Mathematics Taught with Enthusiasm
Too often teachers get caught up in the day to day activities of teaching math and sometimes become like automatons doing things the same way day after day and year after year. When you find that you don’t deviate from the textbook or from the same tired examples you have used over and over – you will begin to place too much emphasis on the mundane rather than the joy that can be derived from teaching others mathematics with enthusiasm.
What do we mean by enthusiasm? Well – it has a lot to do with presentation. Make your classes fun with games and competitions so that the children will be excited about learning because it will be a creative endeavor that makes them work to excel rather than just read a textbook and answer a few questions. Try using puzzles or other ways to make learning math more interesting for your pupils.
Explain how children will use the math you are teaching in their everyday lives. If children don’t have a foundation of basic addition and subtraction and multiplication, they will flounder with fractions and decimals and more difficult lessons later on. Work together or in teams to teach the various types of math. Try to use examples that will be found readily in their homes so that they can understand more readily and don’t let those big thick textbooks rule your classroom.
Venture out into other types of teaching that uses drawings or pictures or software programs if those are available. The more adventurous and enthusiastic you are about your subject matter, the more easily the children will respond positively and learn much more readily. Ask your children to provide examples in real life so that they can share and discuss percentages and decimals or whatever topic comes up making it more real – and more fun for all.