NEWSLETTER
September 2015
A Taste of Mathematics
Teaching Math is Easy – Not!
Have you ever thought about what it takes to be a good math teacher? Firstly, it requires a sound
knowledge of mathematics; not just the ability to do mathematics but a solid understanding of the
underlying concepts.
Having developed his/her mathematical ability, our potential teacher has to learn the skills of teaching.
This is very different from being able to do mathematics. Driving a car is relatively easy but teaching
someone to drive is much more complex.
Teaching mathematics requires the ability to develop activities that help students understand concepts,
increase their knowledge and reinforce the related skills. It requires learning how to design lesson and
unit plans, and utilizing different ways to assess students’ knowledge and understanding.
Research is continually providing new information on how students learn, which leads to new
suggestions on how math should be taught. One thing is clear, students learn best when they are actively
involved in their learning. This means that for long term learning students have to be both physically
and mentally involved in their learning.
Some of the issues facing teachers are:
Individual or group work; investigations or direct instruction, understanding or memorization, and even
after over 25 years, calculators or no calculators.
In fact good teaching requires that teachers be comfortable with all of these; there is no either or.
Students have to work in groups to solve problems and develop understanding, but work individually to
reinforce their understanding. Students have to investigate ideas in order to link new knowledge to prior
learning while direct instruction helps pull the important ideas together. There is no question, students
have to memorize important facts such as times tables, basic number skills, properties of shapes, etc. but
for long term learning, this memorization has to be built on an understanding of where these come from.
The arguments for and against the use of calculators in classrooms should have been resolved a long
time ago by emphasizing it is the appropriate use of calculators that is important.
When you add to the teaching strategies mentioned above the fact that there are many different ways to
assess students’ mathematical ability, and teachers have to be familiar with all of these, we begin to
realize that teaching mathematics is a difficult and challenging job.
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FAMILY PROBLEMS
1. a) What is the largest 4-digit whole number whose digits are all different?
b) What is the smallest 4-digit whole number whose digits are all different?
2. The sum of the digits of a 3-digit whole number is 5. What is the smallest possible
number?
3. Find the value of M if 42 × 32 = 62 × M.
4. Challenge: 12 pence = 1 shilling and 20 shillings = 1 pound.
Add:
Pounds Shillings Pence
2
17
11
1
15
9
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Answers
Answers are posted on our website. Please visit www.root7.ca/answers.html
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