My Math Rant

When It Comes to Curriculum and Standards, I Have Been Known to Have a Few Rants

If you are teaching math in North America, chances are that your curriculum/standards are ridiculously daunting. Is it any wonder that the teaching of it is often referred to as the inch deep, mile long approach? Plain and simple, there is too much content!

Teachers have an impossible job. How can children possibly understand so many math concepts? The truth is, they can't! I'm sure that when these math courses of study, standards or curricular documents were put together, they were done by complete math specialists. Great, in their minds, everything is important. However, with approximately 50 minutes a day for about 180 days 'everything' can't be LEARNED, regardless that everything is taught.

My advice? Use your flexible common sense. Look at those common core standards or your curriculum and tease out those important concepts or Big Ideas and eliminate the rest!

Less is more and if we are going to teach our students anything, we need to ensure that they are learning.  If you're not sure what's important in math, I'd be concerned. However, ask a colleague. Dig deeper and teach less of those concepts, your students will then learn.

If you feel like I do, I would love to hear your feedback.