Bobby entered my class at the start of the fall term. He had a reputation from previous years for being terrible at math and didn’t seem interested in changing this. He often said, “Math isn’t for me, Mrs. Reed. I just don’t get it.” This was a challenge I was ready to accept.
By nature, Bobby is highly creative and has a vivid imagination — he likes storytelling, drawing, and making up new games. To tap into this, I decided to merge his creative side with the mathematical concept we were learning. We used play dough, building blocks, and Lego pieces to teach the basics of Algebra – this allowed him to visually see and understand what the abstract symbols represented.
An unforgettable moment was when we started fractions. Traditionally, this is a concept that many students find tricky. I didn’t want Bobby to fall into the same mindset. So, I decided to use one of his favorite snacks – pizza. We would use slices of pizza to represent parts of the whole. This not only made learning fractions fun but also helped him really ‘digest’ the concept.
Over time, Bobby started to like our math classes. When he got a problem right, his face would light up – it was like he had won a lottery. One day, he even said, ‘Math is really not that bad,’ which all of us knew was a massive understatement.
This success is not just about Bobby and his journey with Math. There’s more to it. It taught me that when a kid says he or she doesn’t ‘get’ something, it’s not because they can’t. It’s because we haven’t found the right way to teach them yet. All kids are not the same, and all kids do not learn at the same pace and in the same way. Our goal as teachers should be to discover how each child learns best and foster those techniques.
To conclude, yes, our job can be tough, the pay might be low, but the reward of getting a student inspired is priceless!
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