Mr Brian McLogan

The Three Biggest Secrets Every Struggling Math Student Need To Know!

Hi!

My name is Mr. Brian McLogan, I run a math help website that features videos on how to solve various math problems.  I never dreamed I would be an online tutor growing up but I used my passion for math to become a teacher.  In the process I learned a lot about math, myself and education.  The information in this ebook is extremely important and a lot of students, parents do not even know about it.  I feel it is my duty to spread this knowledge because of the tremendous impact it has had on my life and education, and I know it can affect others as well. Please take these three secrets to heart. Instill them in your brain, as they will lead you to a better math experience. I am a testament of the following three secrets.

Your Mindset

The biggest problem that plagues most struggling math students is that they believe they are not good at math and will do poorly in the course they are taking because of their previous experiences: failing a previous course, not understanding their teacher, issues with homework problems, or were chosen for the lower math class.  Many students allow their previous experiences to effect their current thinking and that thinking alters how they do for the rest of the year.   They perceive everything happened for a reason and they’re not smart enough for the class and that there is no way for them to change or improve.

The most common response I get from people when I tell them I am a math teacher is “Oh I am horrible in math” or “That I was never good at that”. Well guess what? They are all right! If you believe you are bad at math then there is very little chance you will ever become good at math. This thinking stems from what the mind believes the body will achieve. If you are thinking you are bad at math, then stop it. Stop it right now!  All you are doing is telling yourself what to be and what patterns follow. By telling yourself all of this, what do you think your brain wants to follow?

 Let us look at a non math example to clarify my point. Two weight lifters are in a power lifting competition.  They are the last two competitors left.  You are interviewing them before they are about to compete for who can lift the next weight above their head.  They have both previously failed to lift this weight in other competitions and to win the completion but today, one of them will succeed. Both of the athletes are exhausted and of equal size and muscle mass. The first athlete tells you that he can lift the weight over his head with utter confidence.  He keeps saying to himself:” I can do it, I can do it,” and he is so positive he makes you feel like he has already lifted the weight above his head.  You are barely able to get an interview with the guy because he is so pumped to lift the weight.  So you turn your attention to the other competitor and ask him how he feels. He is scared and does not think he can lift the weight because he has never done it before. He has had a long day and is not at his best right now. The weight is heavy and his arms are tired. He wants to do it though because he wants to win but he knows how hard it will be.  You go back to your seat in the audience and someone behind you asks who do you think will lift the weight above their head.

Naturally the person with the confidence in themselves is the person you are going to put your own confidence in.  Hopefully you understand what handicap you are placing upon yourself when you say you are bad at math or can’t do something. Those words and phrases are diseases preventing you from what you really want to achieve. We really don’t know who could or will actually lift the weight over their head but we can definitely decide who has the best chance at it, just by knowing their mindset. If you want to become rich, tell yourself that.  If you want to finish a marathon tell yourself you will finish the marathon.  Having that mindset will not guarantee you will get your desired result but it is very hard to achieve what you want without having the correct thinking in place.

 If you want to be better at math you need to get yourself in that mindset. Tell yourself you can do it, there is nothing you can’t understand and that you can solve any problem given to you. No matter what challenges you have had before you are going to have to have more and more of them of them in your life so get used to it. Your mindset is what is going to pave the way for you to overcome your obstacles in math and especially in life. When you fail a test, don’t understand what your teacher has just taught, even if you failed a course.  Make sure you stay positive, believe that you can do it, rise above any struggle thrown your way. In my own life I have seen an F on a quiz. I have failed a course. I have gone home and wondered what happened that hour I was in math class.  I have spent hours trying to figure out how to solve ONE math problem.   I didn’t let those failures get the best of me. I went at it with a mindset that I can overcome the obstacles. You have to look at each failure as an opportunity to improve yourself and get stronger.  Lift your head up, be positive and tackle this math giant you have in front of you.

Make Goals for Math Class

Before we approach anything new you should always ask yourself a very important question: What is my goal? Or: What is my desired end result?  You have probably heard about creating goals with almost everything you do. The formula is simple: First, make multiple short term goals; second, make a long term goal; third, work hard to achieve them. Everything should be done with a purpose. Why do so many people follow this basic rule? Because it works! Study after study has shown that the people, who make specific goals, revisit their goals, write down their goals, tell others about their goals, dream about their goals, and are obsessed about achieving their goals, are the most successful in whatever they choose to be successful in.

