User Portlet

I began teaching 14 years ago, after 28 years in the business world. I am a special education teacher, with 9 years in elementary schools, and 4 in a high school setting. As a businesswoman, I was appalled to see that job applicants couldn't write a proper sentence and were unable to solve math problems, even with a calculator. I was a poor Algebra student, and was insecure about teaching math. As a result, I took additional trainings and professional developments in math. To my surprise, I'm actually not bad at math. In fact, I had been using algebra in business when I would do projections. The problem was the way I was taught; I needed a context for what I was learning and why I needed to learn it. I now know there can be more than one way to approach solving a problem, not just one. I learned about using real world applications, manipulatives, games, videos, literature, and computers to engage students. What ever it takes. My commitment is to teach my students the way they learn, and to be open to learning from them. We can't keep using the same paradigm math teachers have been using, we need to switch it up.