Frustrations!

Several of our present students were in special education classes in school--or should have been.  They will never pass the GED exam without accommodations and may not even do so with the extra time and calculators that could be allowed.  I can't ask for accommodations until they have been tested and that is quite a process through Vocational Rehabilitation services. Then they have to prove to me that they can pass with those accommodations and I process the request.  

Usually math is the greatest difficulty for students, although those who can't read well are really handicapped on the other four GED subtests. 

Sometimes I just want to yell  "THINK!" when students can't seem to solve anything in math but simple computation.  Poor reading skills do not test my patience like poor math skills do.  I'm not sure why that is.  I try to get students to read the question and not just do any old thing with the numbers.  Some do not seem to have the ability to do multi-step problems.  I try to stress that there is not only one way to do a problem, but they want steps they can memorize. Generalization to a new problem--that is the problem in itself! 

Hands-on work, manipulatives, real-life examples, drawing pictures, using money, working with partners, frequent review--I try many strategies.  It is hard to overcome the attitude many have when they say "I hate math" or "I never was any good at math."  And sometimes I think it is true that there really is no number line in their heads--when even the concept that the part of something is smaller than the whole seem difficult. 

Amanda Serenevy has asked me to be on the expanded board of the Riverbend Math Center.  She is doing good work here in South Bend to promote math education.  I am honored to be asked to be on her board and will probably say Yes.