Teaching....not lecturing

Teaching.....Not Lecturing

One of the most fundamental problems with mathematics today is that teachers spend too much time worrying about wrote mathematics, it’s as if their stuck in the past it’s as if the only thing that we’re allowed to teach is from a book. One of the worst things I did when I became a teacher my first year was spend time teaching from the book ,  as if all I had to teach from was the book I went chapter to chapter lesson by lesson. I found was that the students work were used to it but at the same time I realize that the order of the book didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.  So then as I started thinking about how I wanted to get the message across to my students how or what was my true teaching philosophy were first thing I started looking at was, OK wait a minute why am I teaching from the book, like holy bible why am I  attached to it and the more and more I started thinking about that the semester, realizing of course was that  I wasn’t attached to the book and it wasn’t really something that was being useful for me it was a crutch for a teacher but yet it wasn’t a way of really expressing what was going on, not only in the mathematics but also the most important thing which was at how was I going to take the stand and tell them that they can apply that in their future lives. Students who are leaving high school today do not have the skills and the know how to use math.  When they leave high school what they have been taught is ready use formulas and wrote of algorithms but they’ve never been taught when where and how to apply these mathematical skills its release that because I look back upon my life and I realize I should be thinking the opposite way, it wasn’t because of my teachers but it was because of the fact that I always was doing something I’ve been a maker my entire life. When I was a young boy and growing up with my dad and my mom we always would be building something, whether it would be building a shed are helping them work on car engines or in a building, or remodeling and reconditioning a boat.  There was always something going on in the form of projects and all these projects over the years have had given me a large skills set but within that skill set I’ve found that I use math all the time

One of the most frustrating questions the teachers get all the time expressed in mathematics is why am I going to use this? Why do I need this? What am I ever going to use this for? and I think the reality is that we need to consider those questions. We need to not just placate that with the students, if we did not brush by that question just giving it lip service, like some example that I found in the book, because after five years I’ve seen it listed in chapter 5, 20 times now. We really need to STOP, take a moment in our education and talk with the students, don’t talk AT them, talk with the students about what they’re going to do in their future lives and then look at some examples of where these skill you are teaching will apply. I had one student or actually I have had several students over the years that have said they wanted become automotive mechanics which I think is a wonderful job but the reality is, their response is always that they are never going to use any of them at the time teaching them in that job.  Every time I hear that I take a moment, I stop the lesson, I put down might shock, I slowly sit on a desk and I have a candid conversation with that student in front and with the entire class. That is one of the greatest teaching moments that any teacher can have, it begins when a student says “Why on earth do I need to learn…?”, we need to take the time and address that question. At that moment that question is more important than any of the mathematics you could possibly be teaching them we need to address the question but we need to have answers ready.

Honesty at this point the most important thing you can do is be totally honest with the students at all times there are many sections in the curriculum that I will sit and say you know what, we’re going to learn this and here’s why… the reason is because it’s going to show up on some sort of standardized test…in your lifetime you’re going to need to pass college math 101 get an SAT passing without score, however I will agree and totally tell you that in your real life if there’s probably no reason for you to learn this specific math skill. … That kind of honesty has gained me an immense amount of respect from my students. They know that I will never lie to them I will tell them the truth I will give them when they’re going to use something and when they’re not. I am not going to simply make up some things to prove to them that there many uses of this, glancing over their concern, and continue with my lesson. They know that I’m going to take the time to address their concerns at that moment and allow them to understand that there are some things they are not going to use that they learn in math class over four years of high school.  The important part is that there are some things that are vitally important for them in their future in I always go back to that classic student who says I want to be a mechanic and I am not going to use mathematics. I have to say wait a minute yes you are there are some mathematics that you’re going to use some of them you’re not, but the ones who are going to use like formulas for figuring out volumetric efficiency of an internal combustion engine or, talking about ratios and proportions that’s exactly how transmission works that how belt drives works if I don’t know the right ratio and I put the wrong size poll each on my alternator and I don’t get the spindle spinning fast enough to produce the needed electricity for my car that I’ve created, that’s a problem simply because I didn’t know the correct ratios.

Math needs to be taught in a hands on real-world applications when why where and how am I going to use this is a vital component. It should never be taught as a raw wrote set of chapters or a list of things that need to be learned that’s not what math is there for. Many of us who grew up in my generation were lectured to everyday, an hour lecture every day, a quiz a week, a test every other week, that’s not the way math needs to be taught. I know this is going to be difficult for some teachers to hear this, I know that some teachers are going to want to say know I’m going to teach the same way that I’ve always taught because it’s the way I was taught. That doesn’t make it right, we have new ways of teaching, we have new understanding of our students and generations of students were teaching are different than we were.  We have to be able to articulate what our students need and what they want and merge those two together to create a cohesive, well thought out, truly engaging in enriching environment for students to learn.

Don Biery – Maker, Teacher, Learner