Strategies to incorporate into lessons and how to address student learning gaps

These programs have been developed by me throughout my decades of math teaching and tutoring.

My initial motivation was specifically for students with gaps in their education due to illness or frequent family moves or whatever the situation that caused them to miss key points important to furthering their math education.

Because math education builds on itself, when a student returned to my classroom from even one day of absence they were suddenly “behind” as the rest of the class moved on. If the student was properly motivated, they would seek me out for help before or after school or during a free period that we both had at the same time. Once I had these programs in place along with the included progress charts, I could say to the student upon his return to my classroom, “John, you missed these topics.” And I would mark the topics they missed on the included progress charts and send them to the computer lab. If after they did the lesson, they still had a question, it was quicker and faster to address where they were “stuck”. Usually, the tutorial software did the trick and they were up and running along with the rest of the class. That’s how to use the software within your curriculum when a student misses a day or a few days.

For students, coming to a new school or new learning situation, it is best to use the included progress charts for help with placement. Both the Basic Math Placement Test and the Algebra Placement Test are provided electronically as well as pdfs for printing and working with pencil and paper. Some students do the test on paper and then enter their answers on the computer for grading and placement purposes. The software will indicate which areas are weak and need to be worked on. Those will be the lessons they need to accomplish. In this instance, they may be directed by a “facilitator”, not necessarily a math instructor.

For students using this software as a stand-alone curriculum, let’s say as an Algebra course, they would start on Lesson 1, Section 1 and move forward at their own pace or directed by a “facilitator”, not necessarily a math instructor.

These programs follow the accepted standard math curriculum in California, Hawaii, Illinois, and Massachusetts.

I am available to answer any curriculum or software questions, even after the sale! Just email me: support@mathmedia.com

---------------Teaching Experiences---------------------

I have been a teacher for as long as I can remember. As a 3-year-old in nursery school, I remember teaching the other kids how to tie their shoes. Throughout K-college, I shared what I knew with others as a volunteer tutor. In college, as a member of the formal tutorial service called “The Tutorial Project”, we were bused into the most under-served neighborhoods in the Los Angeles County school system. The children were challenging to teach – in retrospect, I do not think we were quite prepared for what we encountered.

After college and a brief stint as a legal assistant in a downtown LA law firm and another brief stint in a Real Estate Investment company on Rodeo Drive in Beverley Hills, CA, I realized that I would rather be a school teacher. After eight months of graduate school and receiving student teaching experience in the Long Beach area, I received my life time teaching certificate from the state of California… one of the best feelings in my life.

My first classroom teaching experience was in Torrance, CA as a high school math and German language teacher. It was so much fun, exciting, and full filling. After a few years, my personal life caused a bit of chaos, and I moved to Hawaii where my parents were living.

I got a job at Club Med in Hanalei, Kauai where I taught yoga, waterskiing, and gave snorkeling tours to visitors. Always the teacher, no matter what the subject! When the Club Med job was no longer fulfilling, I applied for and received my Hawaii teaching certificate and took a job as a substitute teacher. I was sent to elementary schools and high schools on Kauai.

But, alas, substitute teaching was not very fulfilling, so I started an activities company on Kauai providing various recreational activities for visiting tourists. The business got to be more than I could handle (so I sold) and a romance brought me to Chicagoland where I applied for and received my Illinois teaching certificate and landed a “dream” teaching job in a highly respected suburban Winnetka high school. I was given the first computer programming class to teach and subsequently hired by a local software company to pen on paper interactive programmed instruction for high school geometry. (Read some of the details in my other article that is titled “Open the Box!”).

Becoming a new mother brought me into the world of private tutoring, where I learned even more about teaching. I was doing both software authoring and tutoring. The tutoring was great, the working for a corporation, not so much. After so much correcting of other people’s mistakes while they were programming from my handwritten storyboards, I realized I needed to learn how to program my own authoring systems. That was the MathMedia Educational Software, Inc. “seed” that has grown into this delightful business that I work to share with as many teachers, parents, and learners who wish to know more than they know already.

What an experience this has all been! Through these varied experiences I was gaining what you might call and “organic” education of what it was like to be a teacher. All the empathy I have picked up over the years for students of ALL ages, worried parents, and exhausted teachers who strive every day to make a difference. Sharing my experiences and the teaching perspectives I have learned is the goal of writing all these articles, sending you pdf worksheets, and providing a full K-College tutorial math software curriculum for use as entire courses or supplements. I hope my readers enjoy and learn from what I have enjoyed and learned.

Illana Herzig Weintraub
Email comments, questions, or request to be on our mailing list to support@mathmedia.com.