Encouragement

Today my kids told me I'm the first "good" math teacher they've had. I asked what they meant, and they said "All our other teachers only check if we do our homework, not if it's right or wrong." I explained I do that too; when I come around and check off their homework, I give them full credit if they just tried all the problems.

I explained, "If I give you 20 problems for homework one night, it would be best if I could check them all as right or wrong. BUT, there are 26 of you. So then I would check (and correct) 20 problems for each of the 26 students, which is 520 problems...for only one night's math homework!"

They said, "Yes, but you put the correct answers on the board and show us how to do the ones we got wrong." It was a great chance to explain self-responsibility and how they need to be in charge of their own learning. We check answers so they know what they really understand and what they need to work on. My job is to help them learn for themselves, not just to write things for them to copy without thinking.

I think the message got across.

One girl even told me she used to hate math but now she loves it. Another said I make it "funny." (...But I'm not sure exactly what that means.)