I love Mnemonic Devices

Today we talked about Estimation, Order of Operations, Division, and Exponents. When I was a kid I learned best from mnemonic devices. Who remembers "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nectarines" (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune)?  It's hard memorizing things sometimes, but I had never heard this one before. This would have been beyond helpful in Pre-Algebra, which is when my problem with math started.

"My Dear Aunt Sally"- The Big Picture
	Two rules of thumb are helpful in remembering the order of operation or the prioritization which governs mathematical expressions. These are: The more sophisticated operation has priority. Work from left to right if operations have the same priority.     Multiplication and division are more sophisticated than addition and subtraction so, multiplication or division is done before addition or subtraction.     Multiplication and division have the same level of sophistication so they have the same priority. THE LEFT MOST OPERATION IS DONE FIRST.

I loved everything about this site. It is very math friendly and where I got my pictures from.
http://www.sd104.s-cook.k12.il.us/students/math/ileanazarco/aboutmath.htm