Gordons Facilitation

Gordons week has been an eye opener for me. I happened to enjoy his topic and have thought about what makes a good maths teacher.

Gordon Wrote
"Poor maths teachers = Poor maths students
When you were at school, did you like maths or despise the subject?
High school maths is straightforward and most people should be able to understand it. That is why most people do it. However, it is a subject that tends to polarise students - they either love it or hate it.
Here are some statements that I have found to be universally true:
Those that enjoy maths are the ones that can do it.
Those that hate maths are the ones that struggle to understand the subject.
Everyone has been able to cope with maths at some level.
When the understanding stops it is usually because of a poor teacher.
There may be some areas of maths that you struggled with at school, and still have problems with today. You may have a belief that it is just too difficult and you are simply not able to cope with it.
Click on the link to find a short reading: http://www.mathematicalbrain.com/sept03/tel01.html
This week there is an opportunity to share some of these experiences with the group, to try to develop an understanding of maths in a problem area and to reflect on why you found it so difficult at school. Can it be attributed to a poor teacher?
The first activity is a short maths quiz. Go into the forum to find the link.
Thanks,
Gordon

I found this weeks dialogue was quite thought provoking as far as analysing my own feelings towards Maths. I must confess, I never liked maths in high school but got to love it when I had been in the workforce for two decades. I went back to tech in the 80's and completed level 3. I cannot remember the maths teacher I had in the 60's but remember the experience as being very unpleasant. I had the opportunity to teach maths last week for a teacher who was away. I thoroughly enjoyed the week. I found the subject (% and fractions) to be stimulating. The students used their calculators whereas I showed them methods to calculate without the fancy buttons.
- Maryanne