COLUMBIA, S.C. — If your child's math homework has you scratching your head confused, you're not alone.
Parents who grew up in the '80s, and '90s learned basic formulas, such as long division to solve math problems. But there’s a new way of learning being taught in your child’s classroom.
Parents, you’re in luck. There’s a math interventionist in Richland School District One that is not only teaching her students, but their parents, too.
Wallis Bond is a math interventionist at Brockman Elementary School. She says the math formulas are always changing.
“The math standards in elementary school are the only time they learn them. And then when you go to sixth grade, you use them from sixth grade on, and you're putting them in use," Bond said. "So, if you don't take that time in elementary school to build that strong foundation, then they aren't ready to hit the ground running.”
Bond makes sure all of her students are proficient in math.
Morgan Taylor is a student at Brockman Elementary School and learned a lot from Bond. “I didn’t know any math, really. I only know adding and subtraction, and now I know how to do it in a snap and fractions,” said Morgan.
Bond is also teaching her students' parents. James Taylor is Morgan's father. He says his daughter is helping him learn the new math formula with the help of Ms. Bond.
“They teach five senses in school, but they don't teach you common sense. So, you got to get it when you can get it," says James.
“Many of them [parents] have come and said help me. Help me know how. Help me know why doing it this way is better than doing it the way I learned," said Bond.
The goal of the new common core math offers students a variety of techniques for reaching their final result. The hope is that students will have a whole toolbox of different strategies to rely on and not just know the answer, but why it’s the answer.
“If you had a hard multiplication problem, could you tell me why it works? Or subtraction with across zeros, can you tell why that works? Well, if you know different ways, you can say, I understand why that works. That's not the way I do it. But I understand why it works,” said Bond.
“She taught me how to not look at everything in the same way," said James. "When I'm looking at the paperwork and stuff like that, I get it."
“The parents are always saying, What can I do to help? How can I help them with this? And so, I definitely do it when I see them in the grocery store or in the carpool line. I send out letters, like at Thanksgiving, that say, 'Here's some ways to connect math. Or summer ways to connect math,'” said Bond. “I try to teach them something the day before and then say 'Take this home and teach your parents' because each one teach one. So, you know that really works great."
And although it may be different from what we were taught, James sees the positive results in his daughter’s test scores.
"Ms. Bond turned everything around with this whole personality change. She started liking and loving it. And stuff like that. So, she's doing better now than she did,” said James.
“We hope that these students will grow up and be able to say, even if it's different than what they learned, they will be able to say, 'Oh, that's an interesting way. I understand what's happening,'" said Bond.
Bond is also a finalist for this year’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. It’s the highest honor by the U.S. Government, specifically for K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics teaching.
Bond is one of six finalists in South Carolina for the award and one of three in the mathematics category.