I was NOT "good at math!"

A few years ago, when I was struggling to be an effective math teacher, I heard myself say, "I'm not good at teaching math."  When I stopped to think about that comment, I realized that even as a child, I had never said that I was good at math...ever.  I had always "accepted" that my math skills were not high and I never remember questioning or attempted to change this.

I was then shocked when I asked my students about their ability in math and much to my dismay, some of those sweet little hands raised indicating they felt they were not "good at math."  For a third grade student, (and know that I found this happens to children much younger as well), to tell me that they were not "good at math" was simply not acceptable. 

It was then that I began working overtime, tapping into the exposure I had to some of the greatest master teachers in the field.  From them, I learned many effective pieces regarding math instruction which I then combined with personal experiences and reliable research studies, to develop my own way of teaching math.  This path has, ironically, has made me a significantly better mathematician than I have ever been...EVER!  
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As such, I will be sharing my tools of the trade with you so you can benefit from what I have learned and hopefully move you, your child, or your student to a different perception of math and ones ability to "do" it.

At the core of my instruction are three key factors that never change:
1 - Workbooks should only be used to support the real world.
2 - Always, always work backward from a real world "word problem" when teaching ANY concept.
3 - Teach formulas and rules for solving problems.

In my next post, I will begin to explain the specifics of each of these factors with the hope that it will help instructors, parents, and students alike to glide through math with a better understanding of what it is, how it works, and how to "do" math with greater success than before.

Talk soon - 

Mary