Last year while we were doing introductions, one of my learners mentioned, among other things that she HATED maths and then apologised as she thought that she had hurt my feelings. I quickly cleared that up by thanking her for her honesty and telling her that my job was not to make her LOVE maths; instead I just needed her to try.
I provided her with teacher-created CHEAT Sheets as well as short videos with teaching and learning strategies for each standard and also taught her thinking strategies. The latter would help in all classes and even at home/work. She ended up being a top achiever in MATHS and now claims that MATHS is one of her favourite subjects.
I bumped into her today and she mentioned that her year 5 sibling (aged 10) was struggling with maths homework and no one at home was able to help, not even her parents. She remembered the thinking strategies that I had taught her and she used them and what do you know.................it worked. Tuakana-Teina at its best.
