Posts Tagged ‘Teaching Math’

In preschools today, math is too often ignored. “It’s fair to say the attention is almost entirely on reading and literacy, without recognizing the importance of math,” said Christopher T. Cross, who co-edited the report and chaired the committee that produced it. Children entering kindergarten need to be “ready” in math as well as reading, and research -- and my experience watching my own preschoolers -- shows that preschoolers are as curious and interested in numbers and counting and measuring as they are with everything else.

A recent newspaper article on drafting Common Education Standards had me thinking about screws, widgets, standard gauge railways and whether even those politicians with the best of intentions really get what it means to provide a child with an appropriate - and timely - education.

My own son has a gift for art and is especially interested in animation. (And while his math test scores are high he’s never been especially motivated to focus on math.) The animated movies that younger kids love can be a good jumping off point for helping them understand the unlimited possibilities of learning math.

There’s no question that a strong foundation in algebra is one key to raising academic standards, increasing the competitiveness of our future workforce and opening doors to broader career choices for students.

As a teacher I often used software in the classroom. Much of this software relied on me to determine the appropriate starting place in the curriculum.

No parent likes to see their child struggle – whether it be in the math class room, or with fitting in on the playground. As parents, we all get anxious when our child hits a speed bump. And when we get anxious, we forget one of the most basic rules of parenting that we all know: every child is different.

I’ve had variations of the following conversation with relatives a couple of times in recent months. Has something similar happened to you? “She loves playing DreamBox and was doing fine. But now the questions are too hard and she’s getting frustrated.” “Hmm… Have you perhaps been helping her with her answers?”

Grandma and Grandpa were coming for a visit, so I revisited my mini-library of favorite classroom books to read with my young son. He was very excited about the visit, especially after reading The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant. He was particularly interested in where Grandma and Grandpa would sleep. Together we identified all of the beds in the house.