What Students and Staff Have To Say About Math
| Question | What teachers are seeing | What students are saying |
| What do students like about math? | - Financial literacy
- Applying to real-life scenarios (playing cashier, imaginary trip budgeting)
- Math games
- Being challenged, enriched, inspired
- Working together
- Drawing thinking on whiteboards
| - solving problems
- puzzles
- division, multiplication
- the challenge
- getting answers correct
- playing with numbers
- math games
|
| What do students dislike about math? | - Learning new strategies
- Challenging vocabulary
- Math homework given by parents
- Word problems
- Boring/Disengaged
- Having others at different levels
- Working alone
- They don’t understand why they are learning it/why it needs to be ‘memorized’
| - hard
- confusing
- stressful
- too many steps
- too much thinking
- too many strategies
- “hurts my brain”
- frustrating
- overwhelming
- boring
- it takes too long
|
| Strengths | - Problem solving
- Following formulas
- Willing to learn new math routines/open to trying new strategies
- Learning through play
- Counting and adding numbers to 20
- Playing turn-based games
- Multiplication facts
- Playing and applying in familiar contexts
- Recognize the importance of developing numeracy skills (motivation)
| What is easier in math? - Puzzles/sudokus
- Easy or short questions
- Addition, multiplication, subtraction
- Everything
- Fractions/Decimals
- Algebra/Equations
- Geometry
- Things I already learned
- Math games
- Nothing
|
| Stretches | - Vocabulary/expressing themselves (in French)/reading/understanding the language in word problems
- Seeing math in real life context
- Representing thinking in multiple ways (pictorially and symbolically)
- Math fluency (foundational skills)
| What is challenging in math? - Algebra
- Long division/division
- Multiplication of larger numbers
- Fractions and decimals
- Negative numbers/integers
- Word problems
- Anything with too many steps
- Geometry
- Graphing
- Mental math
- Measurement
- Nothing
- Everything
|
| Where do we go from here? | What would you like to explore? - Differentiation/Universal Design for Learning in numeracy/mathematics
- Collaboration core competency
- Cross curricular ideas (ADST with math)
| What could we do to make math more enjoyable? - Math games
- Partner/group work
- Activities instead of math problems
- Make it easier
- Make it harder
- Better explanations/clearer teaching
- Hands-on, visual, creative, or real-life math
- More technology
- Reduce workload/make it less stressful
- More choice, rewards, or incentives
|
Teachers were given the opportunity to answer these questions on chart paper at the beginning of a staff meeting.
Intermediate students answered these students in a digital survey with Mrs. Sugiarto during library time.
Updated:
Monday, December 1, 2025