Today was filled with a lot of good advice for teaching math. Amongst them was the idea of doing all the homework problems prior to giving them to the students. It a great way to be prepared for the questions students may have and to avoid giving the “problem” questions as homework. If for some reason we don’t have time to do all the problems prior to discussing them with the students (we all know how busy teachers are), it is ok to let the students see us struggle to solve a problem. It makes us more “human”, more real to our students. It also allows for students to see that it is ok to make a mistake and struggle through a problem. In class, we also talked about making students feel confident with math. Allowing students to struggle and feel comfortable doing so will help build their confidence. Building student confidence needs to be high on any teacher’s agenda. The more confident students are the better they will perform, meaning they will be able to learn the material. Giving positive feedback is one way to build confidence. It is extremely important to give more praise than constructive feedback that can be interpreted as a negative comment to students. I do believe the best advice today was to make math fun and create laughter in the classroom. All bits of advice given in class today are linked together to prompt a safe classroom environment. One will not do the job alone; all three need to work in unison to create the most effective learning environment.
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