#6

Skills are accumulating throughout each year a student learns math.  Everything in math builds on something that was previously taught.  In order for my students to truly learn mastery of the content, they have to master the basic skills and remember how to apply them.  Simple building blocks in math should be mastered at an early age in order to understand larger concepts in high school.  My job will be to reignite the information that the students may not remember from earlier years.  This includes simple things such as: order of operations, simplifying fractions, showing all work, etc.  These skills are necessary to carry over into higher mathematics and will prove worthy in mastering the content.  This blog discusses the importance of content mastery.  I realize this may not be the most credible source, but the information does seem to come from a high school teacher with quite a bit of experience.  She points out the significance of teachers' mastering content and being able to relay this knowledge to the classroom.