What NOT to do
Avoid the use of creating "bad math" habits in the classroom! Make sure your students have a conceptual understanding of the topics presented, instead of just rote memorization of the procedure!
Math should not need "tricks" to be completed, learning math properly is very important in school and daily life. The brain should be heavily engaged in learning math properly.
Math should not need "tricks" to be completed, learning math properly is very important in school and daily life. The brain should be heavily engaged in learning math properly.
Multiply with FingersLike the above with multiplying by 9 using your fingers, there are other "tricks" when multiplying by other numbers. These should never be used in the proper mathematics classroom. Feel free to click on the website and be prepared to cringe.
Timed TestsMore often than not, mathematics have the preconceived notion of not being fun and being extremely difficult instead. There is an old time saying where it is quality over quantity and that is true with mathematics as well.
Timed tests creates stressed and more pressure to do math quickly instead of actually understanding the material presented. Click on the button below to read what Jo Boaler, professor at Stanford University, has to say about timed tests. Naked Math (Other than Mental Math)Naked Math is defined as math sentences (shown to the right). The only time these problems should be used is during mental math. When other problems are being introduced, it is best to put them in word/story problems
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Multiplying by 9Please do not use this in your classroom! Encourage the use of counting with fingers in your classroom, but do not teach them this "trick." When students have to use this instead of their brain, they only have a procedural knowledge of multiplying by nine!
FractionsJust looking at this gives me one big headache! This "trick" should also not be taught in the classroom. This process is very complicated and hard to explain to students. You should teach adding fractions the traditional way by finding the least common multiple - which can be another lesson itself! Yay Math!
If timed tests are part of the curriculum in you school, make sure that you, as a teacher, stresses the importance about quality over quantity. Encourage them to beating his or her own time and never let a child get upset that they could not finish the time test given to them.
DO NOT offer rewards for completing, that just creates more added stress that children do not need! Just "Add" ZeroNo, no, no! Teaching children when multiplying by a number that ends in zero, to just "bring them down" is a bad habit for children to get into. Students need to know why certain numbers times 10 are the answers. Once again this is about conceptual knowledge and not procedural
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