Mathnasium of South Barrington's Top 5 Moments!

1. Our favorite “aha!” moment with a student.

A: When a student began learning about Wholes, Parts and Equivalents, and was able to construct a math problem from her page, using the fraction bars!

2. A time when a student earned a reward.

A: One of my junior high students was saving cards for a mini-waffle maker. He earned 26 cards for it and I ordered it for him from Amazon. Now, he is saving for a rice cooker! A chef in the making for sure!

3. Positive parent experience.

A: One of my students became the math helper in her classroom at school! When she came to us, she was struggling with confidence and computation fluency, but after a month, she had made dramatic increases in her skills, so much so that her school teacher rewarded her with helping the other students! Her mom was incredibly thankful for the time we invested with her daughter!

4. Favorite ways to teach concepts.

A: I love teaching younger students with manipulatives. For working with addition facts up to 10, I like using an abacus. This is especially helpful with the complements that make 10 pages because it's an existing group of 10 beads, and it gives the students the flexibility to move the beads around in varying groups, but with the knowledge that the groups will always equal 10. It's a great visual and tactile tool for students that may struggle with finger counting and need a new method of seeing the concept.

5. A time when a student scored well on a test.

A: We currently have a high school senior refreshing her Algebra Skills for her placement test at ISU in May. She was accepted into the Nursing Program and they need to identify her math level. We'll keep you posted!