by Jeff Skinner | Jun 6, 2015 | Math, Teaching and Learning
Life is exhausting. It’s as simple as that. We are constantly finding ourselves venturing off into new activities and making new commitments, while we already have a chaotic life waiting for us at home! Adults have work and taking care of their children, while students have 8 hours in a building learning and then going home to do even more work! It gets pretty crazy, and some days can have a major toll on our bodies and disable us from doing all that we need to do. When I was in high school, it seemed like every day all I wanted to do after school was nap. My usual basketball game after-school with my neighbors turned into me putting on pajamas and falling asleep to some poorly rated movie on Netflix. Why was this happening? Why couldn’t I find energy to do my homework and necessary studying?
It took a whole lot of ignorance and zeros on my assignments to realize that I needed to knock off my new after-school rituals and come up with an active plan to keep myself awake and motivated. I started making goals for myself and rewarding myself when each of those goals was done. For instance, if I had to write a five page paper I would write 2 pages, and then reward myself by playing a video game for half an hour or going outside and playing with my friends. I found that this was a really good way to plow through my homework, because it actually made it enjoyable and I had something to look forward to. This can easily be applied at a learning center like MaThCliX also. We like to stay really focused on work for about 45 minutes and then spend just a few minutes socializing and talking about things other than school with the students. This really keeps them engaged and lively and has been really effective. I know how hard it is for some of these younger student also who just want to eat a thousand pixie sticks and run a marathon, but using this method really seems to work with them. Academic endurance is important because it keeps students engaged in their work, and we all know how hard it is to put yourself in a hole with assignments and try and climb out!
It’s as simple as making a few goals with your homework and figuring out the best way to tackle all your work before starting. This can make all the difference and can cut down study time tremendously. With a little self-motivation and encouragement from others, we can all pick up the pace with our work and get it all done!
by Rebecca Mayer | Apr 23, 2015 | Math, Teaching and Learning
The Socratic Method is a form of discussion based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking. When teaching a student a new topic, it is important to make them think about what they are learning rather than just firing information at them that they may or may not absorb. If you go about teaching as more of a discussion, then not only does the student retain more knowledge, they also feel more included in their own learning.
When using the Socratic Method with tutoring or teaching, asking questions to fuel the students’ thoughts helps them explore the topic further to reach a better understanding. In addition to this, asking questions that require more than a yes or no answer will help the student create their own thinking process to figure out questions rather than you just telling them the answers. This way, when they end up in a situation where they don’t have your help, say when taking the test, they will have already established their own process for solving the question and won’t feel lost without your guidance.
Another important aspect of the Socratic Method is checking students when they get answers wrong. Rather than just telling them they’ve arrived at an incorrect answer, ask them why they think it’s incorrect and what they think they did wrong. This will help them later to be more aware about when answers are wrong so that when taking a test, they will be able to see their mistake easier and know how to fix it, or they will remember correcting their mistake during tutoring and won’t even make it. Teaching about wrong answers is just as important as right answers. If a student is just constantly told that they are getting incorrect answers, they won’t be able to understand where they make mistakes or how to get them right.
Question asking is an effective way to keep students aware of their learning and to let them be a part of it. They feel more involved, like they are even teaching themselves a topic. It is much easier to remember something if you came up with it on your own instead of someone simply telling you step-by-step how to do it.
by Katie Boswell | Apr 11, 2015 | Math, Teaching and Learning, Testing
A Little Gold Star
How many of you parents remember the work you would do for one of those little foil stars? I can remember practicing a song on piano over and over in hopes that it would gain me that tiny little seal of confidence. And when I did earn one, the next week I’d practice twice as hard because I knew I could earn one and had to prove myself once again.
What was it about that star that made me work? It certainly wasn’t it’s monetary value or glamour. It was the pride that came with knowing I could do something. Every other week I accomplished my songs, but that week, I was a star!
