Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

MML is a wondeful tool provided by the Pearson company to help students and teachers understand mathematics better. It almost provides the student with an on site tutor helping them as they work through the problems and provides the teacher with clear results on what the student understands and on what topics they need additional help. It is a win-win. LOVE IT

Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

Immediancy

Students are most concerned about the correct answers on a test immediately after the test. If you wait too long to return their papers, they are no longer concerned with what the correct answer was but are now concerned with how many they got wrong and why their answer is not correct. They no longer care about anything except the almighty grade. So when deciding what needs to be done immediately, returning the test to the student is right at the top of the list. If your class only meets once a week it becomes necessary to be clever and… >>>

Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

Names

Remembering students names is very important. It gives the student a feeling of belonging and caring. Everyone likes to be remembered and this is a good way to start the process.

Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

Student fears

In order to teach math to students you first need to convince them that they can be successful. I have witnessed students so fearful of failure they don't even try. If you can convince them they can be successful at the small parts, they are willing to attempt the harder material. Until they think they can, they can't.

Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

Doing homework

Since we only remember 25% of what we hear and 40% of what we read actually doing homework is very important. The more they do, correctly of course, the more they retain. Education is a participant sport not a spectator sport.

Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

Collect at beginning or end of class?

I have found it to be more beneficial to collect homework at the beginning of class. If I wait to collect until the end of the period some students will finish up on the assignment instead of listening to the new material being presented. They appear to be on task and appear to be taking notes but in reality they are doing neither.

Joyce Elmquist

Discussion Comment

Motivating the fearful

I teach math and many students enter the classroom already hating the subject. They think they are really bad at it and are terrified that they will fail. I need to make them feel successful and then make them enjoy the subject. It becomes a delicate balance because they can't enjoy it until they are successful but they fear it so much that they fail to realize at first that they can be successful. Once they start seeing true success, they start enjoying the class and they start being successful. The trick to show them true success not fake or… >>>