Tips for Teaching Elementary Math

I came across a website that listed their top nine tips for teaching elementary. Worksheetlibrary.com lists nine tips and I have included eight of them below with my thoughts on each.

1. Keep a positive attitude.

Attitude is so important in school and as a life skill. Our attitudes are something WE can control and to have a positive attitude can make any situation better. As teachers we are the role models and we should be going into all of our lessons with a positive attitude. Students can tell if you have a negative attitude towards something.

2. Make sure the child understands the assignment.

This seems like an obvious tip but I feel like it is over looked to often. Many kids can pretend to understand or don't want to admit they don't understand something. It's important to check in with students as they are working to make sure they understand how to do the work.
 

3. Explore math in your day to day routines.

 Math doesn't just have to be in a book or on a worksheet. The classroom and daily routines are full of opportunities to help make math "real". Worksheetlibrary.com gave the examples of using the clock minutes for adding and subtracting or the boys and girls in the classroom. Even dividing a classroom up in "half"- that is a visual for students as to what is "half" of something.

4. Get kids talking.

We recently read about cooperative learning in my Math Methods class and I think that cooperative learning can be very beneficial for students.  When kids work together in smaller groups will be exposed to working together, seeing other views besides their own and realizing they can learn from each other.  Communication in the classroom is very important! (That could be a whole other post!)

5. Teach time.

Using time as a free tool to help students understand adding and subtracting is great. Time is something that will be used for their whole lives. Not only can it help with help with time but also time management. 

6. Make math fun.

Math can be a dreadful thing for people. With the help of the amazing technology there are a lot of tools available to us to help us make our lesson's more fun! Math can be fun and especially with younger students you need to keep their attention.

7. Computers make useful tools.

Back to the technology! Computers are so great for many things but with math as well. Today their are many free games for computers that are math friendly and fun. Kids seem to really enjoy them. One site the kids from my middle school loved to play was www.coolmath-games.com .

8. Parents and teachers should maintain communication.

Lastly, an important tip for teaching elementary math is keeping a good connection with students parents. Many times the students will have work that will need to be brought home to finish or a test to study for. If students are kept up to date with what is being taught they will have an advantage of helping their students in any way. This is where a blog might be helpful. By updating the blog with what's going on in the classroom, parents can check in and stay on track with you as the teacher.

Teaching elementary math will be a learning experience I think. At first we may find it to be overwhelming but with time and finding great resources I think we can all be great elementary teachers!