How do you make your own goals? It starts with having the end in mind.  If you know what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it, half of the work is already done for you. You don’t have to think about achieving your goal every second of the day. Your body and mind are programmed to work toward what you envision as your goal.  We need to do this with everything in our life, so why should we leave your math class out of it?

 I usually like to have a goal that I can revisit every week and see if I’ve accomplished it or not. Then I would make another goal that goes 4-16 weeks into the future. Lastly, I would make a long term goal. This goal is essential for your long term success and should entail what you want to achieve at the end of a certain time period or the end of a course. These goals are made between the time frames for a short and long-term goal. In high school, this could be a goal for progress reports or the end of a grading quarter.

Once you have created your goals you will want to write them down along with the steps required to accomplish each goal. Ask yourself: What steps are in order to achieve each goal? List the steps or requirements on a sheet of paper or under each goal and make sure you are specific. Don’t say, “I want to do better at math.” or “I want to improve my grade.” What does better mean? Improve your grade to what?  Tell yourself, and write it down, “I want to get a B in my math class,” or, “I want to complete every homework problem on my own,” . “I want to do 5 extra practice problems a week” tells you and I exactly what you want to achieve where there is no confusion.  Once you have written your goals and the steps required to accomplish them, you have completed the easy part. 

The next important step is to visit your goals every day or week to see if you are taking the right steps to achieve them or if you’ve already achieved them. If you miss any of your goals, write down why you did so. What steps did you not do that you said you would? What obstacles got in your way? What choices did you make to prevent your goal from happening?  Then come up with ideas that you can do to help prevent yourself from having this “stuff” get in your way again.  We like to call this “stuff” life. Remember that goals are going to come and go and that there are going to be times where friends, family, and meetings are going to get in your way. How successful you are in achieving your goals will depend on how good you are at not allowing these obstacles to get in your way of achieving them.  It is hard to stay focused on your goals and it’s even more so if they are not your driving force in life.

If you need help with creating meaning with your goals, try this: attach rewards and consequences to your goals. However, this will only increase the likelihood that you will achieve your goals, and it will only last as long as you are consistent and disciplined enough to reward and discipline yourself. Chances are we can all think of lofty goals we would like to achieve, but when the going gets tough, we lose our focus. By attaching consequences and rewards to your goals, it will help keep you focused. For an easy example, if you love ice cream, take it away from yourself if you don’t meet your goal, or reward yourself with ice cream if you meet a goal.

The main ingredient for achieving your goals will always be  how consistent you are, your obsession  along with being disciplined enough to FOCUS on achieving your goals. We all have had great ideas we have wanted to do, create, build, or find, but there always seemed to be that moment when life got in the way and prevented us from FOCUSING on them. Here is your opportunity to start on the right path. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life.  Start writing down your goals right now! Use the following guide on the next page.  Remember that your goals must be measurable; at the end of the week you need to know if you achieved your goal or not.  Be very specific with your goals, and you can accomplish anything!

Organize everything!

I have to admit it; my biggest downfall to not succeeding in math class was organization. I was never organized in high school and really not much better in college, even though the best attempts were made by my parents and teachers. I was a rebel and determined to survive without being organized.  Some might even argue that I am not the most organized person now. I really have to focus on being organized but I do acknowledge it because I have seen the dramatic difference it has made in my life, so I still work every day to improve o it. When I was in high school if you asked me how organized I was.  I would tell I was not very organized but I was surviving. I even survived tests and papers without even writing any important dates down in an organized manner.  Notice how I used the word survive instead of thrive.  I was far from producing the best I could in order to be successful. 

My lack of organization finally hit me when I tried to run my own real estate company during one of my summer breaks from being a teacher.  My inability to be organized was my largest obstacle in running my business, not my lack of knowledge, or time restrictions, or my mindset or goals.  Everything was dependant on how well run and organized the company was that solely was based on me.  I could not make that overnight transition from an unorganized human being to an organization machine.  I had to quickly revert to all of the organizational skills I learned through my life and start to actually apply them.  It was a little too late as my company never took off like I thought it would. I finally realized that my organization plagued me and my business. 

