Math IS for EVERYONE!!!!!!

Hello my fellow teacher colleagues,

Today I'd like to discuss with you something that we've been talking about in our math classes. We know either now or in the near future we will have that child in our classroom who just tells you they really suck at math. They will tell you there is no point trying I just can't. Or they will not try because they know they will fail and they would rather just not put that much effort in. We get to the point where all we can say is....

But really what if we started saying hey you are smart we just need to get you to try. Maybe we can try to change the questions to make them easier to understand. Maybe we can try to add more real life scenarios that our kids would say hey this is funny I can probably do this. Maybe we need brush up on our popular culture characters and stories to be able to add this in to our assignments so it makes kids get more interested in it.

Examples:
 If your kids are into pokemon here is a link with different puzzles from grades 3-8. It involves different puzzles they could do to complete work. It could be fun and educational all at the same time.
If your students are into escape rooms here is a link to work sheets that will help you set up your classroom in minutes.
Here is a really cool way to get your kids doing math and getting a little DPA. It is somethings that makes them have to work together and have fun all at the same time.

Another issue that comes into question is that we tend to stereotype those who are good at math and leave everyone else behind. As humans we tend to put people into stereotypes without even noticing we do it.

As pointed out throughout our discussions last week it was noticed that some people tend to put boys in this category of being able to do things such as math really well while girls are better at reading or writing. When it comes to math is not the case. I myself would have told you a long time ago I really suck at math but when looking through certain topics of math I could easily do some of it. I am great with patterning, money, time, and basic math skills even though I couldn't answering many things right off the top of my head. But when it came to things like quadratics and calculus I may not be as great and may need extra help.

We all need to realize as teachers that our students are not going to be great at everything but it is our job as teachers to help our students to accomplish anything even if it isn't their best. We need to harness their inner Einstein and get them to at least try.

That's all for now. See you next week with a new topic in math!