with the highest score wins. A local sporting goods store donated a football helmet and we put helmet stickers on for each win. When the season ends, the school with the most wins will get to dump a water cooler on their teacher. The kids are psyched about this and right now it's too close to call! :)
I would recommend FF&M to any teacher who is looking for a way to motivate his/her students to use and extend their math skills. Your kids will beg to play and their level of engagement lasts for the entire season. The points equations range from easy to extremely challenging, so it is appropriate for grades 5 - 12. It makes an excellent enrichment program and you can choose how much time you want to devote to it each week. Dan Flockhart has a website that you can use to easily check your scores and there is even an online competition that includes celebrities, students and teachers. When football season is over,you can play Fantasy Basketball or start Fantasy Baseball in the spring. It's a highly motivating program that will have even your mathphobes asking "Are we playing Fantasy Football today?"
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2: Want to Engage Students Mathematically?
This is the first year that I have been using Fantasy Sports Math. I teach remedial math (below Algebra I) for 9th graders at a large suburban public high school. I teach on a block schedule...100 minutes per class every other day, and I have my students create their own Fantasy Teams, which they calculate points for once per week. It's an extremely effective "filler" activity that have students primarily on-task as they busily sort through, calculate, and post their player's stats...all while learning how to convert equivalent fractions, turn improper fractions into mixed numbers, etc. It's exciting to "talk smack" with the students as I have my own team and see students do the same as they compete with their other classmates. For this reason, I give it four and a half stars (if Amazon had that option). FSM's user-friendliness took a huge step forward this year as the author funds a website that actually gives you the weekly stats of each player...so no more looking at cumbersome newspaper box scores (yikes!). Also, with the purchase of the book, the author gives you a Player Value ranking that allows students to create their own team given a $40 million salary cap. The author also made me aware that students' calculation can be verified quickly online. Overall, definitely a recommended book to buy. Keep up the great job, Mr. Flockhart!
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3: Awesome math activities to motivate students
This book is awesome! I teach 6th grade math, and my students had a great time playing fantasy football! Dan's book was easy to adapt to my class. Even if you do not know much about football, you can do this, and your students will thank you for it. I also bought the basketball book, and we have already drafted our teams and fantasy basketball starts after the Christmas break. I plan to make this an even bigger part of my curriculum next year!
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4: Want to get students excited about math.......
I've been using fantasy Football with Mathematics for 2 years now with a 7th grade all girl math class. I work in the inner city and trying to make math come alive for students can get draining. Fantasy Football not only got my class focused, on task, interested in a male-oriented sport but got the highest math scores of all of my 5 classes. I knew nothing about Football before this. I stumbled along for a bit trying to understand the terminology - but I got the hang of it thanks to the my math class who helped ME understand. The class worked in pairs - getting data, the calculating fractions and creating stacked graphs as well as circle graphs.....even through in an algebraic expression......all this done with huge smiles on the girls faces. The season is coming to an end and the girls are asking about Fantasy Basketball now - Oh no - I don't know basketball either....but it will be fun again to learn something new.
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5: Get students excited about math
I have been using Fantasy Football in my classes this fall. Students that are good in math, but not so much socially are working peacefully with students that are good with sports, but not so much mathematically. All are more excited about math than they once were.
I knew nothing about football going in, but this book makes Fantasy Football easy. I still don't know much about football, but I do know that a touchdown is worth .25 and a PAT is worth .042. (At least in the scoring system I used) You can tailor the scoring system and worksheets to your students' needs. Even though I don't know football and really am not terribly interested in it, this program has been easy to implement and I think very worthwhile.
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