Maths Vocabulary

I am grateful for the cover supervisors who do a thankless task in covering classes these days. I have said this before, but man alive, have I done some maths covers in my time, particularly at planet QM. It got so bad that I was asked for an appointment for parents evening by one kid as I had covered his class so much.

It is hard to teach maths – it is great that once they master something. Kids love to do the same process or calculation time and time again. They find it comforting – a sort of algebraic ‘copying out’.

What is hard is introducing a new term or equation to students, especially when you only know your way of doing the new calculation yourself.

I have learned over the years that the following verbs are essential when teaching maths:

Addzez                      (+)                   eg. “3 addz 4 is 7”

Takesawayz             (-)                    eg. “13 takesawayz 2 is 11”

Timezez                     (x)                   eg. “ 2 timezez 2 is 4”

Guzinterz                  (÷)                   eg. “6 guzinterz 24 4times”