I am often asked if there is a shortcut for success and I rapidly answer yes. I explain that although it is counter intuitive, the secret for success is “patience”. When a large building is constructed, soil studies and other tests need to be done initially. Time is taken ...
In any type of competition, a competitor needs to learn to be gracious in victory and defeat. This type of behavior is one that coaches and parents need to teach their students or children. In many instances, the emphasis of competition is winning. In fact, it is used as a pri...
Whether it was my time as a student, a teacher, a coach, a parent or an author, I have always worked at improving what I do. As a student, I focused on trying to learn as much as I could about the content that was being taught. When playing sports, I worked diligently in becoming...
Many times in our life, we encounter confrontational situations in which we have an obligation to defuse certain conflicts between people. As a teacher, these situations occur with students, parents, administrators or other teachers. Parents usually encounter this with their ch...
Since my retirement from 32 years of being a high school mathematics teacher, I have tutored numerous students from second to eighth grade. What I learned is that each of them was capable of mastering concepts that many teachers and parents would describe as not being age appropr...
The most important key to being successful in teaching any concept is to be able to subdivide that concept into subtopics. This applies to teachers, parents, employees, etc. Mastery of initial subtopics lays the groundwork for a solid foundation. This foundation will increase the...
When I was only 6 years old, I knew I wanted to become a teacher. The roots of that early decision would begin to grow and would be reinforced throughout my childhood experiences. My father was a projectionist at an outdoor movie theater called The Buckhorn. My mother was a house...
Step-by-step instruction in mathematics is crucial to learning and should be an integral part of any teaching strategy. Once a concept has been selected and prior to presenting it to a student, a teacher should determine what fundamental subtopics will that student need to be fam...
Whether you are a mathematics teacher or a mathematics coach, it is important that you develop a routine. Your students will respond more favorably to whatever you teach, if they know what to expect. In teaching, I used to begin every lesson with a quick review of lessons present...
This morning I started thinking of when I decided to become a teacher of mathematics, I was 6 years old. While in school, I remember how quickly I completed all of my math schoolwork in the classroom. After completing my schoolwork, I enjoyed walking around and helping other stud...
