In addition to content, Math builds many life skills such as Accountability. This month's newsletter is the second installment in the four-month Math Confidence series on answering this oft-asked question with "A is for Accountability" -- stay tuned as "T" and "H" are revealed in the August and September e-newsletters.
The daily discipline of Math homework helps to instill accountability.While accountability may be associated with the mandated testing of No Child Left Behind, viewing tests as a learning opportunity can increase confidence, skills and knowledge. One method of learning called the Teach Back helps students to learn responsibility in addition to learning Math The Benefits of Teach Back. Accountability learned in Math class is transferable to other academic subjects, the workplace, health and community service.
People join Weight Watchers and hire fitness trainers to help them be more accountable. Since Math homework is a daily discipline just like weight maintenance, it is an opportunity to learn how to be accountable on a regular basis, take responsibility for commitments, and improve self-confidence and self-awareness.
Teach Like A Champion is full of teaching and classroom management ideas so that teachers can focus on student learning. Parents and students will also gain insights from reading this book on helping students on the path to college. The author Doug Lemov, a charter schools founder, was featured in the New York Times magazine Building A BetterTeacher
The techniques focus on daily completion of work and feedback for the teacher. Some of the 49 techniques:
Exit Tickets (short quiz at the end of class)
Board = Paper (Teaching Notetaking with a fill-in-the-blank format)
Pacing (Vary Activities and include Independent Practice)
Cold Call (increasing engagement by randomly calling on students)
The book comes with a DVD that shows these teaching techniques put into action by many of the teachers who contributed to the book.
Long division is one of the most challenging elementary school topics. Short division is a great but underemphasized skill -- long division with mental Math and not long!! When students learn this technique. Typical comments are: "It's so neat", "There's so few marks on the page!!" and "It's so much shorter!!" .
