30... Not enough practice
20... Lack of interest
13... Bad teachers
7 ... It doesn’t make sense
4 ... Bad books
I vote that the books are bad and there is not enough practice.
How can only 5% of 11th grade Chester students rank ‘at or above proficient’ in state testing.
Strangely, a whooping 54% of Chester 3rd graders rank ‘at or above proficient’.
Why does math learning deteriorate between 3rd and 11th grades in Chester? This is the real STATE OF EMERGENCY.
With math skills so important to succeed in technology and the trades, there is no wonder why blacks are so underrepresented in these careers.
I leaned math rather easily and earned an engineering degree as a result. When I went back into the middle schools as a substitute teacher, I was disappointed with how math is being presented today.
In my opinion, most students give up on math early because so much of the new text books require so much reading.
The days of solving problems in class, and on the board, than going home to do all the odd number equations one night, and even number ones the next, are gone.
The new math books look like reading books. If a student struggles with reading, there is no way they will have the patience and skills to solve the very few math problems presented in the books. Looking at our reading scores justifies why we have such problems with math.
Curriculum folks who I complained to say that solving word problems makes math more practical. I contend that a lot of kids have the skills to solve most math problems but they get discouraged trying to figure out what the question is asking.
If we can get back to the days of teaching students how to solve equations, than give them a lot of equations to solve, than give them a few word problems at the end, we will have more kids enjoying and learning math again.
We participated in your survey. Here are the results and comments:
ReplyDelete36 Lack of interest
33 Not enough practice
29 Bad teachers
24 It doesn’t make sense
6 Bad books
I am definitely not the right person to comment on the subject of math. I am not a math teacher but I applaud the efforts of all teachers. I voted for all of them. My comments are based on my personal experiences with math. I never had a good math teacher. They seem to teach for themselves and not for the people who are trying to understand math. At one point, I had to find a good math book to teach myself math so I could teach math to someone else. By the way, I can’t make heads or tails out of the new books. There are good math teachers out there but…We need math teachers who can teach math to everyone, and take time to teach math so we all can understand math because sometimes math does not make sense. After trying to learn Algebra, I did not go for the higher math instead I went for Consumer Math because it focused on everyday life something I could relate to. To be honest, all I cared about was balancing my checkbook. It is not because I am not interested, I like math. I just need someone to show me how to do math and practice doing math so I can remember it. I think that is all any student is asking for but let’s hear what they have to say about it.
Let’s hope you get some math teachers to chime in on this survey. I do encourage any student to pursue their interest in math.
I picked lack of interest because I'm not a big fan of math. Also sometimes learning math can get confusing at times and half the time it bores me.
ReplyDeleteBad teacher and the bad books and I don't pay attention.
ReplyDeleteLack of interest because it is boring.
ReplyDeleteTo me it's the lack of interest. I have little interest in math because it's boring, not exciting at all, and it's to0 much to do.
ReplyDeleteLack of interest. Some people are just not interested in math. I'm not interested in math because it's not fun like it use to be.
ReplyDeleteI think that my teacher doesnt teach math good enough and I'm not realy intrested in math. There's not enough practice and she ask for a lot and get's mad too quick.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the bad teachers and lack of interest. Teachers are frustrated with the students and the students are frustrated with the teachers. If the teachers are fussing back and forth with the students then no work is being accomplished. The students are fussing with teachers because the information is boring, which is because their lack of interest or understanding.
ReplyDeleteI feel as though some of the math teachers dont put as much time as they should into their lessons. Math teachers should be good at explaining and some of the teachers I came across were terrible at it, they need a lot of practice before they decide to go into a school and teach a class.
ReplyDeleteMath is so hard to learn because of bad teachers. Some teachers are just here for a pay check others just aren't good with students. Most of our math teachers are from different countries with accents that makes it hard to understand what they are explaining.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't believe that math is hard. I'm a student in 10th grade and I'm in 12th grade math. I guess it's just easy for me.
ReplyDeleteLack of interest because I don't like math at all. I don't think we will need geomerty and all those other types of math in the real work. I also don't think we will use any of those formulas that they stress us about all the time. Only math us student would most likely need is how to count money.
ReplyDeleteI pick lack of interest because it can get confusing sometimes.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Others, I Actually Like Math. Its My Favorite Subject. I Like Working With Numbers, It's Easy To Me. The Only Thing I Can Say I Dont Like About It Would Be The Teachers. They Teach Too Fast And Expect You To Know It All. But Other Than That, I Enjoy The Subject.
ReplyDeleteI Picked It doesn't make sense. I try my best to study and listen in class but when it goes from simple math to equations and right angles things get confusing.
ReplyDeleteI don't really like math but it's a mandatory class, so I just have to deal with it and try my best.
ReplyDeleteMath is hard for me because I don’t get enough practice at home. Other than that, I understand math as long as I have a teacher or teachers aid along side me to help me as I go along.
ReplyDeleteThings are only interesting if you know how to do it and math is one of those classes that take a lot of practice to catch on to it so you can be interested in it. Kids get disapointed and give up too fast to have good practice on it, so I think not enough practice and just not understanding is the problem. If teahers put it in a way we can understand better then we would have enough practice, be interested, and would have to not cut math class.
ReplyDeleteTo me I would say the lack of interest and bad teachers because some teachers dont really explain it how some students need it to be explained thats why I'm not a big fan of math because sometimes its complicated and hard to understand.
ReplyDeleteI dont really like math but I have to take it for more life experience its a mandatory class so I have to deal with it and try my hardest.
ReplyDeleteI think it's the lack of interest,and the bad teachers because I think that the teachers should make things more interesting. And sometimes some teachers go too fast and all students don't learn as fast as others.
ReplyDeleteThough math is one of my strongest subjects, this year it's a little hard. Usually I'll have algebra which is easy for me, but this year I have geometry which doesn't make any sense at all, and on top of that the teacher I have does not explain it enough to us. He expects us to know it, just after one example on the board.
ReplyDelete