No calculators allowed.

These are words that strike fear into my students' hearts and I totally understand why. They make me feel hot and sweaty too. Maybe I shouldn't admit that as a math teacher. It's the truth, though. I often tell my students that I use my calculator to make sure two times two is still four. 

I went I to school in a time when we were much less dependant on technology. The fanciest thing we had was an overhead machine. I did math on ditto sheets. And we had to do math in our heads. It was terrifying. I was horrible at math. I'm still not naturally good at it, but I work hard at it. This is why I was so terrible in math: I didn't understand what we were doing or why. I just memorized the steps. This lead to a lot of math test anxiety and disaster. 

For these reasons, I am a big fan of using a great deal of problem solving in my math program. I want my students to work to understand why we are doing what we are doing. I want them to be able to explain what they know. I want it to be about more than just the numbers. But at the same time, they have to know how to add, how to multiply and what on earth division means without having to google it.  I am all for technology in my classroom. I encourage the use of smart phones and other technology so long as it is used appropriately. But I do think that students need to be able to do basic math computation. So where does this leave me?

It's time to revamp my math program again. Problem solving and an emphasis on communication? Yes. Project-based learning? Yes. Interactive notebooks? Yes. Mental math and basic math computation? Yes. Calculators any time you want? No.  It's time to revive some of our earliest technological advances: the pencil and paper. 

In the middle, 

Melissa