HOW TO STOP YOUR STUDENTS FROM SAYING THEY ARE NOT GOOD AT MATHEMATICS
By Christina Morris
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CG50, comes highly recommended. If you teach older students, then this is a must have, for your classroom. This superb calculator is approved for use in international examinations, such as SAT and AB, as well as American IB and Sabis. Students can become familiar with the Casio fx-CG50, while doing their class work, in readiness for their examinations. They can take it along, to the examination room and benefit from using its wide range of efficient and dedicated functions. These include; Spreadsheet Calculations, Vector Calculations, Auto Parenthesis Addition, Financial Functions, Probability Calculation, List-based Statistics, Advanced Statistics, Inequality Graphing and Picture Plot, where users can create their own graphs over pictures displayed on the colour LCD by bringing real life to Math. To learn more about it’ s functions and features, follow this link http:// edu. casio. com / products / graphic /.
It is the start of a new school year, and chances are, you are about to welcome a whole new set of students to your Mathematics classroom. These students are coming from various teachers, or even schools and it is your job to get them to make progress in Mathematics and ultimately fall in love with the subject. The problem you may encounter is that, some students may have already formed a negative impression of the subject and are only too happy to tell you that they are not good at Mathematics. Some may even say it with pride, the type of pride they would never exude, when saying they have trouble writing or spelling.
For some reason, students are ashamed to say that they cannot write or spell properly, but they seem very comfortable, in saying that they cannot do Mathematics. Well, it is time for this to stop, and it starts with you. Below are my top three tips, on how you can help your students to make better than expected progress, in Mathematics, this year and eventually get them to love the subject.
1. Let them talk it out
The days of the silent classroom, in which students work individually, on solving Mathematical problems, is well and truly over. Allow your students to talk to each other, about how to solve the problems, let them collaborate and come up with their own methods. This will allow your shy struggling student to get help from peers. Instead of asking your students to write their answers down, get them to stand up and explain to the class how they solved the problem, the difficulties they faced and what they did to overcome them. Give marks for the correct answer, but also give marks for good oral presentations and explanations. Who says that presentation skills cannot be developed in a Mathematics classroom?
2. Get the right equipment
There are a ton of Mathematical apps, games and websites that your students can benefit from, but nothing beats a good calculator, and the Casio fx-
3. Throw out the traditional Mathematics tests
Many students find the prospect of sitting for an hour or more, working on abstract mathematical problems quite daunting. Throw out the traditional Mathematics tests and get your students to go around the school or their homes, applying mathematical theories, to solve real problems. Let them calculate things that affect their lives or the lives of their loved ones.
For example, get them to find out and calculate the average amount of hours each person in their family spends on social media each day, I bet the answer would shock them.
Mathematics teachers, you don’ t have to reinvent the wheel. There are excellent online and offline resources. Many sites offer games, maths puzzles, maths riddles and simple but exciting maths problems. The key is to keep on being innovative in the Mathematics classroom.
Class Time | | Sep- Oct 2017 | 19