Welcome to the first blog entry of Xtra Fly Math! My name is Liz. (One half of the Xtra Fly duo). I have been an elementary educator for almost 15 years. My passion is Math (K-8 Math Endorsement) but do you want to know something that I have learned over the years…Math is definitely not every elementary educator’s passion. In fact, several teachers have admitted to having a math phobia sometime during their life. But you know who started that phobia? THEIR OWN ELEMENTARY TEACHER!! Yes you heard me…these phobias start as a student and haunt many adults as they get older. And most teacher preparation programs do not spend a lot of time on elementary math. But wait, I’m not done…let’s not forget our parents who are also living with this fear. So now we have a cycle of adults that may be scaring students away from Math…We have to stop this cycle somewhere!
During the pandemic, several math insecurities were exposed with Math being taught virtually and parents being forced to show their child how to do the Math. You probably saw this common core math and thought… “WHAT IS THIS MESS?!?! What happened to carrying and borrowing? Why can’t they just multiply with the placeholder? I’m just going to show you this trick that I learned when I was kid”…Stop me when this sounds familiar…
I’m here to tell you that you are not alone. The purpose of this blog is to provide tutorials and advice as we are trying to remedy the learning loss that occurred while attempting to teach Math over Zoom. Let’s be real…that was NOT easy. With different learning styles (visual, audible, read/write, kinesthetic) some students were left out. So now we have classrooms moving forward with instruction like a whole 18 month set back didn’t happen and you may be a teacher or a parent trying to figure how to close this gap.
What can you expect…
- Ways to bring back (or introduce) excitement in Math!
- Fun Math topics
- New topic every week with a video tutorial on a math strategy (Feel free to suggest a topic)
- Monday’s Math Misconceptions with a common math mistake that people make.
- Honest and healthy conversation with advice.
Our opinion is Math is fun! This is the one universal language. No matter where you go in the world, 2+2=4. I look forward to learning with you!
We’re not going to lie, Math is XTRA FLY!
-Liz
