So this past night after putting my kids to bed I went back in to check on them. I noticed that my littlest child had taken off their shirt and seemed a little cold because of it. I tried to be the good father and put a shirt on her but the experience taught me two things. Kids can scream if woken up to someone shoving something over their head and some of the ways we teach math is similar to shoving a “math shirt” over their head.
While observing teachers and hearing from many of them about teaching styles and the way text books are written I have come to realize that sometime we resort to just shoving the information over their head and hoping that it sticks. I am no longer surprised that kids “scream” or put up a fight in class when they do not understand. Kids and adults do not like to have it shoved onto them so maybe we should take a step back when looking at how we teach the kids.
Now to clear the air I in no way assume I know what is best but I believe that when we start teaching we really should let the kids dress themselves. Each one of the kids can start to participate and get on the same playing field as all the other kids. Many kids show up to school ready for the game (learning) but many still do not have their shirts on. When approaching a new video I plan on trying something different to teach the kids. I plan on asking simple questions that involve every day life challenges that relate to the concept. Then when all students are on the same page they can start to figure the math problem out for themselves before even looking at equations or math vocabulary. As the kids progress along and get both arms in the sleeves we can then present the vocab and equations to help solve it.
This is just an idea but I think that if we can help kids all get ready for the game they will all want to play, and I know that they will not hit you in the face when putting their shirt back on. Wishing and praying the best for all you teachers and home school parents.
Jason