Math

Everyone can do math (sometimes despite what they may believe), but not necessarily at the same level or at the same pace.  To recognize this, the math curriculum has several different elements to it.  The students keep a vocabulary, process, and explanation journal to help them better process what the questions are asking you to do, how to do it, and explaining why or how this is the best answer.  This moves the student away from solving several similar equations to processing and explaining the solutions to only a few questions.  In addition to selectively using a math text, we do several concrete object based projects  (as with cooking with fractions, bridge design and building, geometric origami, stock market simulation, balancing bookkeeping and payroll/ checkbooks, Thanksgiving meal shopping, survey graphing, etc.) to provide meaningful, real-world experiences that demonstrate the need for math understanding for future success. 

As much as possible, students are allowed to work at their own pace and at a level that will challenge but not overwhelm them.  I do my best to offer individual help and time to those students that ask for clarification, and I am open to supervised independent or small group study for those students that have already mastered the concepts in a unit.  In these cases, students have been given an extension project or unit to pursue instead of the class lessons; they meet with me daily to report on their progress and success and can gain clarification if needed to proceed.