The first step I had to make and advise anyone to do is remove clutter. The more clutter you have in your house, car, apartment, locker, dorm, or desk, the more cluttered your brain will be. Get rid of knickknacks and stuff that cannot be put away in an organized away.  Most people like the feeling of how everything looks and feels after you clean up.  Do your best to keep a schedule to keep your life working in this manner.  For those of you that are not the most organized like me it takes time.  Time set aside in your life for you to purely focus on removing clutter. Pick an hour a week or day to just focus on removing and organizing clutter.

Some people like “organized chaos”. We like our living spaces with clutter all around us because it makes everything more “homie.”  I used to use that as excuse too because I did feel that way in my heart.  I had to train my brain to think the opposite way once I saw the tremendous effect it had on my life.  Please note that we are all different and we all deal with clutter in different ways, but I am here to tell you that you need  to organize your life first if you want to be more organized for your classes. Once you do this you have a great foundation to get going.

Here are some tips for getting rid of your clutter.  Keep your material objects organized and don’t have things lying around. Throw them away or put them away.  After every day work through all of your papers, make a pile of papers you need to do something with that day.  This will remind you to work on those papers so that they are finished and out of your way. My teacher’s desk used to have papers all over it. I used to say I knew where everything was but really I would lose things all the time as papers would get accidently shuffled together. Now my desk is clean”ER” and clear”ER” with only a little room designated for manila folders to organize my papers. 

Once you have your life in a better organized manner it is time to focus on why we want to be organized. To do better in this math class, right? Let me throw you a couple of tips. How many you have started a homework folder and then a couple of weeks later just decided to put papers between the pages in your book? How many of you have notebooks having notes from different classes, homework, notes, personal information, the “everything notebook.” Stop it!  Designate one folder and one notebook to a class. Put in big letters, “Your math class” Not literally “Your Math Class” but the name of your class.  You want to make sure you know your folder and don’t go to class with the wrong ones.  I like to have my students use a two pocket folder because they are cheap and easy to transport. I have my students keep all of their assessments on the left side and their homework and class work on the right side. I then have them keep all of their homework in their notebooks. You don’t need to follow what I do but you do need to have a system and do not stray from that system.  Knowing where all of your work is and keeping an organized system is crucial for you to be able to find papers, notes and other materials when you need them.

If someone was to ask where something is you should know exactly where it is. After every chapter I buy a new notebook and folder and start like it is a brand new year. We like things that are new. Treat every chapter as something new. You don’t need the 5 subject notebook. Just buy a cheap one and rip out the pages once you are done, or buy a new one like I suggested.  I don’t want anything from the previous chapter in my bag anymore. Why is this? It is clutter. You will not need this information with you every day, so stop carrying it around with you.  Obviously I am speaking in generalities, if you know you need information with you from a previous chapter.  Then keep it with you. Keep this information somewhere else like a folder at your house or classroom. In my classroom I have hanging folders I have for my students to put extra work in. They may access them whenever they need to, but besides that I am keeping them from being lost or mixed in with their current work. 

Lastly, keep a planner for all of your important dates, times and etc.  I am hoping some of you remembered me saying that I never kept one, so why do I have to be a hypocrite and tell you to keep one. Well I do keep a planner now and it is on google docs. Despite my best efforts I still cannot conform to the written planner.  You have to be disciplined to write down important dates and to-do lists.  Even better planner is one that lists your weekly and daily goals and has them written down in terms of importance.  Then you should focus on accomplishing those goals first before you get distracted with your to-do list like going to the store.  If an online planer works better for you than a written one then use it. You need to have some system to track when things are due, important dates, and to know how you will accomplish things. How many of my students walk in for a test and ask, “We have a test today?” Wow, I am scared. Not only are you unprepared for my test, but you are unprepared for life. Try to run your own business like this, and you won’t last long. Trust me, I didn’t. Learn to write everything down in advance.

I hope that these three secrets opened your eyes to a new way of thinking. It is very common for students to blame teachers, the subject, their type of thinking, learning style, or personality in why they don’t do well in math.  Trust me those all have places in an honest discussion about improving math education.  I have learned that even with difficulties listed above a student can overcome these problems simply by having the right mindset, having goals, and being organized.  These secrets are not exclusive to math class. Apply them to everything you do in your life and you will see a tremendous impact. 

Brian McLogan is a high school math teacher who has taught various courses ranging from Algebra 1 – Pre-Calculus.  He runs an online math website http://www.freemathvideos.com where he shows how to solve math problems in his class.  He has starting making new videos outside of the classroom to provide more resources for students around the world.  You can reach Brian at brianmclogan@yahoo.com.