Services for Educators

Math Smart! Student Voices

Hear what students are saying about their math learning

Students in a south Texas school district were surveyed by IDRA in 2008. Below is a sample of their responses.

What are some things teachers do that really help you learn in class?

  • When they take time to help you, and when they make the environment a lot more comfortable and fun. When they have a sense of humor.
  • They make themselves available after class for tutoring, and they give us good strategies.
  • They ask us if we understand and if we don’t they’ll go all over again until we understand.
  • When teachers make learning fun and explain well to students and when they teach us by doing activities.
  • Nothing because this teacher explains very fast.
  • Explain what we are dealing with.
  • Group work and activities.

What are some things teachers do that really help you learn math?

  • They have different techniques
  • We do fun activities together about math and it helps us because we’re having fun doing math.
  • Sit down with me and explain to me.
  • They teach us step by step till everybody learns it.
  • They give us different examples to see which one we learn.
  • She explains the lesson in different ways
  • We work with blocks/tiles and shapes.
  • She makes it fun to learn so it can be easier to understand.
  • Making the sentence smaller and easy to learn
  • They make games out of math problems and they make smart ways to remember stuff.
  • They do fun subject and some time in group
  • Sometimes my math teacher helps me but she talks very fast and she is always angry with us.

When did you enjoy learning math the most? Why?

  • I enjoy it when I get it.
  • In groups, it gives opinions from others.
  • When the teacher makes it fun or funny.
  • I enjoyed math in eighth grade. I learned a lot of stuff.
  • On Friday when I finished all my work. I enjoyed learning it because I understood it.
  • When I was in third grade because it was fun.
  • The teacher is cool with me and doesn’t let me fall behind.
  • When we do group experiments.
  • I don’t like it because I don’t understand.
  • When the teacher would show us how to do the problems.
  • When we use the calculators.
  • When I work in an activity with my friends.
  • Last year, because the teacher would explain you the things until you understood it.
  • When we used graphs, because I like drawing!
  • Well in my sixth-grade year I enjoyed math because my teacher that year taught math to the point where we would understand. If we wouldn’t get it he would stop and help us.
  • By playing games, because we have fun and at the same time we are learning.