Do you know the role your positive words play in your students’, friends’, coworkers’, spouse’s, tutor’s lives? Your role is huge in your child’s education, even if you never look at a piece of homework. Encouraging them to score their best, without berating them over less than stellar grades can make all the difference in the world. I would never be where I am today without my mom telling me how proud she was of my grades, piano playing, crafting, etc. Now I was never good at cleaning my room, so she chose not to focus on that flaw, as she knew I could make it to adulthood with clothes on the floor, but I couldn’t without my education.
As MaThCliX test prep coordinator I spend quite a bit of time encouraging students to use their own abilities. I find so many of the skills a student needs to excel on the ACT and SAT are within them, they just don’t trust their instincts and chances are, someone along the way chose to point out all of their mistakes and not their strengths. I am not at all saying students do not need to know their mistakes or to work on where they struggle (that’s why we’re here!), but the approach is key. A conversation started with confirmation of what is done right, is going to be received a whole lot better than one that begins with everything someone fails. I see students with the same abilities and different confidence levels score drastically different.
I want to close with some tangible ways you can encourage your children, coworkers, peers:
1. Commend good behavior
2. Spend more time with praise than discouragement
3. Work on things like vocabulary together as a family, make it fun, a joke even and laugh together when you use it!
4. Talk about areas of weakness as how you can improve, rather than focusing on it being a poor area
5. Don’t use powerschool only to ground your child, but also as a bragging point
6. Ask your child’s tutor what they did well, so you can discuss
7. Keep in mind, we all have different skills and abilities. If one child isn’t doing what another did, encourage them to do THEIR best and do not compare to others!
by MaThCliX | Apr 2, 2015 | Math, Teaching and Learning
When I was a graduate student, I was very serious about my work and committed to making A’s and doing my best. While taking a graph theory course, I remember working hard daily to learn and Learnunderstand the many proofs coming at us each week. I knew that I would never be able to reproduce any of these proofs on a test if I didn’t learn them and understand each step involved. To help me with this endeavor, I purchased the poster-sized Post-It Notes and carefully wrote out each proof in different colors. I hung them all over my apartment walls; they became my wall art for the time being. I studied them day and night as I spent time at home. I practiced writing them out on my own to see if I truly understood it and to discover what I might not understand. I think it is safe to say that I put forth a great amount of time, effort, and sacrifice. However, it paid off because I made very high A’s on all four tests and was exempt from having to take the final exam! In addition, I can honestly say I learned the content of the course.
I currently teach college algebra and while helping my students get prepared for their upcoming test, I was telling my students the above story about my efforts in graph theory. I was using it to demonstrate that to learn something we must work and put forth effort. Afterwards, one student even made the comment, “You’re like someone on the Big Bang Theory or something!”. Of course I laughed and took that as a compliment.
It occurred to me, at that very moment, that there are so many students out there who haven’t a clue what it means to work hard. It may sound simple, but for me, it was one of those “a ha” moments—-Learning requires time, effort, and sacrifice and it is every bit worth our time, effort, and sacrifice! The knowledge and experience that we gain and the discipline it takes to acquire it is invaluable and can build our character in ways nothing else could. I look back on my college days of hard work and stress and many moments of confusion and cherish it as a special time that shaped who I am today.
I encourage all students working towards a worthy goal to know that it will all be worth it in the end! Keep going!
by Aaron Sandlin | Mar 2, 2015 | Math, Teaching and Learning
One of my math professors always insisted on showing us around thirty minutes of why a concept works and how to get the formula that we use in the final product. Once he showed us the short cut (formula) the work went from ten minutes of calculating to ten seconds. Back then everyone groaned about the “waste of time” but now that we are free of his tyranny, we are coming into contact with the “formula people”. They are the folk who panic every time they have to use an old concept in a new way. Why are they so unsure? It is because they were told to take the math on faith. They were taught that “It just works” and that was okay for them. My math mentor would routinely go through some fake absurd process on the board and watch the majority of the room follow his false trail. He awarded bonus points to anyone who rightfully challenged him by understanding the concept and working it out for yourself. The sad thing is that for my entire education until now the teachers taught instead of mentored.
