Things Every Maths Teacher Hears and How to Respond

Math is not an easy subject and teachers must recognise the frustration of students and gracefully answer every question they have. But in reality, some teachers get flustered and brush aside certain questions since they do not have a ready-made response to their students.

As educators, we must first understand where the question is coming from, and even if there are slight deviations in students’ questions. I have found that these questions come from the same place – frustration.

So, here are some of my suggestions on who to tackle these questions, which in my experience has worked numerous times.

• When am I ever going to use this?

When students ask this question, it only means that they are having a hard time with the concepts they are tackling that particular day. So, they are justifying their frustration by giving some hint in the form of a question to their teachers, specifying that some of the concepts taught to them are not important in real life.

Math teachers should tell their students that specific topics like percentages, proportions, geometry, and so on can be used outside the classroom. However, some concepts like simplifying expressions, find the slope of a line, and similar topics may have little use outside the classroom, but this doesn’t mean they are no longer important. In fact, these concepts can help us learn more about the world around us as well as enhancing problem solving skills and exercising different areas of our brains.

• Can I use my phone as a calculator?

We are now living in a digital world where students have access to all sorts of mobile devices. This means that they will most often use their smartphones as a calculator. For most teachers, this is simply unacceptable as students easily become distracted by the many applications on their phones and struggle to focus on the task. It has helped that this year in Victoria, a state wide ban has been placed on the use of mobile devices in the classroom.

It is a reasonable expectation of students that they own calculators and bring them to every class. If this is not possible, reasons must be examined and a solution found.

• Why do I struggle with math?

We all know that maths often involves multi-step problems, and students are required to do several steps to find a solution. This means they must always focus on the task at hand, but some students lose focus or get distracted during their lessons. As a result, these students miss some essential steps to solve the problems given to them. They often get discouraged and struggle along the way.

So, when a student asks why they are struggling with maths, we must tell them to conduct a self-assessment to determine the reason why they get easily distracted. We should also give them pointers or words of encouragement to keep them motivated. It could be a good idea for the teacher to try and work one-on-one with the student to pin point the moment of missed understanding and clarify any gaps in knowledge. If this is not possible, a tutor may be a great option.

• Why did you become a maths teacher?

Students who often ask this question belong to the group who are puzzled or curious why someone would choose a difficult profession like teaching maths. Well, if you encounter this question, you can answer them lightly by saying, you are good at maths, and you like explaining it to other people.

You should also provide them a glimpse of your day to day activities, so they’ll know that becoming a maths teacher is not only a noble profession but also an enjoyable one. This will help open their minds to different career options and preferences of individuals.

Learn how to help your child with holiday homework here.