Often people ask me, “How did you end up teaching English, despite being a graduate in Mathematics?” Well to share the truth, it was the choice made by me. Post my graduation,I equipped myself with the skills required to become a capable and efficient English teacher through training and workshops.
The fact is, though I like to teach any of the core subjects of primary school, I realized that many students in primary classes were struggling to learn, apply and solve math. You might think being passionate about teaching, I could have been a math teacher to help them directly!
But, I figured out through my experiences and classroom transaction, that students often lack comprehension skill. They are unable to read a word problem or a printed question at good pace so that they first enjoy reading and understanding it, then connecting the concept and applying it appropriately. They are unable read between lines in any given math problem.
I personally feel the need to gain mastery in English, in such a way that, they process it and are able to communicate their understanding by speaking math with ease. Then, it becomes an enjoyable experience for students to involve in learning with more purpose.
Maintaining a democratic atmosphere in class and planning a question list before hand for a math class are two vital things to ensure that students will be engaged in the session.
As Math is abstract science involving numbers, shapes, quantities and their relationships, it becomes essential for a student to be given enough time for absorbing the logic and connecting every topic to the real world for application.
I remember a good humoured person who was a math teacher, his presence and way of communication created an air of confidence and motivated every learner to consider mistakes done while solving, in a positive stride.
Can’t this be done( in a lighter note) …just to make them accountable for their learning.A teacher says,”Do 3/4 th of your homework today.”
As teachers are role models to children, besides parents, teachers can create a high impact on some of their values like perseverance, growth mindset, courage to face, ability to accept consequences and finally, arrive at a practical strategy to solve them as well.
In a math class there is scope for all of these values to be instilled in students. To my knowledge, if a teacher can successfully communicate to students in the first few sessions, that she/he is a teacher who gives importance to the process and not the result,there are higher chances of maximizing the students’ potential.In Math the journey of learning should be emphasized.This will create a sense of achievement and enhance self esteem.
Digressing to the crux of this article, today’s world has started looking at math in a different way altogether.
Researchers feel that there is wide gap between classroom math and real life math. I would like to share this TED talk. Though it directly deals with math and use of computer technology to make it a more meaningful subject, as teachers we can advance our current methods,to minimize our efforts while maximizing students engagement in class.
About the speaker:-Conrad Wolfram runs the worldwide arm of Wolfram Research, the mathematical lab behind the cutting-edge knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha.
If you want to make your country’s future citizens who are more practical people and successful critical thinkers, then feel the urge for it now!
There is a need to modify the curriculum. When I say curriculum do not assume that we are expected to do away with all the math topics.To define a curriculum it is nothing but “All the learning which is planned and guided by the school”.
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