Dear Elementary Math Teacher...

Dear Elementary Math Teachers,

Oh my wonderful teacher friends, if you teach K-4 elementary math you are so very CRITICAL to a child’s math comprehension.  Yes, you.  True math knowledge doesn’t start once they hit “the algebra wall” in middle school that so many students struggle with getting over.

It starts with you, my elementary teacher friends.  (Well, we’d love for the math knowledge to actually start at home when the child is a preschooler, but that’s a letter for another day.)

As a middle school math teacher (I teach in a grades 5-8 middle school), can I be so bold as to make a few statements to my elementary math teacher friends?

1.     Oh please--- never, ever, ever tell a child you dislike math.  Yes, I have taught students who flat out told me a previous teacher verbally announced she didn’t like math or that she didn’t really “get math.”  I’ve heard college education students comment that they are going into elementary education for the primary reason to skip teaching “hard math.”  Dear friends, this has to stop.  Elementary math teachers are CRITICAL for students building a sturdy foundation in math. 

2.     Teach the students WHY a math procedure works.  I’m not the start of multiplication by any means, yet I have only a small percentage of students who enter my classroom able to tell me what exactly multiplication is or why on earth a zero is needed on that second row when multiplying.  They’ve learned the rote rules without the reasoning.  Rules never trump reasoning.  If they get the reasoning, they will get the rules.

3.     Make math fun.  I cannot stress this enough!  Math doesn’t have to be all stressful practice.  I can tell within a few problems if a child “has it” or not.  They don’t have to solve thirty problems.  Let them move around in math.  Include technology, videos, acting, races, skits, laughter, comics, writing on whiteboards, drawing pictures, games, and the list goes on and on.  Math doesn’t equal drudgery.  Perhaps you were taught it that way…it doesn’t mean the cycle continues as you teach it that way again.  Make. It. Exciting.

I could say so much more, but I’ll stop here.  I am so thankful for amazing, incredible elementary math teachers who scaffold and build math knowledge within their students.  I hear of projects and activities that build critical math skills while showcasing creativity and excitement.  Love.  It.  Please share those incredible lessons and knowledge with co-workers and student teachers so that they too will teach math confidently. 

Your job is crazy hard and crazy important.  Never forget that.  We middle school math teachers could never ADD up enough thanks to EQUAL anything close to the amount of thanks you deserve.  You are truly SUM-thing special!  (See what I did there?  Yes, I have an elementary heart inside a middle school teacher.  Lol.).  Please consider the three things I have written to you and oh, I'm sure you could write more than three things to us middle school math teachers!  I'd love to see a letter you'd like for us to read, too!  Y'all are incredible!