😵💫 The Case of Whack-a-Mole Math: A Preventative Math Approach
A short story of The Case of Whack-a-Mole Math...
There once was an educator attempting to figure out a way to guide students to increase their math understanding from their current struggle.
“There HAS to be a better way,” she thought.
So, as she observed her students struggles and took notes, she figured out the root cause to PREVENT and MINIMIZE the struggles…
This is what she found:
In middle school, students are expected to know all the basic math topics.
However, some students are not yet proficient in all of them which starts to build knowledge gaps.
The reason why most of my math students are struggling is because they have a weak math foundation.
☀️When I started focusing on this area they inevitably had a better understanding of their current math-topic hurdles + experienced lots of improvement!
However, this method was stressful for all parties:
😭 students
😓 parents +
🙃 myself.
Why? Because the material coming from their middle school math class is nonstop and keeps building.
Often I attempted splitting our time on going over the basics and their current material. This worked for a bit but it’s NOT SUSTAINABLE because more focus must always be placed on their current topic for upcoming tests.
It’s an unhappy cycle!
It keeps piling up if left unaddressed. Its like playing whack-a-mole BUT with math….so whack-a-math-mole lol.
FINDING #1: Reactive Teaching
This created what I can describe from my experience as REACTIVE teaching. What I mean by that is that:
In math tutoring for older students (ages 11+), we take what the student brings from school, figure out the underlying basic concept, review it (ONLY review) + immediately apply it to their homework.
With this method, we only do lightweight work + short term fixes.
There is not enough time to for a deep dive into the fundamentals when we have a train LOAD of homework + changing topics every week…
THIS IS whack-a-math-mole
FINDING #2: Focusing on the basics creates results
The fundamental basics would eradicate probably 80% of their struggles.
If students had more time and assistance in cementing understanding of the basics it would actually PREVENT and MINIMIZE math struggles in future math levels.
If they spend about 5 years building up to these basics in elementary that means they NEED to be proficient in them to excel in middle school as they are re-taught a higher complexities.
FINDING #3: Proactive Teaching
Long term learning by focusing on math basics
Small group, highly individualized teaching AND support for the student.
Caters to the learner, and move at their pace to confirm their understanding of the topics
🌈For this reason I created Birdie Math Tutoring. It’s what I like to call a Proactive Tutoring Model to combat math struggles.
🚀Birdie Math Tutoring (previously Mighty Math Minds™) is an online math program to master fundamental math basics.
The foundational skill topics of math are the same no matter the grade level. Our math tutoring is designed to address these topics to help kids of various grade levels improve in math.
It helps you have peace of mind knowing your child will master math BASICS to achieve math understanding for their grade level.
Let’s have a chat (book call here) to find out if this program is a fit for you and your child. There is no obligation to enroll if you book a call.
If you’d like to read more about our program, then you can follow this link.
