an Elementary School Teacher
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Ultimate simp move 😂😂
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Remove from your head and all your thoughts the phrase "not a math person." Yes, some people do have to work harder than others while others seem to grasp it instantly. But we use the "not a math person" to give up too easily.
As a math teacher, I always have to remind myself of this when working with students. Often by the time they get to me in high school they've internalized the "not a math person" and their minds are closed to letting in new information. My struggle is to re-open them.
This really started to hit home with me when I began taking guitar lessons. I'm what you call "not a music person". It doesn't come naturally to me. I almost gave up but have to remind myself not to compare my progress to those who could just pick up an instrument and play. But that doesn't mean I can't learn it and that I can't one day enjoy playing. Just means my road is going to be a little bit harder. Facing up to the hard process of learning something I'm not naturally good at has been a very eye-opening experience for me.
THIS!!!!👏🏽🔥
It’s not about being a math person. Maybe math wasn’t easy for them as students, but something else was. Everyone has strengths, just like everyone has things they have to work harder at. Math was always easy for me, so it was an easy choice to become a math teacher. I know many high school students will come to me with strong feelings about math. A lot of this comes from their previous math education. I can take students that say they aren’t math people and show them how to be successful. We can all do hard things if we put our mind to it. The same goes for educators. You don’t have to teach things the same way you learned them. We all know that. If you think you’re not a math person, don’t skimp on math content to spend time on something you enjoy. It does students a disservice. Look at the content and figure out how it works. Make it make sense to yourself, then teach it that way. Be honest with your students and say “this is how I do it” or “this is how I remember it.” If you’re struggling to grasp something, try you tube. There are so many good teachers and tutors posting great explanations. It might be helpful to try to find a teacher at a higher level that excels at math to provide support. It is the students best interest that teachers put in the time to be able to teach all the content. I promise that math instruction in elementary school is crucial to success in high school math. Please help us by helping your students!
I agree with everyone else. Math is an exact class. By making mistakes, we learn. Many people just don’t like to make mistakes yet in math, we always do. This gets frustrating. Don’t penalize students for wrong answers but reward them for finding the mistakes and fixing them. This means allowing corrections and retakes, but add what they realized was the mistake.
Love this^^ also hearing the call of like making mistakes in front of them too and being real about how messy learning is
We are taught you are good or not at math. Truthfully, everyone should struggle with math to reach their full potential. Productive struggle is something we have gotten away from. My inclusion aid loves my math classes. She has told me every day for two years that if she had been taught math the way I teach she would not have hated it for all those years. Now she loves working in other math classes to show her students "my ways". Lol
I hear people say, "I'm not a math/science person" frequently, I hope that any experience in the past would not prevent someone from venturing out and discovering new things.
Oddly in our culture no one would go around saying, "I can't read."