I don’t know about you…but whenever I get on an airplane, the first thing I usually do is put in my headphones to subtly let everyone around me know that I intend to keep to myself during the flight. However, on those occasions when I strike up a conversation with the person next to me, it doesn’t take long for them to find out that I work with math teachers. And then is happens…I get their math autobiography. And it’s rarely a happy story!
Far too many adults had bad experiences with school math and have carried that negative perception into adulthood. We cannot afford for this to continue!
Way too many adults in the U.S. are eager to tell their horror stories about word problems and fractions and formulas and how math just never made sense. Far too many adults had bad experiences with school math and have carried that negative perception into adulthood. We cannot afford for this to continue! We cannot afford for the next generation of students to go into adulthood without the tool set that everyone recognizes as critical to future career success. We owe it to our students to prepare them for school and for life. They don’t all have to love math – but they all deserve to be comfortable and competent with the logic and thinking skills that mathematics provides.
So, what are we going to do to break this generational cycle of fear of mathematics and the bragging rights that come with it?
For starters, all across the United States, educators are using powerful mathematics standards that aim high for student thinking and understanding. These standards, designed by the best and the brightest mathematics educators, mathematicians, and practicing teachers and leaders, reflect what we know to be in the best interest of our students.
Here’s something you need to know about these standards – they’re really nothing new! Great math teaching and learning always has always been and always will embody the content of these standards. These standards include what math educators and teachers have known for decades about what our students need to know and understand to be successful with mathematics…not just in school, but in life.
To take things further, KP Mathematics offers tools and strategies that help bring state standards to life! Using revolutionary manipulatives that focus on the basic principles and structures of mathematics, students gain conceptual understanding that leads to procedural fluency. The rigor found in the new state math standards is met using these simple tools and the strategies they encompass. Check out our previous posts to learn more about what these revolutionary tools can do for the students in your life!
