Preventing Students From Saying, "I'm Not Good At Math."

  

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   Here I am writing as the summer semester winds down and I find myself again thinking of my future students.  When you pursue an Elementary Ed. Degree, you know that your license will be a K-6 license, which means that I could one day have a classroom filled with five and six-year-olds or a classroom full of twelve and thirteen-year-olds, or any age in between.  Whatever the age, as their teacher, how will I help my students to engage in math?  to feel confident and competent in it?  to be interested in it?  to, dare I say, enjoy it?
   There are many articles out there about math and kids, most echo what we already know as students and parents of students.  What I know is that I will need to be proactive about both easing my students' math anxieties and encouraging them to embrace the math concepts that I am trying to teach them.
   We all have at least one memory of being called on in class, or worse yet, called up to the chalkboard and not having the correct answer to a math problem.  Those types of scenarios do not help students to feel comfortable with math.  Public embarrassment is not a good way to instill confidence in a child.  Confidence is key when it comes to math.  When a child believes that he or she is capable of coming up with the correct answer, or is at least comfortable asking questions that lead to that end, math becomes enjoyable.
   Not only do teachers need to provide many opportunities for students to be successful and to gain confidence in their own abilities, but we also need to make sure that our lessons are relevant to the real lives of our students.  How many times have I heard my teenagers ask disgustedly," When am I ever going to need to know this?"  We need to show our students that math is useful in everyday life.  If we don't, we lose their attention.  Lessons need to be linked to things that matter to them so that they care about what they are learning and see its purpose.  Annie Murphy Paul echoes these sentiments in her blog post entitled, "How Do You Spark A Love Of Math In Kids."
   Math is all about knowing the formulas, recognizing the patterns, making note of previous learning and knowing which strategy to "pull out of the toolbox."  It will be my responsibility as a teacher to help my students to do just that.  I hope to help them to love math in the process.