It wasn’t until I was 29 yrs. old that I finally experienced why any number raised to the zero exponent is one. See my short video explanation, Powers of 0 and 1. I had been told that it was one and sent on my way, just relying on my memory to retain that knowledge. After a long gap in school between high school and college, I had forgotten even that simple rule. I have often heard that math is not like riding a bike and I have said it myself. You have to keep it up or the knowledge melts away. Could we be wrong? When I think back to my trigonometric identities, I can’t remember them! BUT, I remember one concept that was experienced and I can reliably derive the rest of the identities from that one branch. Think about bikes for a minute. Did you get tested on the methods of balance? Were you drilled on the names of a bicycles parts and their purposes? Was everyone made to ride on standardized bikes and had to all learn at the same pace? Do you recall the physics class you had to pass in order to take your training wheels off? How is it that just about anyone who ever learned the difficult task of riding a bike can go for years without practice and still retain the skill? It is because we all experienced the process of learning instead of memorizing the concept. I bet a shiny nickel that anyone who had never learned how to ride a bike, but had studied it in a book, would not remember the necessary information needed to describe the process to someone else. Years ago I had memorized the algorithm for solving a Rubiks Cube. Give me one today and I can’t do it! I failed to develop the fundamental experience necessary to achieve mastery of that skill. If you want to learn mathematics instead of memorize formulas, you need to know the why that sadly is too often left out in s foolhardy quest for time and effort savings. So the next time a “teacher” asks you to memorize a formula, be brave, and ask “why?” and turn them into a mentor.
by Nicole Dowling | Feb 25, 2015 | Math, Teaching and Learning
Have you ever thought about your teaching from a student’s point of view?
Now that I am a senior at Kennesaw State University, I have experienced a plethora of time in the classroom. What makes a class period more enjoyable? How do we, as students, get involved EVERY time we enter the room? As many of you have probably noticed, there are effective ways that teachers teach…and not so effective ways. Lets be honest, when the teacher isn’t engaged in the topic he or she is monotonously speaking about, then why should the rest of the class be? What a waste of time for everyone. And let me share a secret: learning takes time.
How many have been frustrated with a teacher that doesn’t teach well, or worse, doesn’t teach at all??? Responsible students are, then, forced to be both the teacher and the student. And we’re not even the ones getting paid! Math that. Or how about this scenario: learning something wrongly and then having to go through the painstaking process of breaking that bad habit by UNLEARNING that something, only to have to go through even MORE practice to set the new good habit in its place. Whew! That’s an awful lot of work that could have been avoided simply by effective teaching.
Please enjoy the following experience from a fellow student, me:
I loved going into my Real Analysis course because my professor would get so enthusiastic about his subject that he spat everywhere when he went off on a tangent. (Ha, math jokes.) Sitting in front of his laptop, he would write his lesson right before our eyes. “Mathematics should come from the heart,” he would nearly whisper as he was deciding on which way to prove something. He emphasized that great mathematical writing comes from good grammar: “Mathematics is hard enough when written correctly. Proper grammar makes the math easier.” His tips on proof-writing bleed into all areas of my life because quite frankly I have little skill in the matter. But I digress.
Some days I just wanted to listen to a good story after a long day of rigorous studying, and his class was just the relaxing break I needed. As it always should be with learning: first, soak in new material; then, play around with it in one’s personal time. “The learning happens outside of the classroom, when you DO the mathematics” as my professor would say. For this reason he records all of his lectures with a video & audio software. Actually, he requires that NO ONE take notes.
How many have tried to fiercely write all of what the teacher said or wrote on the board? So much room for error: what with constantly looking up and down and up and down, or comments meshing into each other, or not hearing everything because you were too worried about writing down the previous thing… Whew. My hand hurts just thinking about it. However, with a recording you have the notes you need, VERBATIM. A recording also sets the standard for the teachers to be professional and not slack off, because no one wants to look bad on camera 
~Now teachers here is a question for you: Would you want to be a student in your own class? ReadRebecca’s blog for more on this topic.
