Breaking Math Myths and Stereotypes
Another school year has begun and yet again, I find myself searching for new ways to make math lessons engaging and interactive for students. Okay I know what you're thinking, math and fun don't usually appear in the same sentence. But why not? Why can't teachers use more interesting methods for teaching math? I've learned a lot about the myths and stereotypes associated with math and would like to clear the air a little.
"I'm just not a math person"
We've all been there! Cracked open that big textbook, sat at our desks, and painfully worked to complete page after page of math questions. This mind-numbing routine would continue day after day and year after year for me. It's not that I didn't like math... it was just boring. Basically everyone I've ever spoken to has shared the same experience in school. Then comes the statement we hear far too often, "I'm not a math person". So many of us grow up thinking we're not good at math because our brains don't work the same as those incredibly smart "math people". There was a time when I actually thought this was true, but take a look at the video below to see how this is not the case:
Retrieved from Learning Care Group, August 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE245lfIfv4
Engaging Students
So now we know that everyone's brain is capable of learning math, how do we convince our students they can do it? The most important step would be to keep your class interested, whether that involves playing games, using manipulatives, or doing interactive activities. It can also help to give students collaborative opportunities so that they can work together in groups opposed to struggling individually. The internet is loaded with a variety of math games that can be used in the classroom if you have access to the internet and devices such as ipads or computers. For example, Math Playground and Math Game Time are great websites that offers games that are organized according to grade or strand.
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| Retrieved from http://www.mathgametime.com/grade/4th-grade |
Curriculum Connections
The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8 Mathematics encourages teachers to be diverse when teaching math:
"It is important that students have opportunities to learn in a variety of ways – individually, cooperatively, independently, with teacher direction, through hands-on experience, through examples followed by practice. These different areas of learning may involve different teaching and learning strategies. It is assumed, therefore, that the strategies teachers employ will vary according to both the object of the learning and the needs of the students." (page 24)
With some extra time and planning, we as teachers can make math fun and show all students that they ARE capable of learning math. Everyone can be a math person!
I definitely used to believe in the myth that "I'm just not a math person". Turns out, I simply haven't been learning math in a way that makes sense to my learning style and actually utilizes my strengths. Instead, I (like many of us) went through elementary and high school with a label on my back, one that myself, my friends and my teachers reinforced. I am so happy that today we have a chance to change and hopefully erase this narrative! Math class should be enjoyable, challenging yet rewarding and a space for innovative discovery for all learners. I love your idea of incorporating online math games in the classroom. In addition to adding an element of fun to math, I think these games could be a great gateway to parent/teacher communication around math. As educators, we know we must make a change in our classrooms, however we do need the support of parents! By having students excited about a math game, they will be more likely to go home and share this new knowledge and growth with their parents. Math will become a topic of rich conversation, not a source of stress and frustration.
ReplyDeleteI too also used to believe that I wasn't a math person and my teachers didn't help break that stereotype for me. I am so excited to learn ways that we can help erase these stereotypes for students who may be under the same impression that I was. I think adding the elements of technology in the form of games is a great way to get students engaged. Many students are only engaged when technology is available to them and we are in a unique position to provide students with these resources that they can use at school and at home as well. This will allow parents to become more involved with what their children are doing at school, and it may also help them to have conversations with their children about what they are doing in math class. It will also help to make students more comfortable with concepts and hopefully they will be less stressed out.
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