Story Problems

I taught math and was a math interventionist for several years when my children were in elementary and middle school. I often told my students to get their pencils moving by circling and underlining parts of the problem as a way to combat story problem anxiety. I even had some especially anxious fifth graders draw boxes to rewrite data points, just to get the pencil moving. I find that when you are facing a problem and don’t know what to do, you just need to take one step in any direction.

This morning I turned to bread baking, a favorite pastime. I have a double batch rising in a huge bowl on the fireplace mantle and I feel much better. Nothing is solved and the problems are still there, but I’ve got my pencil moving.