I have served as high school resource teacher. Along with government, geography and personal finance, I also taught algebra. The students did not know their time tables. I set out to help them learn their multiplication facts. The obstacle was that most of them had IEPs (Individual Education Plans), with use of a calculator checked as a modification/accommodation. This was even true for those who did not need a calculator.
Since the students needed to learn their multiplication facts, it was agreed with the administrators, that they would be able to use their calculators 50 percent of the time. The remainder of the time they would work without them. The result was that when I gave the students the calculators, all but a few turned them down.
Only a few students needed the calculator. One student, who chose to use it for doing order of operations, afterwards turned it down. He stated, “These teachers done messed us up.” Afterwards, he would use the facts sheet but not the calculator.
They continued without the use of a calculator. The more they worked without them, the more familiar they became with their math facts. I continued to have fact sheets available, but they did not use them. When a new student came, the students expressed disbelief at his request of a calculator or multiplication fact sheet. In time, that student also became proficient with his time tables.
The students in my special classes have now learned to do long division, multiplication, fractions, linear equations, binomials, polynomials, scientific notation and have even worked on a little geometry. They are able to do rounding, change percents to decimals, integers, exponents and square roots. All of this was done without the use of the calculator.
New concepts frightened them, just as new concepts frighten us all. But they always met each challenge head-on and overcame them all. My students rose to the occasion.
We must challenge our students. We cannot allow a test to tell us that our students are not intelligent enough or are not worthy enough to be pushed to their limit. We need to get back to the job of teaching in a way that will cause our children to excel, not for them to accept mediocrity or less.
I cannot emphasize enough the need for us to embrace modern technology in the classroom, including the computer, maybe cellular phone, and the calculator. I just believe that the students need to learn the basics first, especially in the early years.
When they enter high school, every student should know the multiplication table. Since my students did not, I took one week and worked with the students so that they could learn them. Really, repetition was the best teacher. I encourage these and all students not to accept the easy way out, but to challenge and believe in themselves, even when others don’t.
