Math teachers have had a new problem to solve this school year: How do you foster engagement and understanding among students when you鈥檙e often not in the room with them?
鈥淎s if mathematics weren鈥檛 complicated enough, add a pandemic to the mix, and math instruction has become infinitely more challenging,鈥� wrote Elissa Scillieri, the principal of Apshawa Elementary School in West Milford, N.J., in an Education Week opinion blog post published in the spring.
But over the past nine months, teachers whose schools are still fully or partially remote have learned to adapt and come up with new ways to teach math online. Education Week asked teachers on Twitter to share their tips for teaching math remotely. Here鈥檚 what they said:
Stick to a routine, but don鈥檛 treat this as a normal school year.
鈥淧lan your questions accordingly. You鈥檒l get about 1/3 to 1/2 what you鈥檒l normally get through. So make sure if you鈥檙e planning to review all of subtraction you pick some with regrouping once, twice, etc.鈥�
鈥� Stephanie Kessinger, @Stmathgirl
Have kids work offline, too.
Encourage student collaboration and small-group work.
Check in with students frequently.
鈥淯se the chat feature. My students [can] chat with me privately if they aren鈥檛 comfortable turning on their screen and talking out loud. It has helped the quieter kids have a voice.鈥�
鈥� Stephanie Kessinger, @Stmathgirl
